Culture and the Individual

1
Culture
and the Individual

• Social Structure and Personality

2
Anthony F.C. Wallace
Societies deal with individual differences in
personality in two general ways 1. They
enculturate and socialize children, shaping them
to suit cultural expectations 2. They provide
alternative roles that accommodate different
personalities
3
Barry, Bacon and Child 1959
Subsistence Strategy of Society High food
accumulating agriculture Medium food
accumulating horticulture Low food
accumulating foraging and pastoralism Personalit
y styles Compliance responsibility,
obedience, nurturance Assertion achievement,
self reliance, independence High food
accumulating associated with compliance Low food
accumulating associated with assertion
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Subsistence and Personality Pastoralist Males
Cooperative with others in the group Aggressive
towards outsiders Make important economic
decisions quickly Act on decisions
independently  Profound emotional attachment to
their animals. Initiative Realistic in his
appraisal of the world Risk taking 
Confident Willing to take advantage of others
for personal gain
5
Social Institutions as Personality Shapers
Social Institutions include Status (Class or
Caste) is ones hierarchical position with regard
to others in the society Roles are the sets of
behaviors and expectations assigned to a
particular function filled by an actor in a given
social situation
6
Marxist Theory

• Members of the industrial proletariat will be
  characterized by
• Shared material interests as exploited wage
  laborers
• Crowded working conditions, making communication
  and organization possible
• Lack of private property
• Nothing material to lose by rebelling
• And will tend to have the following personality
  characteristics
• A revolutionary spirit
• The habit of organized action
• A psychology of comradeship with co-workers
• A productive and constructive conception of how
  things work
• While the bourgeoisie will have the following
  personality characteristics
• Individualism
• Rationalism
• Entrepreneurial creativity

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Peasant Personality

• Members of the peasant class will be
  characterized by the following
• Access to land
• Competition with other peasants
• A subordinate position in the larger society
• The belief in the Image of Limited Good
  (Foster) says that amounts of land, wealth and
  all other desirable things in life exist in
  absolute quantities insufficient to fill even the
  minimal needs of peers, and there is no way to
  increase the quantities so that there is enough
  to go around.
• Personality traits will include
• Envy
• Suspicion
• Anxiety that others will get ahead at ones own
  expense
• personality characteristics that are shaped by
  the Image of Limited Good

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The Bureaucratic Personality

• Robert Merton The requirements of the job will
  both
• 1. Attract individuals who have appropriate
  personality characteristics, and
• Shape the personality characteristics of those
  who do the job over long periods of time
• Bureaucratic positions are characterized by
• 1. Fixed areas of jurisdiction
• Graded levels of authority
• Specialized managerial skills
• General procedural rules
• Depersonalized activities
• The Bureaucratic personality will be
• Timid
• Rigid
• Authoritarian
• Overconforming
• Insecure

9
The Business Executive

• Bronfenbrenner suggests that families in
  different status positions will socialize their
  children very differently
• The Business Executive will tend to have the
  following personality characteristics
• Strong desire for achievement
• Strong desire for upward mobility
• Positive attitude and attraction to authority
  figures
• Decisiveness in decision making
• Strong self identity
• An active, realistic approach to problem solving
• Strong feelings of frustration when blocked
• Entrepreneurial families train boys to get
  ahead
• Bureaucratic families train boys to get along
• THESE KINDS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURAL PATTERNS CUT
  ACROSS CULTURAL AND NATIONAL BOUNDARIES

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Primary Role Identification PRI

• Most members of a society will develop a primary
  role identification
• Rohrer and Edmonson 1960
• New Orleans Negro
• 1. for males, identification with middle
  class values
• 2. for females, identification with the
  maternal role in a matriarchial family
• 3. for males, identification with age
  graded peer groups gangs
• 4. for both, identification with being a
  family member

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Puerto Rican PRIs in New York

• Four role identification possibilities, two for
  each sex
• For males, a family protector/defender who is
  street smart and respected on the street
• For males, a worker who will not get good jobs or
  stable employment, but who can be trusted to
  bring home a paycheck to his mothers household
  as often as possible
• For females, a unwed welfare mother whose
  children will bring in income to the mothers
  household of which she and her child/ren are a
  part
• For females, an upwardly mobile individual who
  gets some level of education and a job that
  allows her to meet and marry above her
  socioeconomic status

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Cultural Hegemony

• Cultural Hegemony occurs when the ruling class
  imposes its ideas on the rest of society.
• In a psychological sense this occurs when
  minority groups internalize negative stereotypes
  about themselves and turn them into reality.
• ONCE WERE WARRIORS