Cultural Patterns and Communication: Foundations

1. Cultural Patterns and Communication: Foundations

2. Defining Cultural Patterns • Cultural patterns are defined as shared beliefs, values, norms, and social practices that are stable over time and that lead to roughly similar behaviors across similar situations. • Cultural patterns provide a basic set of standards that guide thought and action. • Cultural patterns are not so much consciously taught as unconsciously experienced; they are taught at a young age and are reinforced continuously.

3. Components of Cultural Patterns • Beliefs • Values • Norms • Social Practices

4. Components of Cultural Patterns • A belief is an idea that people assume to be true about the world (e.g. we “know” the world is round– but European’s “knew” the world was flat… therefore, Asia is East, Europe is West). • Beliefs are a set of learned interpretations that cultural members use to decide what is and is not logical and correct. • Beliefs range from ideas that are central to a person’s sense of self to ideas that are more peripheral (personal taste). • Culturally shared beliefs are so fundamental to assumptions about what the world is like and how the world operates that they are typically unnoticed.

5. Components of Cultural Patterns • Values are concerned with what a culture regards as good or bad, right or wrong, fair or unfair, beautiful or ugly, valuable or worthless, appropriate or inappropriate, and kind or cruel. • Values are the desired characteristics or goals of a culture (not necessarily its actual behaviors) • Values are often offered as the explanation for the way in which people communicate. • Values serve as guiding principles in people’s lives. • Values differ on the dimensions of valence(whether the value is seen as positive or negative) and intensity.

6. Components of Cultural Patterns • Norms are the socially shared expectations of appropriate behaviors. • Norms can change over time, whereas beliefs and values are more enduring. • Norms exist for a wide variety of behaviors and include typical social routines (i.e. greetings, how to engage conversation, what to talk about, how to disengage, etc.) • Norms are the surface characteristics that emerge from a culture’s beliefs and values. • Norms are linked to beliefs and values to form the patterns of a culture. • Because norms are evident through behaviors, norms can be readily inferred.

7. Components of Cultural Patterns • Social Practices are the predictable behavior patterns that members of a culture typically follow. • Social practices are the outward manifestations of beliefs, values, and norms. • Social practices can be informal (eating- what time is dinner?- sleeping, dressing, playing, etc.) or formal and prescriptive (rituals, ceremonies, publically and collectively performed routines). • All members of a culture do not necessarily follow that culture’s “typical” social practices; each person differs, in unique and significant ways, from the general cultural tendency to think and behave in particular ways.

8. Characteristics of Cultural Patterns • Four functions of cultural patterns that apply to all cultures. • People in all cultures face 5 common human problems for which they must find solutions. • The range of alternative solutions to a culture’s problems is limited. • Within a given culture, there will be preferred solutions, which most people within the culture will select, but there will also be people who will choose other solutions. • Over time, the preferred solutions shape the culture’s basic assumptions about beliefs, values, norms, and social practices – the cultural patterns.

9. Characteristics of Cultural Patterns 5 Common Human Problems • a. What is the human orientation to activity? • b. What is the relationship of humans to each other? • c. What is the nature of human beings? • d. What is the relationship of humans to the natural world? • e. What is the orientation of humans to time?

10. Characteristics of Cultural Patterns Alternative solutions to a culture’s problems • “What is the human orientation to activity?” • Being refers to a passive acceptance of the world. • Becoming refers to a preference for gradual transformation of the human condition. • Doing refers to direct intervention.

11. Characteristics of Cultural Patterns Alternative solutions to a culture’s problems • “What is the relationship of humans to each other?” • Some cultural groups organize human relations according to a hierarchical structure (linearity). • Other cultural groups organize human relations according to group identification (collectivism). • Yet other cultural groups organize human relations according to individual autonomy (individualism).

12. Characteristics of Cultural Patterns Alternative Solutions to a Culture’s Problems • “What is the nature of human beings?” • Humans are evil. • Humans are a mixture of good and evil. • Humans are good.

13. Characteristics of Cultural Patterns Alternative Solutions to a Culture’s Problems • “What is the relationship of humans to nature?” • People are subjugated and controlled by nature. • People live in harmony with nature. • People master and control nature.

14. Characteristics of Cultural Patterns Alternative Solutions to a Culture’s Problems • What is the orientation of humans to time? • Some cultures view the future as most important and regard time as a scarce and valuable commodity. • Other cultures view the present as most important. • Others view the past as most important.

15. An overview of cultural patterns • An activity orientation defines how the people of a culture view human actions and the expression of self through activities. • The social relations orientation describes how the people in a culture organize themselves and relate to one another. • 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.

16. Activity Orientation • Activity Orientation provides answers to questions such as: • Is it important to be engaged in activities in order to be a “good” member of one’s culture? • Can and should people change the circumstances of their lives? • Is work very different from play? • Which is more important, work or play? • Is life a series of problems to be solved or simply a collection of events to be experienced?

