Please provide an aside or constructive feedback to the following two Topics. Do you agree with the analysis presented? Why? Do you have some additional thoughts on the topic? Share them. When providing your feedback present the logic behind it.

Topic 1

A 2018 psychological study showed that culture influences cognitive process in individuals and how they resolve problems. The study found that Jewish-Americans performed well on rule-based problems, while ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arabs from Israel performed better on context-based problems (Arieli & Sagiv, 2018). This study shows that culture influences how we see the world, what decisions we make, how we approach problems, and how we solve them.

A 2019 Forbes article listed 10 product designs that failed. Some failures were deemed to be due to a lack of diversity amongst the teams that created and vetted them. The highly marketed and much anticipated Google Glass device bombed not only due to the high price, but many consumers thought they were ugly and invaded privacy. Facebook Home was a social media failure that was criticized as being designed for those obsessed with Facebook. The general public was not willing to pay for the service. This showed that Facebook likely did not look outside of the company for input on the product (Morgan, 2019).

These examples reiterate that having the perspective of a diverse group of people when making decisions that will affect diverse groups of people is best in my opinion.

For me, learning social norms such as being polite, holding a door for someone behind you, waiting your turn in line, and generally being respectful was taught to me and children that grew up with me. Disrespect was looked down on in my community. About 20 years ago, I was standing in line at a store in South Korea. There was one person ahead of me in line but others were shopping in the store. After the cashier finished checking out the person ahead of me, a Korean man walked up to the cashier and the cashier began checking him out. I was stunned as I knew both he and the cashier saw me waiting and both acted as if I were invisible. As my mind raced to conjure up the words to speak up, I decided not to speak up as I was in a foreign country and they were acting as if nothing happened. I felt deeply disrespected and later learned that at that time, that behavior was not considered disrespectful by them because the person that jumped in front of me was a male and that was normal behavior in their culture and society. However, to me, it is rude and offensive behavior because of how I learned to behave. That incident sticks with me and as an adult, and as a result, I would never do that to someone because I wouldn’t want to make someone feel the way I felt when it happened to me.

References

Arieli, S., & Sagiv, L. (2018). Culture and problem-solving: Congruency between the cultural mindset of individualism versus collectivism and problem type. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147(6), 789–814. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000444

Yates, J. F., & de Oliveira, S. (2016). Culture and decision making. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 136, 106–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2016.05.003

Müller, R., Spang, K., & Özcan, S. (2008). Cultural differences in decision-making among project teams: examples from Swedish and German project teams. Paper presented at PMI® Research Conference: Defining the Future of Project Management, Warsaw, Poland. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Morgan, B. (2019, September 9). 10 Recent Product Design Failures And What We Can Learn From Them. https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2019/09/0…

Topic 2

Briefly discuss how culture impacts or influences problem solving, what is valued? what is prioritized? Provide an example of how culture may impact problem solving in childhood and how this may develop or change as an adult.

Culture easily affects and influences the decisions we make and how we solve problems we encounter. Our culture has attached to it an image we portray and a standard to live up to. In some cultures, it is dictated to those within how they are expected to respond to aggression, negativity, or positivity and friendship. In many cultures, whether we are right or wrong, we are told to respect our elders, and consequently, we interact with elders differently than we do with friends. For example, when we greet elders, the terms ma’am or sir is common, whereas a friend may be dude, sis, bro, man, or whatever name comes to mind. These shared expectations within a culture affect problem-solving when we are forced into a position requiring us to break the standard. For example, a male police officer may be required to use physical force in certain situations, even if that situation involves a woman or elder. However, typically, when he is outside of work, that officer may refrain from using force on a woman or elderly individual.

Furthermore, as kids, we are taught to obey our parents or face the consequences. Thus, as kids, we learn quickly what is acceptable or not when it comes to our specific households. For example, my siblings and I were raised by a single mother in a highly rough and impoverished neighborhood as a child. So, my mother was demanding of me as the oldest sibling to ensure my younger siblings were always taken care of and safe, and she was sure to let me know when I was doing a less than adequate job. Thus, whenever they were mischievous and got into trouble, I was forced to answer for their wrongdoings. However, as I have grown up, it has changed keeping in contact with my family weekly and ensuring they set and reach goals. Furthermore, though we are adults now, my role has become more like a parent for my siblings due to our upbringing. I like to believe my mother was creating a cultural standard based on the expectation of family first, and as a result, this is precisely how we all have chosen to raise our kids.