Enculturation Lecture
Introduction
In a book by William B. Gudykunst, Bridging Differences: Effective Intergroup Communication, (2004), Chapter three deals with “Understanding Cultural Differences.” Within this chapter he discusses individualism and collectivism, which he considers to be “the major dimension of cultural variability used to explain cross-culturalof or relating to different cultures or comparisons between them differences in behavior.”
Cultural Variability
Cross-cultural behaviors, once easier to pick up with face to face communication and persons separated by cultural differences, is worth delving deeper into because of the many other ways there are to communicate across cultures besides face to face. Long-distance telephone communication, telegrams, and letters were not face to face, and they took longer periods of time to reach recipients. Today with internet things have changed drastically in the ways we are able to communicate cross-culturally.
If we are not familiar with a languagea system of symbols that allow people to communicate with each other, also the MOST symbolic way that culture is passed down, we can have our messages translated in seconds so that those we don’t share cultureculture is not genetically inherited, it is shared, learned, and dynamic- never static and language with are able to receive and understand our messages. The color-coded visual here shows methods of communication online.
Even in non-face-to-face communication, dimensions of variability of collectivism and individualism may still preside. In Dr. Gudykunst’s book, he has a self-construal questionnaire for students to take to decide if they are more collectivistic or individualistic individuals. Gudykunst points out, “The focus of self-construal is important because how we conceive of ourselves is one of the major determinants of our behavior.” The questionnaire asks students to rate how important values such as being helpful, being obedient, being polite, being independent, having harmony with others, being ambitious, experiencing pleasure, and so on, are to them. They score themselves by numbers which when added together give them an idea of their tendencies towards either individualism or collectivism.
The main differences in the two behavior styles is whether the culture focuses more on the “we” or the “I.” Some of the characteristics of collectivistic cultures are: emphasis on group goals, group activities dominate, responsibilities are shared, harmony and cooperation are emphasized, group members are looked after in addition to familya family is group of people consisting of parents and children living together in a household; family members can also live away from parents or in a different household members, accountability is collective rather than individual – if a company fails, then all the individuals within the company have failed too. One person is not to blame. “Collectivistic cultures emphasize goals, needs, and views of the in-group over those of the individual; the social norms(cultural) norms are the shared expectations and rules that guide how people behave in a society or group, either formally or informally More of the in-group, rather than individual pleasure; shared in-group beliefs, rather than unique individual beliefs; and a value on cooperation with in-group members, rather than maximizing individual outcomes.” (Gudykunst 2004)
Characteristics of individualistic cultures, such as the U. S. are emphasis on individual goals and personal self-esteem. Individuals are valued as being unique in potential and talents, and the individual is more important than the individual’s group memberships. Members of groups are not as important as the individual and the individual’s family members; there is great value in freedom and equality, and accountability is most often individual. When a company fails the CEO (an individual) is usually to blame. “The emphasis in individualistic societies is on individuals’ initiatives and achievement, …People in individualistic cultures tend to be universalistic and apply the same value standards to all.” (Gundykunst 2004)
The traits mentioned are a few out of many, which may exist within collectivistic and individualistic cultures. These are not molds that we automatically fit into within the cultures where we live. All people most likely exhibit collectivistic and individualistic behaviors at various times.
Age and gendergender is culturally constructed; the word may have various meanings in various cultures; generally it is the state of being male or female (biologically), but is more often used with reference to social and cultural differences, which may or may not be biological gender is used in various languages such as Spanish, where nouns are preceded with an article such as la (feminine) or lo (masculine) - many languages have "gendered" speech, including Latin, Greek, Russian, and German, but grammatical gender is very loosely associated with natural distinctions of sex differences may also contribute to how such traits are acted out. It is very important that we be aware of these traits as we communicate in the virtual spaces of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, etc., and not to forget the many blogging communities that we visit.
Our cultural identities will often be identifiable by collectivistic or individualistic traits, even within the great cyber abyss.