17. Activity Orientation • To define activity orientation, consider the being-becoming-doing continuum: • “Being”is an orientation that values inaction and acceptance of the status quo (ex. Greek cultures). • Can include belief that all events are determined by fate and therefore inevitable (ex. Hindus from India). • “Becoming”orientation sees humans as evolving and changing, and think of ways to change themselves and the world (ex. Native Americans and South Americans). • “Doing”orientations rarely question the assumption that it is important to get things done (ex. European Americans). • First question when you meet someone is, “What do you do?” or “What did you DO over the weekend?” Children are asked, “What do you want to DO when you grow up?”

18. Social Relations Orientation • The social relations orientation describes how the people in a culture organize themselves and relate to one another, and answers the following: • To what extent are some ppl in the culture considered better or superior to others? • Can social superiority be obtained through birth, age, good deeds, or material achievement and success? • Are formal, ritualized interaction sequences expected? • In what ways does the culture’s language require ppl to make social distinctions? • What responsibilities and obligations do ppl have to their extended families, neighbors, employers, employees, and others?

19. Social Relations Orientation • Many European Americans emphasize equality and the absence of hierarchy. • “We’re all human, aren’t we?” • From this framework, distinctions based on gender, age, role, or occupation are discouraged. • Korean cultures emphasize status differences. • Mexican American culture celebrates status differences and formalizes different ways of communicating w/ppl depending on who they are and their social characteristics happen to be.

20. Social Relations Orientation • Cultures place different degrees of importance on formality. • In cultures that emphasize formality, ppl address others by appropriate titles, and rules highly govern interactions. • In these cultures (ex. Japan, Korea, China), individuals identify with only a few distinct groups, but very strongly, and often for a lifetime– groups can include nuclear and extended families, friends, neighbors, work groups, and social organizations. • In contrast, European Americans typically belong to many groups throughout their lifetimes, and while they are important while they last, they are discarded once they’re no longer needed. (“Best friends” may only be best friends for brief periods.)

21. Social Relations Orientation • This also determines how ppl define their social roles in a culture. • In some cultures, the family and position into which a person is born determine a person’s place (India, Japan). • Other cultures believe that all ppl, regardless of family position, can achieve success and high status (African Americans and European Americans). • Cultural patterns also prescribe appropriate behaviors for men and women– in some cultures, very specific behaviors are expected; other cultures allow more ambiguity between gender roles.

22. Self-Orientation • 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.

23. Self-Orientation • Do ppl 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 motivates ppl 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?

24. Self-Orientation • Most European Americans tend to believe that the self is located solely within the individual, and the individual is definitely separate from others. • Self-oriented cultures combine with “doing” orientation to place individuals in total control of their own fate. • Individuals are motivated to achieve external success in the form of possessions, positions, and power. • Therefore, failure is viewed as a lack of willpower & work ethic. • Mexican & Vietnamese cultures place great emphasis on affiliation and relational solidarity.

25. World Orientation • A culture’s world orientation indicates to people how to locate themselves in relation to the spiritual world, nature, and other living beings: • Are human beings intrinsically good or evil? • Are humans different from other animals and plants? • Are ppl 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?

26. Time Orientation • The time orientation concerns how people conceptualize time: • How should time be 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?

27. Time Orientation • Some cultures describe the future as more important, others emphasize the present, others the past. • Japanese and Chinese celebrate the anniversary of the death of a loved one, illustrating the value of the past. • Native Americans and Latinos are present-oriented. • European Americans are future-oriented.

28. Time Orientation • Most European Americans view time as a scarce commodity akin to money– they try to “save time,”“make time,”“spend time,” and “gain time.” Events in a day are scheduled in. • Pace of life is hectic. • Latin American cultures respond to individuals and circumstances rather than following a scheduled plan for the day. Time is viewed as endless and ongoing. • Pace of life (in India, Kenya, Argentina, etc.) is less hectic, more relaxed.

29. Cultural Patterns and Intercultural Competence • There is a strong relationship between the foundations of cultural patterns and intercultural competence. • The patterns of a culture create the filter through which all verbal and nonverbal symbols are interpreted. • Judgments of competence are strongly influenced by the underlying patterns of one’s cultural background. • A cultural pattern may be the preferred choice for most cultural members, but not for every individual.

30. Cultural Patterns and Intercultural Competence • When confronting a set of beliefs, values, norms, and social practices that are inconsistent with their own, many people will negatively evaluate others’ cultural patterns. • Cultural patterns form the basis for what is considered to be communicatively appropriate and effective. • The patterns of a culture shape, but do not determine, the mental programming of its people. • Because cultural patterns define how people see and define reality, they are a powerful emotional force in competent intercultural communication.

31. Discussion Questions (I) • What are some of the obvious cultural characteristics of the culture in which you consider yourself a member? • How might individuals from being, becoming, and doing cultures engage in conflict in the workplace, in school, and in interpersonal relationships? • One person comes from a culture that believes “We’re all humans, aren’t we?” Another person comes from a culture that says, “Status is everything.” What might occur as these two individuals try to communicate with each other?

32. Discussion Questions (II) • Using the five dimensions of culture patterns, describe how you think each is displayed in your own culture. • Truth or lie, just or unjust, right or wrong, and good or bad are all common human judgments of the actions of others. How might your awareness of cultural patterns affect your understanding of each of these sets of terms? • How do Western notions of healing and disease relate to their belief in the dichotomy of the physical and natural worlds? How about in Hong Kong?