Cultural Beliefs: Chapter 4
Samuel R. Mathews, Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychology
University of West Florida
Culture:
• customary beliefs, social forms, and material
traits of :
– racial,
– religious, or
– other social group;
• characteristics features of everyday existence;
• set of shared values, goals, and practices that
characterizes an institution, group, or
organization
Culture and Adolescence
• Developmental periods/stages are constructed
within a culturally specific context
• Defines rules, responsibilities, benefits, and
structures appropriate to the period of time
we call adolescence
• Adolescence, for many cultures reflects a
coming of age
• Provides specific rituals or rites of passage and
specific practices in preparation for adult
responsibilities and privileges
Cultural Beliefs
• Norms, values, standards, and expectations a culture
has generated for its participants
• In general, adolescents are unique in that their own
values are moving toward those of adults in the
culture
• Intergenerational transmission of beliefs about roles
form coherence of society
• Changes in beliefs due to historical and individual
events form basis for cultural evolution (e.g.
Bandura)
Socialization: Bringing Individuals into the
Culture
• Self regulation—managing one’s behavior in a
culturally appropriate way
• Role preparation—learning the prerequisites for
assuming one or more roles as defined by cultural
beliefs
• Sources of meaning—understanding the essence of
human existence (mortality, evil/good, etc)
Socialization: Bringing Individuals into the
Culture
• Socialization is grounded in: religious, political,
historical, familial, and individual dispositional
factors
• Socialization is related to: age, sex/gender,
social class, race, etc
• Learning one’s appropriate place in one’s
culture is based on intentional and incidental
learning.
Cultural Values—Individualism/Collectivism
• Independent self—broad socialization:
– Focus is on being schooled to a broad set of norms within which one
can choose;
– focus is on individual choice and autonomous behavior;
– individual success is valued over the collective’s or group’s
success/values;
• Interdependent self—narrow socialization:
– Focus is on being schooled to conform to a single or narrow set of
norms
– Individual variability is reduced and the collective’s or group’s values
are enhanced
– Group or collective success is valued over individual success
Cultural Values—Individualism/Collectivism
• Individualism more linked to economic success
• Collectivist ideals linked to other forms of wellbeing
• There are trade offs for each pole in the continuum between
individualism and collectivism
• Within either culture there is a high degree of variability
Cultural Values and Cultural Practices
• Cultural Complexes (Practices)—the
intersection between the values and practices
of a culture
• Key practices related to values
– Dating, courtship, marriage (USA/Palau)
– Gendered practices in employment
– Racial/ethnic practices in employment
Multicultural Societies and Communities
• Typical drift: minority cultures move toward majority
culture’ values and practices
• Models of multicultural coexistence:
– Assimilation: minority culture relinquishes its identity as it
is absorbed into the dominant culture
– Accommodation: minority culture adopts dominant
culture’s practices in interaction with dominant culture but
retains its own identity when operating independently of
the dominant culture
– Pluralism: each culture maintains its own practices and
identities with cooperative and interdependent
interactions in settings such as workplaces and schools.
Culture, Religion, and Adolescence
• Religion and religious practices provide:
– Guidelines for socialization through:
• Self regulation
• Role preparation
• Sources of meaning
– Structures for families’ activities
• Participation in religious activities
• Participation in rites of passage
Culture, Religion, and Adolescence
• Religion and religious practices provide:
– Protective factors for adolescents who have
families with structure and common values to
guide activities
– Confounding factors:
•
•
•
•
Family organization and predictability
Joint activities with family
Common values and practices
Positive peer affiliations
Culture, Religion, and Adolescence
• Cognitive Development and Religious Themes
– The prediction is that as formal operations emerge, beliefs
and values move from concrete ways of acting to more
abstract concepts to impact source of meaning
– Abstract and hypothetical thought can also pave the way
for:
• Questioning core beliefs
• Identifying hypocritical actions by those in authority
• Exploring alternative belief systems
Culture, Moral Development, and
Adolescence
• Focus in theories of development of moral
reasoning is on the processes and criteria used
to make decisions
• Kohlberg: Based on justice and principled
behavior
–
–
–
–
Preconventional Reasoning
Conventional Reasoning
Postconventional Reasoning
Critiques tend to be focused on masculine bias and justice
focus instead of focusing on relationships
Culture, Moral Development, and
Adolescence
• Gilligan: Based on an ethic of care and
relationships
– Self care
– other care
– Self-other care from need
– Critiques tend to be based on a similar gender bias
• Subsequent studies suggest that males and
females vary in their use of justice and care
orientations and gender rather than sex seems
relevant.
Culture, Moral Development, and
Adolescence
• Shweder—cultural perspective
– Higher level moral reasoning can occur within the
context of a particular cultural norm;
– Everyday experiences are more indicative than
hypothetical cases for assessing moral
development
– Concepts of “right” and “wrong” are rooted with a
cultural milieu
– Situational ethics are based on a particular religious or
traditional focus
Culture, Moral Development, and
Adolescence
• Worldview perspectives (Jensen)
– Worldviews are lens through which we view the
world and make judgments
– Jensen’s Codes
• Ethic of autonomy
• Ethic of community
• Ethic of divinity
• WorldviewMoral ReasoningMoral
EvaluationMoral BehaviorModify
Worldview
Culture and Political Thinking in
Adolescence
• Key factors in development across
adolescence (Adelson’s work):
– Cognitive development (immutable laws to a
social constructivist view)
– Movement away from authoritarian preference
(consideration of interaction of individual with
collective rights)
– Ideological perspectives increase (focus on higher
abstract principles)
Culture and Political Thinking in
Adolescence
• Political beliefs and political/civic activism
– Adolescent disenchantment with status quo;
• seeming unequal treatment
• being held responsible for acting like an adult without
adult privileges
– Time of questioning (including religious, political,
cultural tenets)
Culture and Political Thinking in
Adolescence
• Outcomes of political engagement:
– Apathy/disengagement
– Community Service
– Civil disobedience
– Civil unrest
– Violent rebellion
• Whether or not action is taken, it is typically a time
for questioning (including religious, political, cultural
tenets)
Discussion Questions for Culture
1. Think about your position on allowing
homosexual marriages the same rights and
status as heterosexual marriages.
2. What sources from culture informed your
position?
3. What sources from culture might have
informed those who hold the opposite view?
4. What are differences and similarities in the
sources of the two views and how might they
be resolved?