800-1000 words cultural psychology essay
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IDENTIFY AND DISCUSS THE DIFFERENCES IN DEFINITIONS AND ASPECTS OF
CULTURE
Millie Ni
University of Victoria
Psyc 386
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What is Culture?
Introduction
Culture is generally described as the features and knowledge associated with a particular
group of people that surround issues like religion, social habits, language, and many others.
Different social groups and professionals have a unique view and perception of how certain
groups or communities make their own culture and the way their younger generations adopt and
appreciate it. It must be noted how other studies, such as a psychologist, cognitive psychologist,
and anthropologist, think about the culture. Culture might take multiple definitions and
perceptions but what remains always is the fact that it represents the norms and features of a
particular group of people. The understanding of the definition and concepts of culture is crucial
because it helps an individual to understand why particular groups of people differ or share their
ways of life. The objective of the paper is to identify the difference between definitions of
cultures and the viewpoints of different studies and assure that these definitions possess complete
information or not.
Cultural psychologists consider culture as specific facts and figures that people learn
from a certain community and adopt it in their daily life. (Heine, S. J., 2020) A community that
portrays a strong culture has its younger generation embracing it and those that violate the
existing cultural guidelines are considered a rebel and always advised to toe the line. It is the
part of social learning, and every individual has positive or negative effects on the actions and
behaviors of the other individual. Since we are social beings, then we are subjected to learn by
observing each other actions. So in this way, we can say that culture consists of faith, a sense of
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motives, and advancement in science, and those actions that people learn from the other behavior
of other people (Jahoda, 2012).
Besides, culture is described as an aspect that recognizes the actions of a specific group
of individual. (Heine, S. J., 2020) Based on the aspect that humans' are social beings, culture is
associated with people living in a given area where they share norms, beliefs, and values. The
consideration of factors like religious beliefs, way of communication, and the people's perception
about life in a particular community make a culture of that area. When we see culture in a global
view, we include those parts of the world vastly in an area. For example, when we say Asian
countries, it means we are talking about the people of Asia that live there and share similar
behaviors and customs that make its culture as a whole (Jahoda, 2012). There are multiple
immigrants in Canada and the majority of them have adopted the Canadian culture abandoning
their culture of origin due to influence, social interaction, and also the struggle to learn and fit in
the community. Walter Lipmann stated that "Culture is the name for what people are interested
in, their thoughts, their models, the books they read, and the speeches they hear".
Sociologists’ states that culture can be divided into two parts: one is material, and the
other is non-material. (University of Minnesota Libraries, 2019) Material culture includes all
those things that are tangible that people easily share these things. For example, book tickets, use
public transportation, and go to the same grocery stores to buy something. Non-material culture
consists of all ideas, beliefs, non-tangible things, and people cannot touch them (Rohner, 1984).
Heine (2020) stated that culture is mostly seen in a community dressing style and also
daily food. Moreover, additional factors included in culture are moral values, recognition of
people in a particular area, and the roles of male and female (gender role) in our society. Every
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region of the world has different thinking about giving honor to adults and elders, sex before
marriage, homosexuality, and heterosexuality. Locke says that when an infant is born, his/her
mind is a black slate. As they grow, they learn of doing behaviors from the surroundings, such as
respecting the elders and not lying (Gauvain & Perez, 2015). All these things are a part of the
culture, and they tend to follow these norms. The culture is the behavior that people learn from
the environment. Some behaviors are inborn that transfer through genes from parents to children.
According to psychologists, culture is a combination of both innate and learned behavior
(Lehman et al., 2004).
The concepts and definitions discussed above dictate that culture is about ideas, beliefs,
technological advancements, morality, norms, and values. All these are essential aspects of
culture. The other elements that should be considered as a concept of culture include marriage,
religious beliefs, and communications. There is a need to focus on these aspects because every
community has their customs in marriage ceremonies and have different languages used to
communicate with each other. Culture is termed dynamic and a community experience slight
changes in their norms, beliefs, language, and other factors over time improving the existing one,
and the changes are mainly contributed by social interactions.
Discussion
Culture is shared norms and values within the culture. Several similarities exist within
one culture, but some aspects are different. When we talk about western culture, we observe that
they have an individualistic culture. It is in this sense that western people do not depend on each
other for their routine work. They are independent people.
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On the contrary, Asian culture is a collectivistic culture; people always depend on each
other for their tasks or routine work. The difference between western and Asian cultures is that
western people learn ethics and etiquette like respect for your elders, but they are not forced to
follow it. On the other hand, Asian people learn norms and ethics that they have to be followed at
any cost. There is no freedom for them regarding these customs (Little, 2013).
Culture is adopted and implemented differently in various communities as an example of
Asian and Western cultures. The Asian community expects everyone to adopt all their aspects of
culture and any violation is punishable. Culture is what makes the world interesting because it
brings about the issue of diversity and also a sense of belonging. If two cultures have the same
religion, then they have the same religion. Every definition of culture talks about the etiquettes
that are of many types. But there is a difference in the etiquette system of two cultures. If we take
Western and Eastern culture, the people have to share their ideas in every situation even they
may wrong their elders. But in Asian culture, young have no right to wrong their elders. It is
considered disrespectful.
Conclusion
After reviewing the different cultural definitions and concepts, it is concluded that culture
is the group of people that shared norms in a similar context. Culture gives people a sense of
belonging to a particular group and the research enlightens more about diversity that pushes for
embracing each other. Culture is known to build an individual social life and also guides the
society on dictating what is morally right or wrong. Culture also is the central construct in the
development of an individual, and the people learn more from their surroundings and norms.
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This makes the culture of a community because its people recognize these beliefs. We are all part
of the specific culture, and we must follow these norms to bring peace in the society.
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References
Gauvain, M. & Perez, S. (2015). Cognitive development and culture. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.)
Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science (7th ed.). John Wiley &
Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118963418.childpsy220
Heine, S. J. (2020). Chapter 1 Psychological Processes Can Vary Across Cultures. What is
Culture (p. 5-8). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Jahoda, G. (2012). Critical reflections on some recent definitions of “culture”. Culture &
Psychology, 18(3), 289-303. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X12446229
Lehman, D. R., Chiu, C., & Schaller, M. (2004). Psychology and culture. Annual Review of
Psychology, 55, 689-714. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141927
Little, W. (2013). Introduction to sociology, Chapter 3. Culture.
Opentextbc.ca.https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter3-culture/
Rohner, R. P. (1984). Toward a conception of culture for cross-cultural psychology. Journal of
Cross-Cultural Psychology, 15(2), 111-138.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002184015002002
University of Minnesota Libraries. (2019). 3.2 The Elements of Culture. In Sociology:
Understanding and changing the social world. Chapter 3.2 The elements of culture.
Open.lib.umn.edu. https://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/3-2-the-elements-of-
culture/
