The Culture of the Image (the Cultural Determination of the Image of Consciousness by the Example of Russian and Japanese Cultures)

The methodological, theoretical and innovative empirical approaches to the question of cultural determination of the image of consciousness from the L.S. Vygotsky – A.N. Leontiev – A.R. Luria psychological school’s perspective are described. We introduce several new concepts, among which are “culture of an image”, “the strategy of constructing an image of consciousness” and others. The empirical study of culturally determined organization of the image of consciousness is presented, conducted in Russian and Japanese cultures. The dependence of the content, structure and methods of constructing the image of consciousness from the nationality of the participant was shown. The strategies of constructing an image of consciousness that are dominant in the Russian and Japanese cultures are described. The findings indicate that the Russian culture promotes constructing an image of consciousness mainly based on subjectively perceived world of meanings, and the Japanese culture supports the figurative coding predominantly with the active participation of the world of objects.