Naive dialecticism

Naïve dialecticism is a collection of East Asian public beliefs characterized by the acceptance of contradiction and the expectation of change in everyday life. Within cultural psychology, naïve dialecticism explains some of the cultural differences observed between those who hold dialectical beliefs and those who hold more Westernized beliefs. Individuals who hold dialectical beliefs are primarily members of Confucian influenced cultures, such as in Japan, China, and Korea. Certain researchers have shown that specific aspects of naïve dialecticism have broad implications on cognition, emotion, and behavior. As well, it is sometimes regarded as being more contextual, flexible, holistic, and dialectical as compared with Western thinking and reasoning. Dialecticism is a perceptual framework that applies to all situations and guides all actions, which is called a domain-general thinking style. Naïve dialecticism is an expansion on this research; it is a whole collection of domain-specific beliefs, meaning that there is a tendency to understand a situation in terms of these beliefs but there is variation depending on the context and individual differences

Naïve dialecticism contains certain concepts that distinguish it from Western thinking and beliefs, specifically they have different beliefs about change and contradiction. Dialectic thinking involves treating the world as consisting of co-existing extremes or opposites (e.g. hot/cold or light/dark). As a result, they are more likely to expect change from the status quo. Dialectic thinkers also believe that the truth is always somewhere in the middle (doctrine of the mean), which differs from Western beliefs that contradictions must be reconciled because only a single truth is thought to exist

Naive dialecticism provides a framework for analysis that is half way between a macro-level and a micro-level approach. On a macro-level, individualism and collectivism define the social differences between cultures, which influences the specific common beliefs about how the world operates. Naïve dialecticism shares this macro-level framework while also looking at individual and situation-specific differences between people (micro-approach).

The three principles of naïve dialecticism are change, contradiction, and holism, and they operate together. If the world is in constant flux, as explained by the principle of change, then there must be acceptance of contradiction because one phenomenon will inevitably become something else. The fact that understanding phenomena relies on acceptance of contradiction within and between phenomena suggests that the only way to understand it is to look at it holistically

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