Question

What are some individual and/or cultural differences that might affect how someone perceives particular sensations?

Answer 1

Individual or cultural differences affect the social psychology of a person by affecting the environment of thought processes. This, in turn, affects the perception of a person by influencing the way a person interprets a particular situation. Different situations have varied effects on sensations. Thus, the cultural differences have an overall influence on the personality due to the field dependency. Same things have different impressions on different people because of the difference in their personality and way of judging. Individuals have different expectations and experiences from similar situations. This difference due to the differing cognitive accessibility affects their attitudes which transforms into a varied perception of same traits. The result is a wide gap between how deeply people observe the attributes or perceive the sensations.

Individuals differ in their perception due to cultural differences because the culture affects thinking and values. the difference in beliefs leads to a difference in judgments and responses. The people of Western cultures have a more individualistic attitude as compared to the Eastern cultured people who are situationally collectivistic in their perception. The individualistic approach of the monophasic cultures, as well as the collectivistic approach of the polyphasic cultures, have a completely different influence on all the 3 stages of the perception which ultimately causes a difference in sensations. These 3 stages of perception are by which the brain takes information from the stimuli and process it neurologically to reciprocate into effects in the form of sensations:

1. Selection
2. Organization and
3. Interpretation