ASOK15210U Culture-Cognition Interaction in Self- and Identity

This course introduces students to cutting edge culture-cognition interaction research from the growing subdiscipline cognitive cultural sociology. Cognitive sociology is a highly interdisciplinary approach to how culture and cognition interact, with each other, with behavior and with larger social processes and organization. The course draws heavily on related disciplines such as cognitive anthropology, cognitive-, cultural- and social psychology, cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience to give students insight into how these fields overlap and can be used together to make sense of human behavior. The course provides a general introduction to these areas with a focus on examples of self and identity construction. The following topics will be discussed:

• A framework for how culture and cognition interacts, and shapes thought, action and social interaction, on conscious and subconscious levels.

• Bridging theories of self and identity from neurocognition to cultural sociology (including for example Mead and Butler).

• The relationship between culture, emotion, motivation and behavior in identity pursuits and the sociocultural contingencies of self-esteem.

• Discussions of methodological challenges and possibilities with insights from cognitive science.