Analysis of The Theory of Culture Essay

In essence this dimension deals with the relationship between the individual and the collectives in a given society. It is reflected in the way in which people live together. For example, nuclear families, extended families, tribes and other larger communities. It directly effects peoples values and behaviours. In some cultures individualism is sometime to be sought after but in others it is seen as alienation.

Hofstede uses the words masculinity and femininity to refer to the degree to which masculine or feminine traits are valued or revealed (Samovar, Porter and McDaniel). The United States rates as a moderately masculine. Countries that favor masculinity stress equity, competition, and performance(Yates). They also strive for material success and expected to respect whatever is big, strong, and fast. France values femininity and stress equality, solidarity, and quality of work life (Yates). A feminine worldview maintains that men can assume nurturing roles while promoting sexual equality. One major difference in masculine/feminine cultures is the role of the woman in the workplace and at home. Feminine societies expect women to work and often provide the necessary social support systems. Although the United States is more masculine than France both countries treat females as equals.

Collectivism-> is basically when you think that values and the goals of the group and the common good over the goals of any one individual are the most beneficial. It stresses human interdependence and the importance of a collective, rather than the importance of separate individuals

“Individualism is the idea that the individual’s life belongs to him and that he has an inalienable right to live as he sees fit, to act on his own judgement, to keep and use the product of his effort, and to pursue the causes of his choosing.” My take on individualism, is basically that we can control ourselves, we can do what we want with restrictions to keep those that stand by us safe. Individualism is a way of a society. Now, on the other hand there is collectivism, “the idea that the individual’s life belongs not to him but to the group or society of which he is merely a part of has no rights, and that he must sacrifice his values and goals for the group’s greater good.” My take on this is “idea” is that you are completely controlled when put under this way of society. Having read the book Anthem by Ayn Rand collectivism is for sure something that I would not want to be a part of.

For the last century, individualism vs. collectivism has been a political conflict in America. What is collectivism and individualism you might ask, well collectivism is briefly defined as a group of people working together to give priority over individuals. On the other hand, individualism can be defined as a theory of favoring freedom over collective individuals and working to benefit his/her own self. Although the two seem very different, they also share many similar characteristics.

Culture is defined by a construction of one's world-view, and it is transmitted by individuals and collectives through socialization and enculturation (Pederson & Ivey, 13). It contains values, beliefs, language, and perception. In studying cultural differences among members of distinct national, ethnic groups researcher have examined the concept of collectivism and individualism. People form individualistic cultures tend to view themselves as unique entities and independent form one another (Coon & Kemmelmeier, 348)

Power Distance dimension according to Hofstede (2010) shows the degree of less or more accepts of inequalities within a culture; Canada was 94 while the Philippines was 32 clearly difference; therefore, showing one culture accept power inequalities more than the other. Power distance lower ranking is showing a culture expect and accept relationship that are more democratic. On the other hand, higher ranking accepts hierarchical. This cultural may believe that who every holds the power is right. On the Power Distance Index Hallale find that individuals have a solid dislike with saying "no'! especially in Asian nations. Saying no may be seen as form of disrespect Hallale (2013). I lived in the Philippines when President Ferdinand E. Marcos was President and the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino. At that time, I was unaware of a hierarchical society but thinking back; I can now see how 32 power distance scale ranking is believable because social positions and statuses have more prestige in their culture. While working, and traveling to Canada; I was able to see human equality especially with respect to socials issues; rules are used to determine what is right; for example, health care. all

First, power distance is the first dimension in Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions. Power distance is the “extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.” (Hofstede, 2017). When comparing China and the United States, China had twice as high power distance score than the United States. The high-power distance score in China shows that it is acceptable to have inequalities in their society, and that the people accept and expect power is distributed unequally.

