How Culture Shapes Mind, Neurobiology and Behaviour

This article has the intention to explain how culture influences human mind and brain by referring to recent research in relevant disciplines: i.e., cultural psychology, cross-cultural psychology, genetics and epigenetics, neurobiology and neuropsychology, and cultural neuroscience. Cultural-historical psychology, represented by Lev Vygotsky and the concepts ‘lower’ and ‘higher’ psychological functions are used as theoretical tools to explain how culture generates human mind and brain. Lower psychological functions are the natural, non-volatile, instinctive functions not involving language, signs or thought. In the brain this mind state is represented by neural networks established before birth primarily by the genetic outfit. The higher psychological functions are created after birth by the individual in cultural/social interaction and communication. These functions are unique to every individual, depending alike on genetic features, lower psychological functions and socio-cultural experience, and represented by neurons all over the brain connected with synapses created after birth

Learning and climate change

Learning – i.e. the acquisition of new information that leads to changes in our assessment of uncertainty – plays a prominent role in the international climate policy debate. For example, the view that we should postpone actions until we know more continues to be influential. The latest work on learning and climate change includes new theoretical models, better informed simulations of how learning affects the optimal timing of emissions reductions, analyses of how new information could affect the prospects for reaching and maintaining political agreements and for adapting to climate change, and explorations of how learning could lead us astray rather than closer to the truth. Despite the diversity of this new work, a clear consensus on a central point is that the prospect of learning does not support the postponement of emissions reductions today.Learning; Uncertainty; Climate change; Decision analysis

Китаб Ибрагима Хосеневича из коллекции Национальной библиотеки Республики Беларусь как исторический источник : реферат к дипломной работе / Инна Чеславовна Кевра; БГУ, Исторический факультет, Кафедра источниковедения; науч. рук. Белявский А.М.

The construct of individualism–collectivism (IND-COL) has become the definitive standard in cross-cultural psychology, management, and related fields. It is also among the most controversial, in particular, with regard to the ambiguity of its dimensionality: Some view IND and COL as the opposites of a single continuum, whereas others argue that the two are independent constructs. We explored the issue through seven different tests using original individual-level data from 50 studies and meta-analytic data from 149 empirical publications yielding a total of 295 sample-level observations that were collected using six established instruments for assessing IND and COL as separate constructs. Results indicated that the dimensionality of IND-COL may depend on (a) the specific instrument used to collect the data, (b) the sample characteristics and the cultural region from which the data were collected, and (c) the level of analysis. We also review inconsistencies, deficiencies, and challenges of conceptualizing IND-COL and provide guidelines for developing and selecting instruments for measuring the construct, and for reporting and meta-analyzing results from this line of research

Litterær realisme med kinesiske karakteristika : om Mo Yan og romanen Store bryster og brede hofter

Litterær realisme i Kina, hvilke kjennetegn den har, hvordan den oppsto og forholder seg til vestlig realisme er et tema i denne oppgaven, som starter med gjennomgang av europeisk, særlig fransk realisme på 1800-tallet. Formålet er å finne analytiske perspektiver og begrepsapparat for å diskutere realismen i kinesisk litteratur på 1900-tallet, og for å analysere Nobelprisvinneren Mo Yans roman Store bryster og brede hofter. Kina har en litterær kanon som er ukjent for mange i Vest. Mo Yan er påvirket av denne arven slik europeiske forfattere viderefører vestlige litterære tradisjoner, helt fra de greske dramaer. For å forstå kinesisk litteratur, hva som ble skrevet og hvorfor, er det viktig å kjenne Kinas historie. Det er tett forbindelse mellom samfunnsforholdene og litteraturens innhold og form. I årtusener har keisere i Kina forstått at litterær kultur er grunnlaget for politisk makt, og litteraturen har hatt en viktig sosial og politisk funksjon. Den skulle i noen epoker bidra til sementering og styrking av det etablerte og i andre perioder være et instrument for å forandre. På slutten av 1800-tallet og begynnelsen av 1900-tallet så mange på litteraturen som det viktigste middelet til å fornye det tradisjonelle Kina. Russiske og europeiske romaner ble oversatt i stort omfang og realismen ble etter hvert den dominerende litterære retning. Mo Yan har videreført realismen i Kina med muser hentet fra oppvekst og erfaring samt inspirasjon fra kinesiske og utenlandske forfattere. Han utga i 1995 romanen Store bryster og brede hofter, en historisk familiekrønike fra det 20.århundre med protagonistens binding til kvinnebryster, et symbol på moder Kina, som kontrapunkt. Romanen kombinerer skrivemåter fra Kinas litterære røtter og muntlige fortellertradisjoner med utenlandske stiler. Den bryter med forestillingen om at realisme er beskrivelse av det som kan ses. I Mo Yans roman er andre sansemodaliteter vel så viktige som synet og det er mer ‘telling’ enn ‘showing’. Hans forkjærlighet for det overnaturlige og fantastiske med besjeling av dyr og fugler, understreker det ‘uvirkelige’ og at romanen ikke er realistisk i betydningen mimesis, imitasjon av den sansbare virkeligheten. Mosaikken av det overnaturlige og det realistiske er en videreføring av noe typisk for kinesisk skrivekunst og kan karakteriseres som ‘realisme med kinesiske karakteristika’

Patients who Receive Disablement Benefits due to a Psychiatric Diagnosis, 1990

The aim of the project was to gather information about disabled pensioners with a psychiatric diagnosis and why they have retired. The data was gathered by analyzing existing data files at the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration and interviewing disability pensioners in the trøndelag counties. NSD has accessible data from the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration. The material contains 143 000 disability pensioners and information tied to ca. 600 000 dates. With the exception of existing databases, it is possible to characterize disability pensioners when it comes to socio demographic indicators

How are minor mental health problems perceived by Traditional Chinese Medicine?

The purpose of this study was to reach a better understanding of how minor mental health problems (MMP) are perceived in China by professionals practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and by well-educated people living in three urban locations. The results derive from interviews with three TCM doctors, three TCM students and eight other students. Psychological problems are separated into two different categories: “serious” and “not serious”. MMP are labelled not as disorders or illnesses but looked upon as ordinary problems in daily living or as “heart problems”. MMP seem to have less serious consequences according to the Chinese than from a modern Western perspective. “Problems of life” rather than sickness was the category that best summarized perceptions of MMP. TCM professionals’ advice to change lifestyle and most Chinese regulate by themselves less serious mental problems. Both lay people and TCM professionals associate serious problems with pathological mental function in a disease perspective. Some reasons for and consequences of these comprehensions are discussed