文化对感知的影响

文化对感知的影响摘要人们生活在不同的文化熔炉中，学习不同的语言，经历着不同的事情，形成了不同的审美观念，最重要的是人们有了对世界的不同的感知。

本论文通过对中西方在不同文化影响下从而形成不同感知的研究，提出了文化对感知的重要影响，不同的文化可能会使人们用不同的方式去感知世界却得到相同的结论。

不同的文化也可能会使人们用想同的方式去感知世界却得到相同的结论。

从这一角度来说，人们应该充分认识文化对感知的影响，并做到有的放矢，有效利用，让文化帮助人们真实地感知这个世界。

关键词：文化；感知The Effect of Culture on PerceptionAbstractPeople live in the different furnaces of culture, learn different languages, experience different things, form different aesthetic senses and above all have different perception of the world. This thesis discusses that culture has an important effect on perception by studying Westerners and Easterners’ different cultures and different perceptions. Different culture can make people perceive the world differently, but have the same conclusion. Different cultures can also make people perceive the world in the same way, but have a complete different conclusion. The conclusion is that people should make full consciousness of this mutual effect, and make good use of it. The ideal effect of culture on perception is to help people perceive the world more truly.Keywords: culture; perceptionTable of ContentsChapter One IntroductionChapter Two The Indirect Effect of Culture on Perception2.1Culture and Different Groups’ Psychology2.1.1People’ Attitude toward Their Children’s Cry2.1.2Parents’ Attitude toward Their Children’s Fight2.1.3Parents’ Attitude toward Their Children’s Education2.2Perception and Different Groups’ Perception2.2.1The Effect on Perceiving the Taste and Smell2.2.2The Effect on Perceiving the Figures2.2.3The Effect on Perceiving the EldersChapter Three The Direct Effect of Culture on Perception3.1The Perception Process3.1.1Culture’s Effect on Selection3.1.2Culture’s Effect on Organization3.1.3Culture’s Effect on InterpretationChapter Four The Retroaction of Perception on Culture4.1The Indirect Effect of Perception on Culture4.1.1The Effect on Language Learning4.1.2The Effect on Individual Experience4.1.3The Effect on People’s Emotion4.2The Direct Effect of Perception on Culture4.2.1Perception’s Effect on Each Culture’s Response to a Certain Pattern4.2.2Perception’s Effect on the Value of CultureChapter Five ConclusionIntroductionAs we all know, different countries have different cultures. Culture as the soul of one country, is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one ethnic of people from another. One country’s culture is sophisticated, profound and colorful. It covers many aspects, such as languages, emotion, practical objects and individual’s experiences. Because of these different historical backgrounds, events, places and other factor, the thinking is for the country in Eastern and in Western must be also different. People in different countries must perceive differently because of their different cultures.The thesis will be divided into three parts to discuss the effect of culture on perception and the retroaction of perception on culture. Culture affects perception directly because culture affects perception process. Every process is necessary part of perception and every part is affected by culture. Culture plays an important role in perception indirectly; People always show their perception by showing their ideas instead. They have different ideas on their children; they also have different senses on people and objects. When they perceive, they se all of their organs. Culture affects them. Perception’s effect on culture is not so obvious. People can feel it only when they find their culture changes suddenly.Marx said that” when we make good use of the effect between things, we well go on well with it; while when we ignore the mutual interdependence, matters go wrong”. The mutual effect between culture and perception just applies to it, so we must pay more attention to this mutual effect and use the effect of culture on perception to help us perceive the world as much as possible. We can see the retroaction of perception on culture to help us to enrich our culture.2.1The Effect of Culture on PerceptionCulture is the combination of material property and mental property created by people. The culture we talk about usually is a traditional value system formed by a large group of people. People were born with the effect of culture, and begin the process of civilization. While perception takes place inside each individual, it is culture that primarily determines the meanings we apply to the stimuli that reach us. For example, a European coming to China for the first time may think that everyone looks the same because he sees people from the photos all have black hair and dark eyes. And from another point the culture in his country make him believe that people are all the same. After a time, when he travel around the world, and begin to perceive the world himself, he will find that all people are different. It is the same with the taste of food, the sounds of voices and the sounds of music. Our perception is molded by our home culture.2.1.1People’s attitude toward their c hildren’s cryIn different cultures, such as Western and Eastern, parents have different ways to nurture their children. In Chinese culture, parents and children have a close relationship. Parents run to hold their children in the arm and make them at ease as soon as they cry; Parents in China try their best to satisfy their children. When parents want to go out to relax or go shopping, they will take their children with them, what’s more, they are afraid that their children will be tired of such a long distance; they will carry their children on their shoulders. In Western culture, take European and America for example. There are not such occasions. The relationship between parents and children are far from