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Challenges in cross cultural communication
Factors affecting cross cultural communication
Factors affecting cross cultural communication
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Established author, Ethan Watters, provokes further understanding of culture’s effects on personal traits in his article The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan. The article revolves mostly around Dr. Laurence Kirmayer, the director of the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill, and his interesting conference in Kyoto, Japan. The meeting focused mainly on the discussion of depression and anxiety in Japan and how Japan’s culture puts a negative light on feelings of depression. Watters, paraphrasing Kirmayer, explains his belief that culture is constantly changing due to its vast malleability and will continue to shape external and internal beliefs. Although many argue that they’re personality is not defined by their culture, …show more content…
For example, in the film “Seven Years in Tibet”, based on the true story of Heinrich Harrer, we follow the Austrian, Heinrich Harrer, and his escape into Tibet during WWII. The film does an outstanding job of capturing the culture shock that Harrer most likely faced after encountering the indigenous Tibetans. While the Tibetan culture finds touching and shouting to be signs of respect, Harrer finds it to be rather threatening and aggressive. In Watter’s work the Japanese express differences through words, such as their different words for depression, but the Tibetans show their differences through physicality. Watters states in the article that the Japanese are discussed “as if they were at different stages of a predetermined evolution” (Watters 528) and this is exactly how Harrer feels upon encountering the Tibetans. Harrer’s captivity and long lasting exposure to Tibetan culture eventually molds his original feelings and transforms him into a more culturally diverse individual. Harrer even spreads his culture to the most revered Tibetan, the Dalai Lama, when he teaches the 14-year-old monk the basics of English culture. Harrer even builds the first Tibetan cinema after the Dalai Lama expresses great fascination in western films. Harrer becomes so invested emotionally with the Tibetans that he even offers to help fight off the invading Chinese even though it would lead to his certain …show more content…
Kirmayer, along with GlaxoSmithKline, experience this difficulty when trying to translate depression into Japanese. In the article, GlaxoSmithKline discover that the feeling the Japanese feel is evoked externally like through rain or darkness, while in America its evoked internally such as through sadness or loneliness. GlaxoSmithKline saw this as their solution and marketed their anti-depression medicine for an external disease which the Japanese were able to relate too. These communication errors aren’t as uncommon as once thought and not even English is safe from rough translations. For example, the Danish word hygge, which loosely translates to fun or cozy in English, loses its identity through translations. Author ToveMaren Stakkestad, a bilingual born in Denmark, states that Hygge “…is a state of mind as much as it is an experience. Hygge sums up the mood and ambiance of a situation” (Stakkestad) and that it is nearly untranslatable to any other language. While we may call hygge comfy or cozy the Danish see it more of an untranslatable experience. Rough translations aren’t just seen verbally but can often be seen physically, such as Harrer's initial encounter with the Tibetans. A good example of rough physical translations was when an American oil rig supervisor stationed in Indonesia yelled down to one of his workers to take the boat to shore, only to be met with an
Consciousness is awareness of one’s thoughts and emotions, as well as perception of one’s surroundings and the world. People from different nations have distinct consciousness of various subject matters including politics, medicine, and social conscience. These differences are healthy, and they constitute an integral part of human nature. Nevertheless, Watters’ “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan” is an example of instances when differences in consciousness can raise a flag. In Watters’ story, while the Western conception of depression is a severe feeling of sadness and anxiety, many Japanese perceive depression as a simple disease that does not require much attention, which could lead to further health complications.
Japanese individuals allow other cultural influence to establish their mindset and actions. As Watters states, “Feelings that Americans associate with depression have, in Japan, been wrapped up in a variety of cultural narratives that altered their meaning and the subjective experience for the individual,” (522). Japanese individuals rely on other cultures to control their way of living and thinking, and therefore lose recognition of the value of undergoing independent experience. Watters proves this perception of uniformity by contending to the belief that, “By applying a one-size fits all notion of depression around the world, Kirmayer argued, we run the risk of obscuring the social meaning and response the experience might be indicating,” (518). Individuals in Japanese culture are so influenced by other cultures that they lack control over their own experiences and in turn, lose their
He proves this by explaining how a Nigerian man “might experience a peppery feeling in his head” (Smith 517) or how symptoms of depression in an American Indian project feelings of loneliness. Depending on the location of the country and the language used to describe distress, symptoms of depression vary from region to region. He described this as “explanatory models” that “created the culturally expected experience of the disease in the mind of the sufferer” (Watters 518). In other words, the cause of depression is different for every country and thus each person experiences and describes depression in a way that matches their culture and environment.
Measuring depression in different culture is a complicated task, “there is a need for tools for multicultural mental health primary in order to promote communication and improve clinical diagnosis” (Lehti et al, 2009). This results indicated that there is still a need for a tool to accurately measure depression in patients from different countries/cultures. Each culture is unique in its very own, and certain abnormal behavior can only be found in certain culture. For instance, in western society we have the histrionic personality disorder, in which an individual desperately seek out attention, while in Japan, there is a phenomenon called “hikikomori” is an abnormal behavior where a person would go great length to avoid any social contract at any means. This abnormal behavior is similar to the avoidant personality disorder, however hikikomori is more severe. “Hikikomori is used to refer to group of young people who have withdrawn from social life and have had no relationships outside of family for a period in excess of six months.” (Furlong, 2008). The long period of time to be withdrawn from society is quite serious and will have many psychological damage. Another factor that is important when looking at abnormal behavior is the gender. The gender of an individual have play an important role in shaping the diagnosis and the diagnostic feature of these symptoms.
