{"id":32259,"date":"2023-04-07T00:00:46","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T07:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=32259"},"modified":"2023-04-07T09:52:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T16:52:32","slug":"a-tired-brain-considering-cultural-differences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-tired-brain-considering-cultural-differences\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tired Brain Considering Cultural Differences"},"content":{"rendered":"

This book is genius. Your Brain at Work, <\/em>by Dr. David Rock helped my brain make many connections. I\u2019m not sure I can adequately explain just how many connections I experienced while completing the reading this week. After all, it is not good for a brain try to focus on too many things at once! As I write, my brain is already distracted with the idea that I should immediately order a copy of this book for every member of my immediate family for Christmas. Needless-to-say, I will both recommend and refer to this book often. It brings together in one place the practical application of counseling theories and the neuroscience of the brain in an easily understandable and enjoyable read. However, the connections I made make complete sense to me coming from a counseling background and a western individualistic perspective. However, my brain is at an impasse trying to sort out how I can apply what I have learned in a Southeast Asian context. I may need to let my brain go idle, ask for an extension, or the find my \u201csweet spot\u201d\u2026 the right level of stress to get the job done. I made a bowl of popcorn and watched a fun British crime show with my husband. Then I sat down to write feeling relaxed, with the goal of posting my blog before heading to bed. The culturally sensitive connections I made are that we all have brains, we all respond to threat and reward, we all have emotions, and we all need safe social connection to thrive.<\/p>\n

Cultural Context<\/em> and the Desire for Safe Social Connections<\/em><\/p>\n

My NPO stakeholders are ministry leaders and their spouses in Southeast Asia. Their need is for more frequent opportunities for meaningful connection with other leaders within their family of churches. Sensitivity to their cultural norms when developing my project is very important to me. While I am not attempting to change the gloriously diverse and vibrant cultures present in Southeast Asia, I have been invited to support change within a family of churches that desires platforms for creating deeper and more supportive connections. Understanding the cultural norms and how close relationships are perceived will aid the development of a meaningful and practical project. Here is what I know from experience and what I discovered in my research.<\/p>\n

The cultures of Southeast Asia are collectivist. Achieving harmony is an ideal. A greater emphasis is placed on relationships between individuals not on any one individual.[1]<\/a> Collectivist cultures are characterized by in-group relationships in which tight social relationships are common but may not be as positive and harmonious as they appear.[2]<\/a> One key challenge is the expression of emotion. \u201cThe Asian collectivistic culture, compared to individualistic societies, tend to be more reserved in the aspect of emotional expression.\u201d[3]<\/a> Expressing feelings and sharing personal struggles is culturally considered taboo and related to saving face. Given this information my question is how to create a new culture within a culture that normalizes the suppression of emotion and is influenced by saving face, when authenticity and honesty are needed to build trust and safe social connection? Rock identifies social connections as a primary need.[4]<\/a> This is the need of my stakeholders in a nutshell. A big positive is that they are motivated to create more vulnerable relationships. Creating safety is key. I see the collectivistic nature of the culture to be a positive in that my stakeholders deeply value connection. Saving face is not just about saving the individual\u2019s face but that of the other.<\/p>\n

Dr. Rock states, \u201cCreating a sense of safety is the first step to transforming a culture, whether the culture involves two people at home or twenty thousand at work.\u201d[5]<\/a> In terms of social connection, our brains are either moving away from threat or moving toward reward. Dr. Rock\u2019s SCARF model identifies five domains of social experience that the brain treats as survival issues.[6]<\/a> They are Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness. All relate to perceptions of safety that cause human\u2019s to either move away from or toward others in relationships.[7]<\/a> I am very curious about what this looks like culturally in Southeast Asia, how saving face and suppression of emotion might impact movement toward or away from others. I am guessing that I made many wrong assumptions, given that I doubt I was very aware of how I was responding either from a place of threat or possible reward.<\/p>\n

Here are some strategies I will consider moving forward:<\/p>\n

Check out my assumptions. Seek to understand what causes feelings of threat and what creates feelings of reward. For example, be curious as to how status moves someone concerned about face toward threat or reward.<\/p>\n

Go slow. Create experiences that give stakeholders positive connections with one another. Which in turn moves them to their own insights<\/p>\n

Begin with those who are already taking the risk to share feelings and hard experiences.<\/p>\n

Teach about the brain!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. <\/a>Joo Yup Kim and Sang Hoon Nam, \u201cThe Concept and Dynamics of Face: Implications for Organizational Behavior in Asia\u201d Organizational Science <\/em>9, no. 4 (July-August, 1998): 526.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. <\/a> Shi S. Liu, Michael W. Morris, Thomas Talheim, and Qian Yang, \u201cIngroup Vigilance in Collectivistic Cultures\u201d PNAS <\/em>(July 16, 2019): 14538-14539.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

        \n
      1. <\/a>Wandee Wajanathawornchai and Jon Nicholas Blauw, \u201cThe impact of spiritual well-being, calling, and religious coping on burnout, mediated by job stressors among Thai protestant pastors\u201d Scholar<\/em> 10, no.1, (2018): 141.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        \u00a0<\/sup><\/p>\n

          \n
        1. <\/a>David Rock, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter all Day Long.<\/em> (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2020), 171.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          \u00a0<\/sup><\/p>\n

            \n
          1. David Rock, Your Brain at Work,<\/em> 232.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            <\/a><\/p>\n

              \n
            1. <\/a>Ibid., 197-198.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

               <\/p>\n

                \n
              1. Ibid., 230.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                This book is genius. Your Brain at Work, by Dr. David Rock helped my brain make many connections. I\u2019m not sure I can adequately explain just how many connections I experienced while completing the reading this week. After all, it is not good for a brain try to focus on too many things at once! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2310,1],"tags":[2489,2681],"class_list":["post-32259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp02","tag-rock","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32259"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32266,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32259\/revisions\/32266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}