Sociocultural Level of Analysis: Social and Cultural Norms

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Sociocultural Level of AnalysisSocial and
Cultural Norms

• Part IV

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Cultural Norms

• There are many definitions of culture, and it is
  a very complex concept.
• The term surface culture is used to describe
  visible aspects like food, eating habits,
  clothing, rituals, communication patterns,
  religion, and behavior).
• The term deep culture is related to beliefs,
  attitudes and values that underpin culture
  manifestations.
• Kuschel (2004) claims that culture should not be
  used to explain behavior. It should be used to
  understand how people have survived in their
  environment, how they organized their life, and
  how their beliefs influence behavior.

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Cultural Norms

• Lonner (1995) describes cultures as common rules
  that regulate interactions and behavior in a
  group as well as a number of shared values and
  attitudes in the group.
• Hofstede (2002) described culture as mental
  software, meaning cultural schemas that have
  internalized so that they influence thinking,
  emotions, and behavior.

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Cultural Norms

• Matsumoto (2004) describes culture as dynamic
  system of rules, explicit and implicit,
  established by groups in order to ensure their
  survival, involving attitudes, values, beliefs,
  norms, and behaviors.
• Culture is dynamic because it changes over time
  due to environment and social changes.
• cultural norms behavior patterns that are
  typical of specific groups. They are often passed
  down from generation to generation by
  observational learning by the groups gatekeepers
  parents, teachers, religious leaders, and
  peers.
• Cultural norms include how people choose marriage
  partners, attitudes toward alcohol consumption,
  and acceptance (or rejection) of spanking
  children.

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Cultural Norms

• The etic approach to psychology compares human
  behavior across specific cultures. Etic study
  involves drawing on notion of universal
  properties of cultures, which share common
  perceptual, cognitive, and emotional structures.
• The emic approach looks at behaviors that are
  culturally specific. Emics have challenged
  psychologists to re-examine their ideas

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Cultural Dimensions of Behavior

• dimensions- the perspectives of a culture based
  on values and cultural norms.
• Hoefstede (1973) study involved asking employees
  of the multinational company IBM to fill in
  surveys about morale in the workplace. He then
  carried out content analysis on the responses he
  received, focusing on key differences submitted
  by employees in different countries. His research
  looked at the 40 most represented countries in
  the surveys. The trends he noticed he called
  dimensions.

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Cultural Dimensions of Behavior

• Hoefstede argues that understanding cultural
  dimensions will help facilitate communication
  between cultures. This is important in
  international diplomacy as well as international
  business.

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Cultural Dimensions of Behavior

• Types of dimensions
• Individualism in individualist societies the
  ties between individuals are loose. Everyone is
  expected to look after himself or herself and his
  or her immediate family.
• Collectivism in collectivist societies from
  birth onwards people are integrated into strong,
  cohesive in-groups, often extended families( with
  uncles, aunts, and grandparents), which provides
  them with support and perfection. Not living up
  to norms, very severe punishment.

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Cultural Dimensions of Behavior

• Types of dimensions
• Uncertainty vs. avoidance- deals with the
  societies tolerance for uncertainty and
  ambiguity. It indicate to what extent a culture
  programs its members to feel either uncomfortable
  or comfortable in unstructured situations
  unstructured situations are novel, unknown,
  surprising.

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Cultural Dimensions of Behavior

• Types of dimensions
• Bond (1988) argues that Chinese culture replaces
  the uncertainty-avoidance dimension with
  Confucian work dynamism instead of focusing on
  truth, some countries focus on virtue.
• China and other countries have a long-term
  orientation. These cultures value persistence,
  loyalty, and trustworthiness. They need to
  protect the collective identity and respect
  tradition what is called saving face.

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Cultural Dimensions of Behavior

• Types of dimensions
• Hoefstede found that Finland, Germany, and the US
  have a short-term orientation. In contrast to the
  Confucian work dynamism, these cultures value
  personal steadiness and stability. There is a
  focus on the future instead of the past, and
  innovation is highly valued.
• Hoefstede warns against the ecological fallacy,
  meaning when one looks at two different cultures,
  it should NOT be assumed that two members from
  two different cultures must be different from one
  another, or that a single member of a culture
  will always demonstrate the dimensions which are
  the norm of that culture.

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Cultural Dimensions of Behavior

• Anthropologist, Edward T. Halls norms that
  define culture.
• proxemic theory (1966) is based on a culture's
  need for personal space. Different cultures
  have different perceptions of the amount of
  personal space that is required to be
  comfortable. People only allow their closest,
  most intimate friends into this bubble of space.
• Time consciousness there is a distinction
  between monochronic cultures and polychronic
  cultures.
• Monochronic focus on one thing at a time, high
  amount of scheduling, and punctuality, meeting
  deadline highly valued.
• Polychronic many things happen at once, more
  focus on relationships and interactions.
  Interruptions are expected as a part of life,
  little frustration when things are postponed or
  late.