Final Project

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timer Asked: Jul 12th, 2017

Question Description

For the Final Project, you write a cross-cultural research paper comparing your own culture with a culture that interests you. You will provide an in-depth analysis and comparison of the psychological processes of both cultures. You will select your culture to use for the Final Project by Week 3, the week in which you review the measures of intelligence. You analyze how intelligence is perceived by each culture and what factors may influence the perception of intelligence. As you continue your analysis of the psychological processes for your cross-cultural research paper, you also compare identity development, health and wellness, morality, and gender.

See the Week 1 Project area for further details.

The Assignment (15-page minimum)
Your Assignment is to choose a culture outside of your own and develop a minimum 15-page cross-cultural research paper.

  • Describe the culture of interest and explain why this culture interests you, include whether it is a collectivistic or individualistic culture.
  • Describe the culture you most identify with and its characteristics, include whether it is a collectivistic or individualistic culture.
  • Compare the similarities and differences between the culture you selected and your own related to time orientation, communication, physical and mental health, group relationships, and perceptions and measures of intelligence.
  • Describe a theory that will guide your analysis of both cultures.
  • Based on the theory, explain how each culture influences human development, identity development, and personality development within it.
  • Based on the theory, explain how each culture influences the expression of emotion, the development of morality, gender, aggression, and one other psychological process within it.
  • Explain any biases that may influence your analysis of these cultures and explain why.
  • You must use at least 10 references in APA style.
  • Support your responses using the Learning Resources and the current literature.

Support your Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are to provide a reference list for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this course.