close. In their mind, children’s cry is a normal way of movement, so there is no need to fuss. Parents will hold their children unless they cry in an abnormal way. From the beginning, children will have their own rooms to live apart their parents. When Western parents go out, they never take their children. It is usual not to see children in the occasion of banquet or theatre. Even if parents with their children go shopping, they hardly hold their children in the arm. This example makes us believe that culture affects our perception.2.1.2Parents attitudes toward their child ren’s fightOf course, when the child is growing, there will be fight between them. The Chinese and foreign parents’ attitudes towards it are completing different. If the child fights, Chinese parents will stop it at once, because the Chinese parents and the Chinese tradition think that “a good child will not fight”. If the parents see that their own child is not strong enough, at the scene of fighting, the child’s parents will take part in the “war” involuntary. Because parents want to teach their child th at” if you fail in the fighting, you will lose the dignity”. They want to show it is a kind of incompetent performances, showing he will not have foothold in the society in the future. Afterwards, the parents, whose child failed, often go to the school to ask the teacher to punish the child who beats their child. However, the parents, whose child wins others, are often pleased and praise the child secretly at home, because they think their child win honors for them. When American parents see the child fight, they will stand by. Once a worker’s child came under attack, the worker said to his child:” Came under attack? Hit him”. American parents educated their child like this” Who hits you, you will hit him.” ”Can you instigate the child to mass fighting? Absolutely, that will not do”.Parents come from different cultures having entirely different attitudes towards their children’s fight. So we say that people with different cultures have different perceptions and their home cultures affect their perceptions.2.1.3Parents’ a ttitudes toward children’s educationCulture provides the environment and content of study for one. In different cultures, parents have different attitudes toward their children’s education. To the problem what is the neediest to study for children, parents in Japan, China and America have different answers. Though parents in three countries all claim that they want to help their children to develop the ability of language and communication, in such three kinds of culture systems, there are big differences in the definition of ability, the goal of communication. In China parents pay attention to the clear pronunciation, the tone of speech and the confidence in performance. The majority teaching methods is reciting. All the people who hear Chine se children’s speech recited for a long time will be impresses. The visitors from Japan and America are surprised at Chinese children’s serenity when they speak loud and the ability oflanguage\e. In Japan, the training of language and the fostering of communicating ability are divided into two systems-formal and informal ones. Children are allowed to speak loud and freely and even to say something rude before they go to school. Once they are old enough, parents will teach them to talk politely. Children will also recite some greeting, wishing words and tribute. The purpose of communicating in Japan is not to use this tool of language but to be used as the media of expressing solidarity. To compare with, Americans consider the language to be the key to foster children’s individuality, freedom, establishing friendship and senses. In America, parents teach their children the criterion of expressing and talk.In the process of socialization and civilization, people with different cultures form different psychology. This kind of different psychology affects people to perceive the world. Finally, they have different perception. Culture has an important effect on perception.2.2Perception and Different Group’s PerceptionPerception is the process of choosing, assessing and organizing information obtained by people perceiving the outer world. These are five sense organs. They are eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and the body. People sense the world with then and then have the perception of the world. Though these five organs are the same to different people, they will perceive differently, because they are affected by mental factors, environmental factors and the most important-cultural factors. We have already seen that our perceptions of the world are representation we learn to make from the nerve impulses that reach our brains and from our unique set of experiences in the culture in which we have been raised.The cultural factors got in society affect people’s perception. For example, everyone needs to eat, but different groups eat different things. People perceive a kind of food deliciously in a certain culture, but bad in another culture. Indians are not allowed to eat beef but pork. Moslem is able to eat beef, but they can not eat pork. Buddhists are not allowed to eat any kind of meat, in our nation’s Northeast, Manchu are not allowed to eat dog’s meat, while Koreans consider dog’s meat to be the best food. These phenomenons can be explained by people’s individual diversity, thedifferent of time, age and gender, culture plays a more important role as well.2.2.1The effect on perceiving the taste and smellCulture has an effect on perceiving the taste and smell. Americans like cheese and consider it to be delicious food. Once an American businessman gave