Cultural Learning, Essay Example

This section explains how culture influences our sense of self or the world around us. There are many factors that influence cultural understandings, including food, clothing, religion, art, location, and more. The first part of this video aims to help the viewer understand what culture is and how this relates to cultural psychology. Our behaviors are directed by the way we view the world. We are taught how to behave by our parents, which is a reflection of both their culture and the one that we are given. In order to truly understand cultural psychology, it is therefore important to understand the many vast cultures that exist so we can determine the rationale for behavior and action. Furthermore, doing so will allow us to understand diverse people more so that we can respond to their behaviors positively even if these actions appear foreign or conflict with our own cultural ideals.

In this section, people are asked to describe themselves using descriptive words. A sense of self can be discovered using information that they provide therapists or researchers while describing themselves. Individuals tend to report four friendly or positive characteristics for every one negative characteristics they offer. People of different cultures tend to describe themselves differently during these interviews. Since different cultures emphasize different cultural values, the aspects of personality that individuals hold most important to them will be different as well. The video compares students from the United States and Japan, and shows that these individuals have intrinsically different ways of describing themselves that are indicative of the cultures from which they derive.

This section of the video focuses on the need for some cultures to adapt to other cultures. The specific example provided focuses on Native American populations and their need to strive to ensure continued existence in a changing country. These individuals place an important emphasis on the rituals and celebrations of their ancestors in an attempt to keep their culture alive. This shows that it is important for us to respect the cultures of others. Doing so will allow us to learn more about their traditions, which will help us evolve as a society by promoting an enhanced understanding.

Terms that are relevant to these videos include the concept of culture, ethnocentrism, and society. As defined in the video and the textbook, culture in the culmination of language, location, religion, traditions, and other experiences specific to a group of people that direct their life. This is related to the concept of ethnocentrism because people often believe that their culture is the best. However, it is ideal to avoid this view and attempt to understand culture from the context of the individuals that engage in their relevant practices. Society is an interesting concept tied into the ideas of culture and ethnocentrism because society is a culmination of many different cultures in a lot of cases. Society shows how people of different cultures interact with one another on a daily basis in their work and personal life. Since we don’t live in a bubble, we are required to interact with diverse people so it is important to make this a positive experience. By allowing ourselves to respect the cultures of others, we will find that the values of society will increase significantly as well.