Cultures role in the formation
and maintenance of
relationships
S
Reviewing
 A shared, learned, symbolic system of
values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes
and influences perception and behavior
Understanding culture’s role in
relationships
 With this definition, one can hypothesize
that culture plays a significant role why
we develop relationships and how they
are maintained.
Understanding culture’s role in
relationships
 Friendship is a relationship that has existed across
historical times in all types of societies.
 Across the world, friendships are seen in different
ways.
 In many Western cultures for example, friendships
are seen mainly as “voluntary and spontaneous, in
contrast to family or work relationships” (Martin &
Nakayama, 2010, p. 393).
How many close friends do
you have?
What played a role in this
number?
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Understanding culture’s role in
relationships
Cultural Differences in Notions of
Friendship:
 Friendships are seen in very different ways
around the world.
 Cultural differences in notions about
friendships are related to ideas about
identity and values.
Understanding culture’s role in
relationships
Individualists tend to view friendship as
more voluntary, individual-oriented, and
spontaneous than collectivists.
In some collectivist cultures such as China,
friendships are long-term and involve
obligations such as connection and mutual
economic support.
How can this influence the
formation of relationships
between individualist and
collectivists?
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Understanding culture’s role in
forming relationships
 Reviews of the literature on cultural variations
in close friendship often assert that people in
individualist cultures tend to cultivate a larger
number of friends and these friendships are
characterized as being less intimate, less
interdependent and less durable than those of
people in collectivist cultures, who are thought to
have a smaller number of more intimate and
lasting friendships.
Understanding culture’s role in
forming relationships
Individualist cultures tend to:
Believe in quantity over quality. A larger number of
friends and more “superficial” friendships.
Collectivist cultures tend to:
Believe in quality over quantity. A smaller number
of friends and more “meaningful” friendships.
Would we see diverse
friendships more so in
or
cultures? Why?
S
Cultural influences
 Ruut Veenhoven-social psychologists-argues that
individualism is measured by three key aspects: moral
appreciation for individualism, the opportunity to
choose, and the capability to choose. This can play a
role in who we choose as friends.
Cultural influences
 Ruut Veenhoven’s survey of 43 countries suggests that
individualists seek relationships that are diversified.
 Individualist cultures are generally seen as more open to
intercultural relationships than those of collectivist
cultures.
How we interact in individualist
cultures
 Ruut Veenhoven’s research also argues that
individualists cultures are more likely than collectivist
cultures to have higher rates of homicide, suicide,
delinquency, divorce, and domestic violence.
What role does your parents
play in your
friendships/intimate
relationships?
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Arranged Marriage: Trapped
Between Two Cultures
by JAMIE TARABAY
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95683604
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Arranged relationships
(specifically marriages)
In many cultures (mainly India, Africa, and the
Middle East), marriages are arranged. Even among
the educated middle classes in modern, urban
India, marriage is as much a concern of the
families as it is of the individuals.
Although foreign to most of the western world,
arranged marriage statistics show that this type of
union is often more successful than those we
typically see (we will revisit this later).
Arranged relationships
(specifically marriages)
In such cultures, arranged marriage is viewed as the
norm and accepted by young adults.
In several cultures, the last duty of a parent to his
or her son or daughter is to see that he or she passes
through the marital rites.
How can influence the formation of relationships in these
cultures?
Arranged relationships
(specifically marriages)
In such cultures, arranged marriage is viewed as the
norm and accepted by young adults.
In several cultures, the last duty of a parent to his
or her son or daughter is to see that he or she passes
through the marital rites.
How can this influence the formation of relationships in
these cultures?
To what extent should your family
play a role in your romantic
relationships?
What should be the foundation of
intimate relationships?
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Cultural differences
 Cultures vary in their emphasis on love-
especially passionate love-as a prerequisite for
marriage.
 Although romantic love appears to be an etic
concept, passionate love as the basis for marriage
is a contemporary invention of Western
Culture.
Cultural differences
 Levine (1995) suggests that there was a positive
correlation (+0.56) between a society’s
individualism and the perceived necessity of love for
marriage
 In other words, there was a fairly strong tendency
for members of individualistic societies to regard
love as more important for marriage, than did
collectivist culture.
Cultural differences
 As Hatfield and Rapson (1993) note, “Marriage for
love represents an ultimate expression of
individualism.
 Although this practice is declining as a result of
contemporary Westernization, collectivist societies
still think in terms of “What will my parents and
others say?” rather than “What does my heart say”.
Research support
 Research has shown that individualism and collectivism
are closely related to divorce rates.
 A study was conducted on 26 nations by Lester (1996),
which investigated on the relationship between societal
divorce rates and individualism and collectivism.

Research support
 Using the individualism scores, which were
reported by Hofstede (1980), Lester discovered
that the more individualistic a country,
the higher the divorce rate.
 The result had a correlation r value of 0.40 even
after controlling for GNP per capita of different
countries.
What factors in an individualist
culture could lead to higher divorce
rates?
S
Interdependence vs.
Independence
 Individualist tend to be are more self-centred
and emphasize mostly on their individual
goals. How is this evident in certain Western
intimate relationships?
 People from individualistic cultures tend to
put the need of oneself over the need of the
group. Is this evident in Western relationships?
Interdependence vs.
Independence
 Collectivistic cultures have a great
emphasize on groups and think more in
terms of “we”. Can this be beneficial in
relationships?
 Harmony and loyalty within a relationship
is very important and is maintained.
 Confrontation is usually avoided.
Interdependence vs.
Independence
 An essential attribute of collectivist cultures is
that individuals may be induced to subordinate
their personal goals to the goals of some
collective (which in this context, would be the
romantic relationship)
 This is usually a stable in-group (e.g., family,
band, tribe), and much of the behavior of
individuals may concern goals that are consistent
with the goals of this in-group.
Interdependence vs.
Independence
S In collectivist cultures the relationship of the
individual to the in-group (which in this context is the
romantic relationships) tends to be stable, and even
when the in-group makes highly costly demands (such
as the difficulties of marriage) the individual stays
with it.
 On the other hand, in individualist cultures people
often drop those in-groups that are inconveniently
demanding and form new in-groups .
Questions?
S