• I have often wondered what leads humans to stereotype others, even subconsciously, and cognition explains some of the reasons behind this. In short, cognition is the mental processing of observation. Because people are constantly confronted by new social situations and an overwhelming amount of sensory information, they often rely on categories of thought and cognitive shortcuts; so people categorize other people and things by lumping those that have similar characteristics together. Categorizing things and people according to past experience and mental schemas leaves mental energy for taking in new or surprising information -- which leads to stereotypes. As mental shortcuts, stereotypes can be useful, but to keep from becoming an untrue prejudgment / prejudice, they require: careful consideration; recognition of the stereotype's existence and defining characteristics; re-evaluation after they are applied.
• I thought this was a curious fact about self-esteem:Among all racial groups, white women have the lowest levels of self-esteem and, for related reasons, suffer from higher rates of depression than other groups. White women may have lower levels of self-esteem because of their perceptions of a male-dominant culture.
• I also learned that the study of cognition also includes the skills of imagination and creativity. The thalamus serves as a relay centre, filtering information before it reaches areas of the cortex - which is responsible, amongst other things, for cognition and reasoning. According to BBC news, Associate Professor Fredrik Ullen was quoted as saying, "Fewer D2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering, and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus." He believes it is this barrage of uncensored information that ignites the creative spark. This would explain how highly creative people manage to see unusual connections in problem-solving situations that other people miss.
As somewhat of a side point, I thought that this fact on imagination was interesting; this was also reported on BBC news by a health reporter:"Creativity is akin to insanity, say scientists who have been studying how the mind works. Brain scans reveal striking similarities in the thought pathways of highly creative people and those with schizophrenia; both groups lack important receptors used to filter and direct thought. It could be this uninhibited processing that allows creative people to "think outside the box", say experts from Sweden's Karolinska Institute. In some people, it leads to mental illness."
- [Michelle Roberts | Knowing Imagination | BBC - Creative Minds 'Mimic Schizophrenia' | May 31, 2010 | Link to Article]
About Me
Friday, September 17, 2010
Psychology Essay: Cognition.
In the "Cognition, Self, and Others" section of the text, what three pieces of information did you find most helpful/interesting? Why?
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White women may have lower levels of self-esteem because of their perceptions of a male-dominant culture.
ReplyDeleteHow do those perceptions differ from women of another race? Did it say, or do you have any thoughts on this?
Here's all it had to say about other races and self-esteem:
ReplyDelete"Self-esteem among people in minority groups may be affected by other factors, such as tighter social bonds with, a need to work harder to achieve recognition and success because of prejudice, pride in their ethnic group, and so on."
My thoughts on this, is just surprise. A little skepticism, too, but I chalk that up to so far, not having been able to find any other psychological report on this. I'm wondering how scientists found this out. It seems strange to me. As you know, I have depression issues too, but that's not exactly the reason why..... O.o
male dominance seems rampant in most cultures, and women in minorities would seemingly have more insecurities because being a woman is a minority (as far as power and respect is concerned, not as far as numbers) *and* they're of a racial minority... It's like saying second hand smoking is worse than first hand smoking. As a smoker, you're inhaling both first and second hand smoke. I'm going off on a tangent perhaps...just thinking "aloud"...not to say white women or even white males have it made. THEN of course, we have the issues of reverse descrimination and it's a never ending circular mess! (Which is why we need the new system)
ReplyDeleteMany men also have low self esteem because they don't meet the criteria for what a guy is supposed to be by societies standards. A tomboyish woman can be cute, but a "feminine" man is "gay" (which leads us to yet another issue of bias of course -_-;)
I was on Personality Cafe (pychology personality sorting site. It's interesting if you get a chance to browse it) and there was a guy posting who is a "feeler" (roughly meaning ruled by emotions rather than logic) and he said as a black guy he felt especially out of place, which I found sad and interesting....
Oh yeah for sure, men definitely suffer from anxiety / depression / low self-esteem too. The only reason I think it's higher in women, *personally*, is hormones [usually related to the menstrual cycle or pregnancy] - and also, as you mentioned, because women are generally viewed as being inferior to men, but yeah, it's definitely not limited to women.
ReplyDeleteAnd I personally have a really big problem with the reverse discrimination, in that men aren't allowed to express feelings. I did some research on that back when I was nineteen, and it's actually been a "mainstream" trend since the industrial revolution. Before that time, all throughout history, men were known to weep publicly, and display similar outbursts of emotion in public - but when the industrial revolution came on, society wanted diligent and strong workers who were not ruled by emotion [and society mostly wanted male workers], so crying then became a private thing for men especially - and as the stigma that crying was weak and strictly feminine grew, the more uncomfortable men became with being open about emotions.
This frustrates me so much, because when a person feels that he/she must hide or shut down *valid feelings and emotions*, that person becomes more and more desensitized, and it can become a big obstacle in maintaining good mental health. It really is sad.