a kind of famous cheese to Chinese host as charitable present when he visits China. He thought that Chinese host would be happy, to his surprise; Chinese host did not like it, but feel nausea when tasting it. Chinese think that there is so much good food in China, especially refection in various places. In Beijing there is roast duck. In Sichuan there is hot chaffu dish. In Yunan there is rice cake. In Shandong the most famous is bean curd with odor. Many foreigners want to taste it, but they can not. They feel that the taste of this food is terrible. In Japan nadou is considered to be healthy and delicious. Every morning, Japanese will eat nadou as their breakfast. Many Chinese come to Japan to further study and live with Japanese. They are interested in this food and try it as soon as they arrive, but when they eat, they must take their breath, because the taste of it is really terrible. In the North, people like a meal of cream mice. We will be very surprised when we hear that someone eat mice, and we must feel disgusting. But people there like this food very much. In addition, people with different religion will have different diet habits. That is the reason why someone who disobeys their belief on food will feel guilt.2.2.2The effect on perceiving the figuresCulture also has an effect on perceiving the figures. The figures stand out from the ground. It is well-defined, in a definite location, solid and in front of the ground. The ground appears shapeless, indefinite, and continued behind the figure. What we focus on in our environment stands out from the rest. Different groups from different cultures will have different perceptions or figures. Christians will see two lines as a christcross. Catholics will see them as” love” “the life after death” “eternal life”, which is affected by Catholic culture. Chinese people see them as number 10. People from different cultures have different habits of seeing. English are used to seeing from left to right. Arab like seeing from right to left. These habits will have an effect on perception more or less. In old China, people used to write from right to left, whichcause the intellectuals to read from right to left. After revolution, people began to study Westerner’s writing style and changed most people’s habits. People in China began to see from left to right like Westerners. Thus a few youth often make mistakes when they visit places of interests. They forget that the ancient China has the habit of writing from right to left. Another example is Westerners pay more attention to focal objects, whereas Easterners attend more to contextual information. North Americans attend to focal objects more than to East Asians. In contrast, East Asians have been held to be more holistic than Westerners and more likely to focus on contextual information. A good example can present it forcefully: Years ago when some groups living in the rainforest of Central Africa had little contract with people outside their group, a Westerner came to have contact with one group. He showed then a photograph and said that the people did not see the image in the photograph but described it as a dark square surrounded by a white square. In their culture they never learned to see images of people and places on a flat piece of paper. As soon as the man showed them how to see the image, they could see it.There are no people who have the same perception because they come from different cultures and must be affected. When people perceive the world, they not only get the information came from their experiences, ability, feeling, character, but also their culture’s explanation, edition and filtration.2.2.3The effect on perceiving the elderHow we perceive the elderly is also tempered by culture. In the United States, we find a culture that” teaches” the value of youth and rejects growing old. In fact,” young people view elderly people as less desirable interaction partners that other young people on middle-aged people.” This disapproving view of the elderly is not found in all cultures. For example, in the Arab, Asian Latin American, and Native American cultures, old people are perceived in a very positive light. And notice what Harris and Moran tell us about the elderly has seasoned the individual with varies experienced. Hence, in Africa age is an asset. The older the person, the more respect the person receives from the community, and especially from the young.It is clear from these examples that culture strongly influences our perception of theelderly. And we can see that culture affects our perception in the same way. How we react to perception of the universe is largely a result of our learning and cultural conditioning.3.1The Perception ProcessWe perceive the world around us, the process of which is not accomplished in an action, we must select what we want to perceive first, and then organize our mind and find out something related to it, which can help us deal with it. Finally, we interpret it and make people know that we get the information. People from different cultures will have the same three steps; however they have different perception in every action. Culture has an effect on every of them.3.1.1Culture’s effect on selectionSelection is the first process step of perception, functions to psychologically screen what we perceive. We perceive only a part of the things around us. We engage in selective exposure and selective awareness. Culture plays an important role in what we select. Different cultures can make people with them have different select when they perceive. For example, Chinese are complies with the mature and they all look forward to the peaceful life and do not