The identities that each person possesses is influenced according to their attitudes, values and beliefs embedded in their culture. When people hear the word cult, the images of satan worshipping, animal sacrifices and evil, pagan rituals automatically come to mind. However, in reality, the majority of cults do not involve these things and are in fact simply a religious system with alternate beliefs. The word though refers to an unorthodox sect whose members distort the original doctrines of the religion. Heaven’s Gate is a cult that is centred in California, founded by Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles in 1993. They are a UFO based ‘destructive doomsday’ cult who believed that evil space aliens called ‘Luciferians’ had kept

Individualism is an idea or norm that one opt to live as they feel like and the life belongs to that individual, thus lives as he/she sees fit, at on own judgment and his/her efforts and pursue values and beliefs of his own choice. “It’s the idea that the individual is sovereign, an end in himself, and the fundamental unit of moral concern,” (The Objective Standard, 2016). Collectivism on other side is the idea that an individual’s life belongs to a group or community instead of their own. Thus, an individual has no rights of their own except for what is defined by the group as the norm. This leads to sacrifices of one owns values and goals for the group is greater good. Collectivism is mainly used in my country where I come from, hence we have saying that it takes the entire village to raise a child. This simply means that particular group henceforth makes hat we work as group of our association and decisions. “From the day of his birth until the day of his death society allows him to enjoy certain so-called rights and deprives him of others; not . . . because society desires especially to favour or oppress the individual, but because its own preservation, welfare, and happiness are the prime considerations,” (The Objective Standard, 2016). My culture involves collectiveness where as I have peers from all over the world hence, it is easy to observe

Power Distance is the dimension that deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. At 80 China sits in the higher rankings of power distance a society that believes that inequalities amongst people are acceptable, therefore subordinate-superior relationship tends to be polarized and there is no defence against power abuse by superiors. Individuals are influenced by formal authority and sanctions and are in general optimistic about people’s capacity for leadership and initiative. People

The concept of culture is something that defines many aspects of one’s life. From physical objects to different ways of thinking, culture adds significance to human life and makes groups of people distinct from one another. Culture is essentially a group of people who come together with similar interests and points of view. According to the Center for Advanced Language Acquisition of the University of Minnesota, “culture is defined as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization.” From a more sociological perspective, culture is a way in which people come together in order to fulfill their needs. These shared patterns and ideas identify the members of a culture group while also distinguishing those of another group.” Culture is one of the things that sets the United States apart from the rest of the world. Not that the rest of the world is not cultural, but the circumstance here is different. Many people of different cultural backroads come to this country in search of a better life. As a consequence, the United States has become a place where many cultures merge together like a colossal pot soup.

Individualistic cultures tend to favor feeling free and less responsible for the members around them. In class, we discussed our own experiences of living in an individualistic culture. For example, if a parent were to become ill and more dependent, it is not uncommon for the children to send the parent to a nursing home. The ill parent would feel embarrassed if their child had to help them use a restroom or bathe themselves.Whereas, in a collectivism

Expanding on that, a person is immeresed in his/her culture since birth, and has no choice but to adopt the values necessary to survive. An individualistic community encourages a person to make his/her own choices; moreover, one would be less concerned about the “we” and more concerned about the “I”. This lowers conformity levels, because each person is willing to do what he/she wants and is more concerned about self-surival than harmony in the community. A strength of this study could be participant variability because it eliminates the possibility of this behavior only being limited to one type of person/community. Accordingly, a limitation could be the lack of ecological validity (one will not be asked to identify the length of a line in real life), and the multitude of confounding variables including the time and place, which could influence the results. Overall, the study demonstrates how individualism affects behavior, since a person who demonstrates indivdualistic behavior would exhibit less conformity, as seen above.

First, Individualism vs. Collectivism. Individualism is the social function of the relative likelihood of a free and individual means only take care of themselves and their families. By contrast, collectivism is the tendency of social functions relatively tight where each individual to identify themselves as a group with loyalty not need to be asked. The main problem of this dimension is the degree of interdependence of individuals in a