Culture and the Individual

1. Culture and the Individual Social Structure and Personality

2. Anthony F.C. Wallace Societies deal with individual differences in personality in two general ways: 1. They enculturate and socialize children, shaping them to suit cultural expectations 2. They provide alternative roles that accommodate different personalities

3. Enculturation Vs. Social Stratification The Enculturation, Socialization and Personality PowerPoint focuses on enculturation and socialization of individuals to try to shape them to cultural ideals. The Social Stratification and Personality PowerPoint will deal with how society shapes personality and the kinds of roles it provides for individuals with different personalities.

4. Barry, Bacon and Child 1959 Subsistence Strategy of Society High food accumulating: agriculture Medium food accumulating: horticulture Low food accumulating: foraging and pastoralism Personality styles Compliance = responsibility, obedience, nurturance Assertion = achievement, self reliance, independence High food accumulating associated with compliance Low food accumulating associated with assertion

5. Subsistence and Personality: Pastoralist Males Cooperative with others in the group Aggressive towards outsiders Make important economic decisions quickly Act on decisions independently  Profound emotional attachment to their animals. Initiative Realistic in his appraisal of the world Risk taking  Confident Willing to take advantage of others for personal gain

6. Social Institutions as Personality Shapers Social Institutions include Status (Class or Caste) is one’s hierarchical position with regard to others in the society Roles are the sets of behaviors and expectations assigned to a particular function filled by an actor in a given social situation

7. Marxist Theory Members of the industrial proletariat will be characterized by: • Shared material interests as exploited wage laborers • Crowded working conditions, making communication and organization possible • Lack of private property • Nothing material to lose by rebelling And will tend to have the following personality characteristics: • A revolutionary spirit • The habit of organized action • A psychology of comradeship with co-workers • A productive and constructive conception of how things work While the bourgeoisie will have the following personality characteristics: • Individualism • Rationalism • Entrepreneurial creativity

8. Peasant Personality • Members of the peasant class will be characterized by the following • Access to land • Competition with other peasants • A subordinate position in the larger society • The belief in the “Image of Limited Good”: (Foster) says that amounts of land, wealth and all other desirable things in life exist in absolute quantities insufficient to fill even the minimal needs of peers, and there is no way to increase the quantities so that there is enough to go around. • Personality traits will include • Envy • Suspicion • Anxiety that others will get ahead at one’s own expense • personality characteristics that are shaped by the “Image of Limited Good”

9. The Bureaucratic Personality • Robert Merton: The requirements of the job will both • 1. Attract individuals who have appropriate personality characteristics, and • Shape the personality characteristics of those who do the job over long periods of time • Bureaucratic positions are characterized by: • 1. Fixed areas of jurisdiction • Graded levels of authority • Specialized managerial skills • General procedural rules • Depersonalized activities • The Bureaucratic personality will be • Timid • Rigid • Authoritarian • Overconforming • Insecure

10. The Business Executive • Bronfenbrenner suggests that families in different status positions will socialize their children very differently • The Business Executive will tend to have the following personality characteristics • Strong desire for achievement • Strong desire for upward mobility • Positive attitude and attraction to authority figures • Decisiveness in decision making • Strong self identity • An active, realistic approach to problem solving • Strong feelings of frustration when blocked • Entrepreneurial families train boys to “get ahead” • Bureaucratic families train boys to “get along” • THESE KINDS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURAL PATTERNS CUT ACROSS CULTURAL AND NATIONAL BOUNDARIES

11. Primary Role Identification PRI Most members of a society will develop a primary role identification Rohrer and Edmonson 1960 New Orleans “Negro” 1. for males, identification with middle class values 2. for females, identification with the maternal role in a matriarchial family 3. for males, identification with “age graded peer groups – gangs” 4. for both, identification with being a family member

12. Puerto Rican PRIs in New York Four role identification possibilities, two for each sex: • For males, a family protector/defender who is street smart and respected on the street • For males, a worker who will not get good jobs or stable employment, but who can be trusted to bring home a paycheck to his mother’s household as often as possible • For females, a unwed welfare mother whose children will bring in income to the mother’s household of which she and her child/ren are a part • For females, an upwardly mobile individual who gets some level of education and a job that allows her to meet and marry above her socioeconomic status

13. Cultural Hegemony Cultural Hegemony occurs when the ruling class imposes its ideas on the rest of society. In a psychological sense this occurs when minority groups internalize negative stereotypes about themselves and turn them into reality. ONCE WERE WARRIORS