Knowledge is Power

Claudia Acosta 5/31/17 Culture and Psychology What is this mean? Cultural psychology is born of the "cognitive revolution" It is believed that culture and mind are inseparable since they are mutually constituted. His study focuses on how cultural traditions and social practices are transforming, expressing, and regulating the human mind. The things we create, breed, form, fabricate, invent or point to can only exist within an intentional world. Cultural psychology is the study of intentional worlds. In my culture there is something that happens that is very common, I personally do not underestimate my self-esteem but if I could see that lowered self-esteem of people who felt affected. Unfortunately when I was in school I could see how the teachers treated differently and better the students who were easier to learn. They always made them stand out in the class, they were the most outstanding and everyone knew, they were the first to choose somethi...

Claudia Acosta 5/29/17 Differences in Manners The cultural issues in manners can create an anger because of a great misunderstanding. When we don’t know the cultural manners of other places, it is difficult to be able to adapt or to understand the reason of the behavior of a person and we can come to think that he or she is a bad person. Some of those different cultural manners that we have been studying like blowing nose on the table or erupting, for me and in my culture is rude and disrespectful. My personal experience Living in the United States I have lived some cultural ways different from mine that the first months being here I had very difficult to adapt. Together with some moms here in the neighborhood we created a schedule to take turns to take our children to school. I take my turn to take my daughters and their friends to school, they are all American. My daughters' friends got into the car and did not greet anyone. They could have said Hi...

Claudia Acosta 5/29/17 Cross Cultural Students in the Classroom In English as a second language classes it is very common to meet a very wide diversity of students from different parts of the world. By logically having such a diversity of students there is also a lot of diversity of cultures, traditions, customs and behaviors. As a teacher I think it is a very interesting way to learn from the different cultures, traditions, customs and normal behaviors according to the country of origin of the students, this is a way to get to know each other, it helps to open our minds and to understand us a little better than everyone is as it is. Discipline in communication, verbal and behavioral expression, varies from one culture to another. In the first years of living in the United States I could see those differences, there were things that were totally normal for me and another that seemed to me a lack of education or respect, but I could see that other people fro...

Claudia Acosta 5/26/17 Attributional Tendencies The word attribution is the interpretation or explanation that is made about the causes and reasons for something that happened, this can be beliefs, attitudes and behaviors, whether in other people or oneself. Most people have the opportunity to draw our own conclusions about the causes of an event and the behavior of people. People make attributions to understand and find a cause or reason for their experiences. I think that when people make an attribution to something that happened, people are guessing about the reasons why that happens, they try to find an explanation for behavior and events. Often these attributions end up being wrong, it seems that we always need to look for a side to things and see that or to whom we point our finger or look for reasons to justify or look for guilty. Many people have the tendency to justify or judge based on other people's behavior, personality traits, abilities and feeli...

Claudia Acosta 5/26/17 Personal Spaces Differences The territory is the space around a person who cries out for his own place. Each has its personal territory that includes the area of their own possessions. The animals also mark their own territory, the saves and the fish, each one of different way according to its species. In the same way we also do human beings, we mark our own territory away. The personal space that each one marks as our personal territory is determined according to the culture. Just as in some cultures like Japan it is acceptable and normal, the crowding, in other cultures they prefer a wide open space to maintain the distance. "The golden rule is to keep the distance” My personal experience In Uruguay it is very normal and common that people are very close to each other, either waiting at the bus stop, talking, standing in a line waiting to be attended, above the bus and if it is the peak hour the bus is Crowded to the door, an...

Claudia Acosta 5/24/17 Individualism vs Collectivism The Individualism Culture: In the individualistic culture the human being feels valuable and sovereign of itself, they feel that freedom is the most valuable and that the greatest function of the State is to protect it. They value the freedom of the individual to pursue their economic and political interests. Individualism is not selfishness. They defend and enjoy societies where individual freedom, acts of charity and love of neighbor are respected. They defend personal freedom and expression. They highly value being able to work independently but also accept being able to work in groups. The people in seeking their economic benefit feel that they contribute to the well-being of society. This type of culture is more common in the United States and some other countries. The Collectivism Culture: In the collectivist culture they concentrate more on the "Us" and "Our" and consider it a...