Differences in Relationships Between Western and Non-Western Cultures

Love, sex and relationships. These three aspects of life are in every culture. Although they are present in every culture, the characteristics of these three are portrayed differently between each and every society. Various cultures are influenced by the media, social norms, and traditions. The media portrays sex as if everyone is “doing it” all the time. This not only includes people who are married, but single people as well. Social norms, however, seem to look down upon people constantly having sex. Having sex constantly with many partners is not respected or accepted. And in tradition, it depends greatly from culture to culture. For the Muslim culture, wives are treated like property, where in America, marriage is the equal joining of two partners. To examine the differences between each culture/country in the world, we must dive into each culture’s beliefs and values amongst sexuality, relationships, marriage and love. The cultures focused on in this paper are Asian, European and American cultures.

Socio-cultural influence plays a major role in sexual behaviors. It gives a better comprehension on why men are men and women are women. These socio-cultural are influenced by physical, emotional, cultural and economic aspects. Time and time again research has proven that socio-cultural influences have a significant role in human sexuality. Culture is the manner of life of the people. Thus, culture shapes the ideas of what behaviors are acceptable for men and women (King & Regan, 2014). Sexuality is a big part of one’s life because it produces us human. It is how an individual sees himself or herself through sexual attitudes. According to (Krantz & Tolan, 2016) sexuality means a collection of

A prompt literature review reveals the glaring cultural disparities between Asian and Western societies. The Asian-American community originates from Asia and thus first generation Asian-Americans mostly bear and abide to Asian norms and customs (Geary, 2004). These norms and customs especially apply to the institution of marriage and processes that entail it such as mate selection and preferences. Nevertheless, parental influence feature prominently in mate selection practices across a majority of Asian-American communities. This is through homogamy tendencies in parents or long held familial traditions. Within families, the role of female members is especially pivotal in determining the dating and marriage lives of family members. Falcon

Love is thus expressed in a cultural context and those who are not in the frame can feel pressures from their respective cultures to not reveal their love (affairs, homosexual relationships). Looking at cohabitation, using statistical researches, it has been showed that the frequency of cohabitation is higher in young couples than old ones, demonstrating a change over time in the cultural way of seeing it.

In this article, Ethnic, Gender, and Acculturation Influences on Sexual Behaviors, the researchers hypothesize that “...general differences in normative sexual practices in healthy Euro-Americans, Asians, and Hispanic populations, using measures of acculturation to analyze the relative effects of heritage and mainstream cultures within each group.” (Meston and Ahrold, 2008) The study shows “A total of 1,419 undergraduates (67% Euro-American, 17% Hispanic, 16% Asian; 33% men, 67% women).” (Meston and Ahrold, 2008) The subjects in this study completed questionnaires that evaluated sexual experience and casual sexual behaviors. In this study, Ethnic, Gender, and Acculturation Influences on Sexual Behaviors, the researchers find that Asian women

In order to further understand my experiences one must acknowledge the cultural background, which constructs my opinions towards sex, sexuality, and gender role. My opinions about sexuality shifted quickly as I moved from Israel, a middle-eastern society, to the United

Love between man and woman is the precious one of human that people must spend a lot of time and effort to seek. However, there is a perceptive difference of love between Western culture and Eastern culture. Westerners find out freedom and satisfaction in love and marriage is a great importance of their life, therefore they often cohabitate to learn about their partners carefully to get a

Most nations in the modern world are conscious about morals and values of their culture on lesbian, bisexual, and gay populations. Activities and ideas on sexual relationships that have emerged recently are deemed controversial to what most cultures value. Sexual orientation has been and remains a taboo topic even in the modern society. In the past, all people were taught to adhere to their cultural values as opposed to what is experienced today. The teachings included the value for marriage, respect for parents and community, and self-respect of an individual. The morals are not adhered to in the modern world; the role of

Their research also looked at the heavy social influence on human sexuality. Rubin grouped western nations into 4 separate “sexual regimes”, the two mentioned in this study are The Sexually Conservative Cluster and the Homosexual Permissiveness cluster.

People from all cultures have acted in relationships in different ways that are influenced by their cultural traditions and laws about sex. Human sexuality and how males and females act within the relationship can be considered as physically influenced by biology, for example hormones, brain centres, networks of nerves, and sex organs all shape the character of the male and female. However there are various arguments to this. hjwatson24, please do not redistribute this paper.

even though sexuality can be considered universal, the sexual behaviors affiliated with it offer different attitudes in various communities. Sexuality is aligned to sexual attraction where individuals can identify themselves with a broad range of sexuality that is bisexual, gay or being lesbian. Sexuality can change over time in a person depending on the circumstances surrounding him or her. It may be affected by the social circle and emotional imbalances that may occur in an individual. Interestingly there exists sexual inequality among many societies in the world. As observed, many societies encourage men to have multiple sex partners but forbid it in women. Moreover, pre-marital sex is promoted in men, but women are flaunted if they participate in pre-marital sex. Across the globe, Western Europe has embraced certain norms in sexuality such as homosexuality whereas African society embraces a negative attitude towards the same.

This paper will offer a comparison of similarities and differences, a description of cultural factor influences, and the perception and presentation of sexual attitudes and behavior within these two cultures.

There are widely varying culture and ethnic groups that possess distinct cultural principles and attachment styles which is believed to have a deep influence in romantic preferences (Hatfield & Rapson, 1995). Eastern and Western culture clearly varies in two basic principles, specifically, individualism and collectivism (Hofstede, 1980; Phinney, Ong, & Madden, 2000; Triandis, Bontempo, &Villareal, 1988).

There are many factors that go into a person’s selection on finding a suitable life partner such as, what the opposite sex offers in terms of personal traits. Everyone has their own idea of who they would like to marry, and they often establish certain images in their head of who would make a worthy mate. Some characteristics of a suitable mate may be, physical looks, financial stability, love, or sexual chemistry. To find a suitable partner, people go through a series of dating, such as online dating, speed dating, or dating someone with mutual friends, before finding “the one”. Dating has changed significantly compared to before industrialization. Industrialization brought changes to dating by the invention of the automobile, which made traveling easier. Prior to industrialization, parents were involved in mate selection, and interaction between opposite sex was limited (Seccombe 2012, p.188). In most of today’s culture, dating is a free choice among people, except for arranged marriages. Although who you date is considered a person’s own choice, people often are bound by socially constructed cultural norms that determine what is acceptable sexual behavior, also known as sexual scripts. Sexual scripts that provide the norms regarding sexual behavior, varies between race/ethnicity, social class, and gender.

Cultures all around the world have many things in common such as language, food, religion, and traditions. Culture can be divided into two main categories: collectivist and individualistic. Individualistic cultures promote self realization, self interest, and lack of concern for others. The one event in life that transcends all cultures is marriage. While there is a distinction of love between Eastern and Western cultures, marriage remains a life goal for many. The characteristic of romantic love coincided with individualistic societies, while collectivist cultures emphasize loyalty to family and goals, whereas desires are subordinate to community and family interest. Eastern cultures emphasis on interdependence leads children to naturally allow parental involvement in their marriage, a seemingly stark contrast from their Western counterpart. Marriage is an enduring social institution, but people all around the globe experience and define it differently.