Cultural Psychology and Dichotomous Relationships: A Summary

Readers of this blog will notice that I continuously post about contrasting mental states that vary from culture to culture. Typically, these states are dichotomous in nature, with one contrasting with the other. This is not done intentionality. Rather, it just so happens that this appears to be a recurrent theme within cultural psychology. I have explored the contrasts of analytical vs holistic thinking, individualistic vs collectivistic, independent vs interdependent selves, and primary control vs secondary control. It is truly amazing to see just how these various mental states can vary from culture to culture. What is truly interesting is that the former seems to be predominant, only in western cultures of north America (i.e, Canada and the U.S), while the latter is more predominant worldwide. This is obviously not coincidental, and leads me to speculate as to whether these latter capacities are the "right" way of doing things. In my own personal life, I have began to adopt these various cognitive models and used them in my daily life. In doing so, I have noticed increased mental fluidity, increased positive affect, enhanced self-esteem, greater acceptance of vulnerability, more fulfilling relationships and a heightened sense of purpose. As a result, I cannot help but speculate as to whether these former states of culture and cognition are a "perversion" of the natural ways of life. I really encourage cultural psychologists to examine whether a possible link exists here, as we may be able to add a greater amount of well-being and reduce psychological distress if this is the case. Indeed, it seems that cultural psychology may be of a massive benefit to clinical psychology is this hypothesis is true. In any case, we cannot draw conclusions based on mere speculation. We can only infer causal relationships, and it has been truly interesting to observe these relationships in cultural psychology.