Unformatted Attachment Preview

Running head: PERCEPTION OF INTELLIGENCE Perception of intelligence PERCEPTION OF INTELLIGENCE 2 Introduction Culture is the way of life of a particular group of people. Culture may be exhibited in different aspects such as language, social organization, education, and food. Research has shown that culture consists of four main concepts; the first being customary behaviours by a group of people where they celebrate births of new born, grieve the dead and conduct unique childbearing practices. The second is in the cultural code which include expectations, assumptions and emotions that are exhibited through the customary behaviours. The third concept is the artefacts which are the things that are of esteem to a culture and the fourth is the cultural institutions i.e. religion, politics and the various social systems. Intelligence, on the other hand, is conceptualized as the general mental ability to make judgements, learn and decision make. Theories have been formulated that are in support of the notion of intelligence being viewed from a cultural a cultural perspective (Parr, 2010). However, the paper will basically analyse these aspects; culture and intelligence i.e. the way different cultures perceive intelligence, the factors that influence the cultural perception of intelligence and give an explanation on how intelligence is measured in the various cultures. The Asian perception of intelligence is governed by the culture and tradition of the people in this region. The continent consists of a wide ambit of cultural differences and beliefs, for example, India is situated in South East Asia and is made up of over 200 dissimilar languages. Their official language is Hindi that is one of the most spoken languages in the world after Chinese and English. Confucian, Taoist, Hindu and Buddhist are some of the philosophies embraced by some of the Asian cultures which advocate for moral and religious attitudes that directly affects the reflective aspect of an individual behaviour which in turn interlaces intelligence with religion and moral behaviour (Latchaw, 2016). PERCEPTION OF INTELLIGENCE 3 Migratory patterns factors serve as the reason some of the South East and East Asian cultures bear similarities in cultures, for instance, Taiwanese, whose official language is mandarin Chinese blend in culturally through their official language as much as it is widely spoken in South East Asia in four different tones. Intelligence is a notion of variance as food, language, and religion in the different Asian cultures. Differences in perception of intelligence are exhibited particularly when a subgroup gestates some behaviours as intelligent and another on the other hand does not regard the behaviour as intelligent. Traditions also influence the notion of intelligence as Asian cultures since the earliest times are inclusive of; Taoist, Confucians, Hindu and Buddhist (Peterson, B. (2011). Taoist tradition perceives an intelligent person as to be the one who has the knowledge on Tao, is able to put it into practice and is flexible enough to respond to transitions in prompt circumstances. The Hindu and Buddhist philosophies on the other hand view intelligence in the behaviours such as determination, mental effort, knowledge, decision making, discrimination and the ability to notice. The Buddhist perception of intelligence is the ability to acquire knowledge and that knowledge is acquired through the utilization of the five senses which is quite similar to the western conception of intelligence whereby motor skills and perception are required to gather knowledge. To a Buddhist, intelligence in its purest form is not erratic or egoistic since a poor temperament is a hindrance to a person’s ability to ingest knowledge. Intelligence to a Buddhist conceptualizes intelligence in its purest form within an individual that is past a necessary stage, the stage where one has let go thoughts that are egocentric, self-centred to attain untainted form of intelligence. At this stage the individual is expected to restrain from negative emotions, preconceptions, and nonpleasing temperamental behaviour (Cocodia, 2014). Taiwanese-Chinese individuals perceive intelligence as interpersonal where it sympathizes with others and having the ability to handle daily matters and on the other hand, PERCEPTION OF INTELLIGENCE 4 restraining Show offs and having an individual philosophy of life displays intrapersonal intelligence. General cognitive ability, intellectual self-promotion, and intellectual effacement and for the Asians conception of intelligence social skills and knowledge are generally necessary (Cocodia, 2014). The African culture is exhibited through the continent that is made up of thousands of ethnic groups that own different cultures. It is a continent that displays a multifariousness of beliefs, religion, social organization and food. African cultures own some basic similarities and differences in their conception of intelligence. The Yoruba people of western Nigeria for instance, emphasize on the significance of having intelligence and acceptable behaviour whereas the Ibo culture of the same country emphasizes on possessing practical skills showing that there are subcultures within the various cultures. Intelligence in the Yoruba culture is an attribute that should be exercised on a daily basis and that everyone owns it. Researchers found out that some communities in the African continent, social competence and intelligence were held as one, while other cultures viewed intelligence as containing all social relationship. Intelligence is an aspect that is regarded highly in the African cultures more so conforming to the extended family systems, parents in African communities believe that having social responsibility and the cognitive ability is interlinked to them. A research conducted to the Luo people of east Africa exhibited that their take on intelligence consists of four concepts; rieko academic intelligence in terms of them being westernized, paro which was the practical thinking, luoro which was the social aspects such as respect, responsibility, and winjo which was about the understanding of instructions. Intelligence varied between the adults and the children as a term such as ngom was used to cite children with good judgement, responsible, and own the ability to understand and interpret matters of complexity quickly, speed, verbal accuracy and cognitive speed. Wisdom, cleverness, having the ability PERCEPTION OF INTELLIGENCE 5 to invent and being unselfish were all the attributes that an utat (term referring to adults) had (Cocodia, 2014). From the discussion above, it is easy to allude similarities do exist between different cultural groups regardless of the geographical location. An individual that possesses cognitive skills and ability is considered intelligent. An individual that has skills such as decision making, verbal accuracy, problem-solving and inference is considered intelligent within these cultures. There have merged more psychometric tools since the earliest development tool of IQ testing by Galton, in preference, Raven’s progressive matrices which is made up of standard progressive matrices, coloured progressive matrices that was for children and the advanced progressive matrices for adults that possess higher IQ. It is a pencil and paper test that is inclusive of multiple choices, it has 60 matrices that have a part missing and one has to select the one he or she think is missing from the among given 6 or 8 choices. It is advantageous as it can be administered a large or small group depending on one’s preference and time is not limited (Kitayama & Cohen, 2010). Conclusion In conclusion, intelligence demonstrated over years through explicit and implicit theories is an aspect that is significant in the individual conception of intelligence. Cultures from the study seem not to be conforming to the definition of intelligence. Nonetheless, from the discussion, intelligence will never cease to be debated on. On the other hand, with a view on relevant literature that focuses on intelligence and culture displays the two aspects as interwoven and that a culture or subculture of a person determines how intelligence will be conceived. PERCEPTION OF INTELLIGENCE References: Cocodia, E. A. (2014). Cultural Perceptions of Human Intelligence. Journal of Intelligence, 2(4), 180-196. Kitayama, S., & Cohen, D. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of cultural psychology. Guilford Press. Latchaw, J. (2016). Online Postsecondary Student Perception of Instructor Emotional Intelligence and Student Performance: A Quantitative Correlational Study (Doctoral dissertation, Northcentral University). Parr, C. (2010). Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count (review). College Literature, 37(2), 210-213. Peterson, B. (2011). Cultural intelligence: A guide to working with people from other cultures. Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Sternberg, R. J., & Kaufman, J. C. (2013). The evolution of intelligence. Psychology Press. 6
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