Summary
Summary ICB
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Summary of 11 pages for the course ICB at HvA
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ICBIntroduction
Culture is “the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one
group or category of people from others”
Collective > sharing similarities
Programming > learned, not innate
Distinguishable > differences between culture
Culture = two sides of a coin
- Visible tangible
- Invisible intangible
Cultural differences manifest themselves in several ways. From the many terms used to
describe manifestations of culture, the following foru together cover the total concept
rather neatly:
Symbols
Heroes
Rituals
Values
Indicating that symbols represent the most superficial and values the deepest
manifestations of culture, with heroes ad rituals in between.
Symbols are words, gestures, pictures or objects that carry a particular meaning that is
recognized as such only by those who share the culture.
Heroes are persons, alive or dead, real or imaginary, who possess characteristics that are
highly prized in a culture and thus serve as models for behaviour.
,Rituals are collective activities that are technically superfluous to reach desired ends but
that, within a culture are considered socially essential.
Symbols, heroes and rituals have been subsumed under the term practices. As such they are
visible to an outside observer; their cultural meaning, however, is invisible and lies precisely
and only in the way these practices are interpreted by the insiders.
The core of culture is formed by values. Values are broad tendencies to prefer certain states
of affair over others. Values are feelings with an added arrow indicating a plus and a minus
side.
Our values are acquired early in our lives. Compared with most other creatures, humans at
birth are very incompletely equipped for survival. Fortunately, our human physiology
provides us with a receptive period of some ten to twelve years, a span in which we can
quickly and largely unconsciously absorb necessary information from our environment. This
includes symbols (language), heroes(parents), and rituals(toilet training), and, most
important, it includes our basic values. At the end of this period, we gradually switch to a
different, conscious way of learning, focusing primarily on new practices.
Cultural differences:
Region
Ethnicity
Religion
Gender
Generation
Class
Family child-parents
School student-teacher
Workplace employee-employer
Society/state citizen-state authority
Dimensions of national cultures:
Power distance
Individualism vs collectivism
Masculinity vs femininity
Uncertainty avoidance
Long/short term orient. geen toetsstof !!
Socialization means that both girls and boys learn their place in society, and once they have
learned it, the majority of them want it that way.
, Power distance
This is the extent to which the less powerful members of the society accept and expect that
power is distributed unequally. Institutions are the basis elements of society, such as the
family, the school, and the community; organization are the places where people work.
Power distance indicator = PDI
Most people in the world are born into a family. All people stared acquiring their mental
software immediately after birth, from the elders in whose presence they grew up,
modelling themselves after the examples set by these elders.
In large power distance society, children are expected to be obedient towards their parents
and towards the older sisters or brothers. Independence is discouraged and children are
mostly looked after with intensive warmth and care. Respect for elders is seen as a basic
virtue. When the parents are gone, the oldest sibling becomes the family head. Language in
these societies (especially in Japan and Vietnam) indicates very clearly the social roles in the
way people address each other
In the small power distance society, children are more or less treated as equals as soon as
they are able to act. The goal of parental education is to let children take control of their
own affairs as soon as they can. Independence of the child is encouraged and he/she is
allowed to contradict the parents, learning to say “no” very early. Grown up children leave
their parents early to live on their own and replace the child-parent relationship with one of
equals. Parents and other elders don’t normally have strong influence on one’s important
decisions, while in societies with large power distance, people may use their power to
influence the whole situation (study/ job/ friendship/ love/marriage…)
In most societies today, children go to school for at least some years. In school the child
further develops his of hers mental programming. At school, the role pair parent-child is
replaced by the role pair teacher-student with basic values carried forward from one sphere
into another. In large power distance societies, parent-child inequality is perpetuated by
teacher-student inequality which caters to the need for dependence. Teachers are treated
with respect, (older ones with more respect), students stand up when they enter and bow or
greet when they pass by. In the classroom there is a strict order with the teacher initiating all
communication. Students speak up only when invited, teachers are almost never publicly
contradicted or criticized. Corporal punishment accentuates and symbolizes the inequality
between teachers and student, and is often considered good for the development of the
child’s character. In countries under the influence of Confucianism (China, Vietnam, Taiwan,
Japan, Korea, Singapore), the teacher is ranked below the King and above the father. In such
a system, the quality of one’s learning is dependent on the excellence of one’s teacher.
In small power distance societies, teachers treat students as basic equals and are expected
to be treated as equals by the students. Young teachers are more equal, and therefore
usually better liked than older ones. Students make uninvited interventions in class; they
argue with teachers, express disagreement and criticism and show no particular respect to
the teacher outside school. The quality of learning is to a considerable degree determined by
the excellence of the students.
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