ABSTRACT
‘Cognitive styles’ are the characteristic self-consistent modes of functioning found pervasively throughout an individual’s cognitive, that is, perceptual and intellectual, activities. They are known to be manifestations, in the cognitive sphere, of broader dimensions of personal functioning, evident in similar form in many areas of the individual’s psychological activity. This chapter illustrates the value of a cognitive-style approach to cross-cultural research by considering the work that has been done with one intensively studied cognitive style, the global-articulated dimension of cognitive functioning. It analyses this cognitive style and to describes its connection to forms of functioning in other psychological areas. Sex differences in cognitive style have been observed in a wide variety of groups. Their existence raises a number of significant questions about the role of socialization in cognitive development and suggests further lines of cross-cultural inquiry. Boys and men tend to be more field-independent than girls and women.
