Question

In "Biographies of Hegemony" by Karen Ho and "The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan" by Ethan Watters, How and in what ways do cultures form and effect out behavior at local, national, and/or global levels?

This is a prompt for my expository writing class. We'd usually brainstorm ideas in class, but online learning has brought that to a halt and I just cannot find ideas to answer this prompt.

Answer 1

1. As the perception of success evolves due to the impact of external influences and social culture, people begin to wonder what success is. working as an investment banker is considered successful on most Ivy League campuses. In Karen Ho's "Biographies of Hegemony", the author discusses with readers how the culture of success affects the individual's perception of success on campus. In addition, the American definition of school success shapes the perspective of what educators consider successful in schools, according to Davidson, author of the Project Classroom Makeover article. The influences of social culture reduce the individual's perception of what they see as success, limiting it to fewer career options, interests and lifestyle. As a result of influences from social culture, it is discouraged to go beyond the norm of what is perceived to be success. In an attempt to achieve this perception of success, students refuse to depart from the norm of what is considered success, limiting their options. According to informants in Ho's article, "If you go to Harvard, Yale or Princeton, only two career fields will be presented. These two fields are presented because they are the only fields that Wall Street and Ivy League campuses consider well. students show the scope of our culture.
In Biographies of Hegemony, Karen Ho discusses how institutions, like universities and law firms, undoubtedly instill distorted values in their students and workers in the stock market. These values are forged throughout people's lives and derive from family, friends, religion and society in general. In Karen Ho's "Biographies of Hegemony", the author discusses with readers how the "culture of success" affects the individual's perception of success on campus. In addition, the American definition of success in school shapes the perspective of what educators consider successful.

2)

In Ethan Watters's essay, "The Megamarketing of Depression in Japan", he talks to Dr. Laurence Kirmayer about Kirmayer's invitation to the International Consensus Group on Depression and Anxiety. In his discussion, Kirmayer talks about how the basis of his invitation was based on the idea that he, as director of McGill's Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, could add to the answer the big pharmaceutical giant that GlaxoSmithKline was looking for. The question at hand was how culture influences the experience of the disease, but more specifically how depression is influenced by culture in Japan. If the conference were a success, the company could enter and expand in a billion dollar market. The reason the cultural aspect of depression was so important was because, in countries like Japan, the American conception of depression was considered a more serious disease, rivaling schizophrenia. The company hoped that, somehow, changing the Japanese perception of the disease from something social or moral to the American conception, where expressing the disease to others is considered a strong person and not a weak person, that its medicine Paxil can sell to market, where the scientific and economic aspects of depression take effect. The scientific and economic aspects occur due to the company's intentions to sell the drug and the drug's ability to help and he focuses on how Japan and other cultures define depression, but it also shows how the influence of American treatments in eastern countries ends up becoming international standards. The Japanese language does not have a defined term for depression.