want to expose their distinct individual. They are especially showed by Chinese students. When they come into the classroom, they always like selecting the seats at the back. While Westerners are different from Chinese, their culture leads them to run after creativity and focus on the future. They hope everyone pay attention to them. so when they come into the classroom, they always select the front seats and say hello to everyone with hospitability. Another example can also verify this. A hungry Asian probably will choose rice over potatoes if both are offered. Given the same choice, a German is likely to select the potatoes. Both are responding to their cultural heritage. Asians prefer rice and Germans like potatoes best.3.1.2Culture’s effect on organizationOrganization is the second process step of perception, referring to the human who need to organize what we perceive, to place what we perceive into a whole to which the thing perceived seems to belong. We organize what we perceive by figure and ground, grouping among other methods, Culture affects the process of organization. When an Asian who is walking down the street in an all–white background, neighborhood will likely become the figure to an observer, while theothers on the street, being all white will become the ground. Thus we will see the Asian easily from the group. Another example is like this during World War II. American black soldiers sometimes said that American white soldiers had spread anti-Black to the natives. The truth was that few white Europeans had seen Blacks before and, therefore, observed them carefully. To the Europeans, the Blacks were those who stood out from the ground of white soldiers. So we can see the effect of culture on organization.3.1.3Culture’s effect on interpretationAfter we select and organize, we group the things we perceive automatically, and begin to interpret them. When we interpret, we evaluate subjectively what we sense. But our interpretations are not founded solely on the things we sense. With all of these influences coming to bear upon our interpretation, two individuals sensing the same will give the same meaning. Although the two are exposed to the same stimulus, their interpretation will be quite different, because culture affects them. For example, In Korea Kim chi is a kind of good food and smells delicious; to most Americans, they refuse to eat it. Sashimi is a delicacy for the Japanese, but to people who like their fish cooked, this raw fish item will be perceived as offensive. For another example, a traffic officer watches the car of an Indonesian refugee and jerk through an intersection. It was late at night, and the stoplight was blinking. After a difficult exchange of sign language and rough translation, the officer determined that refugee had come to a full stop every time the light turned red. The Indonesian selected, organized, and interpreted-and interpreted wrong. People from different cultures will be affected by their cultures and interpret differently. Our senses and the world beyond our bodies are physical realities that have nothing to do with culture, yet we interpret the information we receive from our senses and this process of inter predation is molded by our culture.4.1The Indirect Effect of Perception on CultureAs Marx said,” material affects idea and idea has a retroaction on material.” Everything in the world follows this law. So culture and perception are in it. Culture has an effect on perception. We can consider culture to be material, and perception to be idea. Perception must have a retroaction on culture. Perception’s effect on culture is indirect, to the most; perception is a process of our mind and our psychology. Sometimes it plays an important role beyond our expectation. Sometimes we can not take charge of it and sometimes we can feel it clearly because it is influencing something, such as, our culture. Our culture is composed of many things. Within them, I think, the language, the i ndividual’s experiences and people’s emotion can stand for it correctly. People who want to be familiar with a nation’s culture, they always study its language as the first step. If possible, they will come to this nation themselves and experience this nat ion. People’s emotion is one of a nation’s souls. Though people can not see it, they can perceive it by heart.4.1.1The effect on language learningLanguage can stand for a nation’s culture totally. Language is related to culture. Culture and language are mutual interdependence. The culture of China and America has an obvious difference, so Chinese and American are different, too. There is no wonder when you meet a person who speaks Chinese, then you say” you are Chinese”. Travelers might prepare for a journey by taking language lessons because they want to know the country’s culture through knowing the country’s language first. Every nation has its own language, no matter how this language is invented and inherited. People speak the language belonged to them forever, even if they learn a second or third language; they want to speak their mother language the most and can not forget it. However, perception plays an important role in language learning, because it can help people to create something new-some new words. For example, people in Papua new guinea have never touched the coloring matter of fuchsine, so they did not have the word ”red” in their language. When people who spoke Papuan saw this color the first time, they could not identify it easily. However, as this coloring matter was introduced into this area, people there could distinguish it from other colors, and they inventedthe word called fuchsine.So we can see