Culture has a huge influence on how people view and deal with psychological disorders. Being able to successfully treat someone for a mental illness has largely to do with what they view as normal in their own culture. In Western cultures we think that going to a counselor to talk about our emotions or our individual problems and/or getting some type of drug to help with our mental illness is the best way to overcome and treat it, but in other cultures that may not be the case. In particular Western and Asian cultures vary in the way they deal with psychological disorders. In this paper I am going to discuss how Asian cultures and Western cultures are similar and different in the way they view psychological disorders, the treatments and likelihood of getting treatment, culture bound disorders, and how to overcome the differences in the cultures for optimal treatments.
This paper introduces a 35-year-old female who is exhibiting signs of sadness, lack of interest in daily activities and suicidal tendencies. She has no interest in hobbies, which have been very important to her in the past. Her lack of ambition and her suicidal tendencies are causing great concern for her family members. She is also exhibiting signs of hypersomnia, which will put her in dangerous situations if left untreated. The family has great concern about her leaving the hospital at this time, fearing that she may be a danger to herself. A treatment plan and ethical considerations will be discussed.
In Ethan Watters’ essay “Mega-Marketing of Depression,” Watters describes the process GlaxoSmithKline, a drug company, uses to change the way Japan views mental health, especially depression. The tactics GlaxoSmithKline uses in the essay show how they use cultural imperialism to influence scientific ideas in Japan. Cultural imperialism plays a significant role in the exchange of scientific ideas between cultures. It is a driving force in the evolution of changing technologies and medicines. It promotes the growth of technologies, but it should not force one nation's ideals onto another. A country should pursue their own technological and medicinal advances at their pace. Nations may be influenced by another nation’s progress to seek their own
Depression is sometimes mistaken as the typical sad feeling all humans get once in a while. However, the distinct difference between depression and those typical sad feelings are that depression is long-term whereas feeling sad is short-term. Depression is a mental illness that should be taken seriously as this illness can affect the individual emotionally and physically, and impair the daily life. So what is it that causes depression? This is the big question psychologists try to answer through research but their explanations do not explain how those who face one of those factors, only a few are able to avoid developing depression. Everyone thinks and behaves differently, but there are specific personal factors such as one’s negative personalities, chronic illnesses, and substance abuse that causes each individual to respond in a similar and certain way, thus causing them to be prone to developing a depressive disorder. Low self-esteem and negative personality styles can cause depression due to its negative influences on the individual’s mind. Chronic illnesses triggers depression due to its biological and psychological effects. Lastly, substance abuse affects an individual’s mood, personal life, and health causing vulnerability to developing depression.
John, W. Berry, Ype H. Poortinga, Marshall, H. Segall, Pierre R. Dasen (2002). Cross- Cultural Psychology: Research and applications (2nd ed.) United States of America, New York.
Within Western culture, social and cultural changes have evolved how people perceive themselves and others, resulting in a large increase in mental syndromes, such as anorexia and depression. While the western society has suffered from [body stereotyping..?], Asian countries have seen a rise in youth socially withdrawing for extended periods of time. In Japan, such a term is called hikikomori. It is a quickly developing syndrome in which adolescents “lock themselves away in their rooms for months, years, or even sometimes decades at a time, with minimal social contact” (Rosenthal and Zimmerman 82). Even though these syndromes are a result of different cultural backgrounds, they hold similar properties; both have the capacity to be considered
Clinical depression is very common. Over nine million Americans are diagnosed with clinical depression at some point in their lives. Many more people suffer from clinical depression because they do not seek treatment. They may feel that depression is a personal weakness, or try to cope with their symptoms alone. On the other hand, some people are comfortable with admitting their symptoms and seeking help. Such a discrepancy may account for the differences in reported cases of depression between men and women, which indicate that more than twice the numbers of women than men are clinically depressed. According to the numbers of reported cases of depression, 25% of women and 10% of men will have one or more episodes of clinical depression during their lifetimes.
Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. "The Ambivalent Self of the Contemporary Japanese." Cultural Anthropology 5.2 (1990): 197-216. Print.
Roland, A. (1996). How universal is the self? In: Cultural pluralism and psychoanalysis: The Asian and North American experience. New York: Routledge, pp. 8-14
An examination of Japanese culture, and where it stands on Kluckholn and Strodbeck’s Value Orientation, Hall’s cultural dimensions, and what America needs to know in order to communicate properly with Japan.
In this paper I will be describing three cultures that I identify with. The term culture is very broad and it can be applied in ways that one would have never thought. Many people can describe themselves using more than three cultures because of the many different social and ethnic groups that we belong to. These social and ethnic groups come in many shapes and forms but most importantly they are what helps make us feel like we belong. Culture provides us with a basic skeleton of how we are supposed to act and think (subjective elements) and also how we should dress and what we should like (objective elements). However, our own individual personality helps shape that skeleton into the people we truly are. Culture influences our psychological