Chapter 4

Central beliefs

Include the culture's fundamental teachings about what reality is and expectations about how the world works. Less central, but also important, are beliefs based on or derived from the teachings of those regarded as authorities.

Intensity

Indicates the strength or importance of the value, or the degree to which the culture identifies the value as significant. For example, in some U.S American cultures, the value of respect for elders is negatively valanced and held with a modest degree of intensity.

Beliefs

Is an idea that people assume to be true about the world. Beliefs, therefor, are a set of learned interpretations that form the basis for cultural members to decide what is and what is not logical and correct.

Time orientation

Provides answer to questions such as the following: How should time b valued and understood? Is time a scarce resource or is it unlimited? Is the desirable pace of life fast or slow? Is time linear or cyclical?

Peripheral beliefs

Refer to matters of personal taste. They contribute to each person's unique configurations of ideas and expectations with the larger cultural matrix.

Valance

Refers to whether the value is seen as positive or negative.

Cultural patterns

Shared beliefs, values, norms and social practices that are stable over time and that lead to roughly similar behaviors across similar situations are known as cultural patterns. Cultural patterns are primarily inside people, in their minds. They provide a way of thinking about the world, of orientating oneself to it. Therefore, cultural patterns are shared mental programs that govern specific behavior choices.

World orientation

Cultural patters also tell people how to locate themselves in relation to the spiritual world, nature, and other living things. A world orientation provides answer to the questions such as the following: Are human beings intrinsically good or evil? Are humans different from other animals and plants? Are people in control of, subjugated by, or living in harmony with the forces of nature? Do spirits of the dead inhabit and affect the human world?

Values

Cultures differ not only in their beliefs but also in what they value. Values involved what a culture regards as good or bad, right or wrong, fair or unfair, just or unjust, beautiful, or ugly, clean or dirty, valuable or worthless, etc. Because values are desired characteristics or goals of a culture, a culture's values do not necessarily describe its actual behaviors and characteristics.

Activity orientation

Defines how people of a culture view human actions and the expression of self through activities. This orientations provides answer to questions such as the following. Is it important to be engaged in activities in order to be a "good" member of ones culture? Can and should people change the circumstances of their lives? Is work different from play? Is life a series of problems to be solved or simply a collection of events to be experienced?

Self-orientation

Describes how people's identities are formed, whether the culture views the self as changeable, what motivates individual actions, and the kinds of people who are valued and respected. A culture's self orientation provides answers to questions such as the following: Do people believe they have their own unique identities that separate them from others? Does the self reside in the individual or in the groups to which the individual belongs? What responsibilities does the individual have to others. What motives people to behave as they do? Is it possible to respect a person who is judged "bad" in one part of life but is successful in another part of life?

Social relations orientations

Describes how the people in a culture organize themselves and relate to one another. This orientation provides answers to questions such as: To what extent are some people in the culture considered better or superior to others? Can social superiority be obtained through birth, age, good deeds ore material achievement and success? Are formal, ritualized sequences expected?

Social Practices

Are the predictable behavior patterns that members of a culture typically follow. Thus, social practices are outward manifestations of beliefs, values and norms. Example: In the US, lunch is usually over by 1:30

Norms

Are the socially shared expectations of appropriate behaviors. When a persona's behavior violate the culture's norms, social sanctions are usually imposed. Like values, norms can vary within a culture in terms of their importance and intensity. Unlike valance however, norms may change over a period of time, whereas beliefs and values tend to be more more enduring.