that people perceive colors and develop color languages depending on their perception. Thus, their culture is also affected by this change.4.1.2The effect on individual experienceWe can see in TV and get information on the radio. Through these media, we know that in April Japan is covered with primrose, and we know that the weather in Hawaii is always fine, and we also know that people in India live an aboriginal life. When we are standing there, we will be shocked. We will find that something is wrong. TV treats us. The weather in Hawaii is so hot that we can not bear. In April all primrose does not come out and Indians who wear modern clothes go shopping with shopping bag. We will be angry as we experience these. That is because all of your knowledge about them is past-experience. We intend to interpret the new on the basis of the old. If only you perceive the new, you will have the true experience. An apple serves to illustrate the point. An apple can be perceived in a number of ways-by its color, shape, smell, taste and feel. We perceive it depending on out past experience. How we perceive it today produces our new experience. A small, greenish apple may suggest an unripe and bitter tasting, which the idea deeply exists in our mind. When we perceive and taste it on our own, we will find that everything has changed. It has been ripe and sweats tasting, so now we will say that green apples are sweat as well. Perception affects our experiences.4.1.3The effect on people’s emotionPeople of different cultures express their emotion in different ways. British are usually gentleman. They treat nearly everyone in a good manner. They teach their fellows to be polite. Americans are very different. They can express their emotion without hesitation. No matter what they want to say they will say them immediately and do not save other’s face. Japanese, on the contrary, can bear them and do not express them causally. But their reaction is strong, when their emotion is to the point they can not bear any longer, they relieve their feeling in a cruel way. You will often hear that some Japanese kill someone others or kill himself. The emotions of love and fear help illustrate the point. In the seventeenth century, the Comte de Bussy-Rabutinperceived the love as blind. Love as a cynical pundit is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Fear is said to cast our intelligence, goodness, beauty and truth, leading to erroneous perception in the process. When we perceive these, we will find our emotion changes at the same time. Perception as part of our mind affects our emotion.4.2The Direct Effect of Perception on Culture PatternsThe manners in which we perceive the world relies on much more than beliefs and values. Cultures are extremely complex and consist of numerous interrelated cultural orientations besides beliefs and values, For example, Koreans and Americans differ in their perception of the family, father, filial duty, ancestors, government. On the concept of family, Americans emphasize the nuclear family (mother, father, and children). Koreans place more emphasis on the extended family (nuclear family plus the other relatives).4.2.1Perception’s effect on each culture’s response to a specific patternCultural patterns refer to both the conditions that contribute to the way in which a people perceive and think about the world, and the manner in which they live in that world. Perception has an important effect on each culture’s response to a specific pattern. As we know, different countries have different cultures; different cultures have different cultural patterns as well. We are all much more than our culture. How we see the world and how we communicate in that world are influenced by factors as age, gender, status, occupation, and group. However, although we grant the complex nature of human behavior, we can be sure that perception affects our cultural patterns. For example, North American patterns and Korean patterns are tow different cultural patterns, so people in American and Korean receive different stimuli from outside world, then they perceive differently. Their cultures teach their children to be civil, yet when they perceive each other’s culture, they will find that their civil is a different thing.4.2.2Perception’s effect on the value of cultureAny attempt to delineate a national culture or typical cultural patterns for any culture is extremely hard because of the similarity of many societies. For example,there are 125 ethnic groups and 1,200 different religions in the United States. Although the US might be an extreme representation of various People, we assure that it is found in all countries, such as Romania, Germans and Turks.Thus different cultural patterns will have different values, and these values are not only formed by cultures themselves, but also by perceptions. The “women’s movement,” for instance, has greatly altered the value system in the United States. And as Western capitalism and culture move through much of Asia, we see many different kinds of the “women’s movements” and then the value changes, too, the reasons of it we can offer to it are that when we come near to Asia we perceive a different world and we think differently. At the same time, we have different value about women. In the US, women are freer than women in Asia, and the women in America are more independent than women in Asia. They have different status so they have different perceptions. Women in the US pay more attention on their rights and perceive the world fairly, but women in Asia are in an opposite situation. From these examples, we can see that perception has a direct effect on our cultures.。