Defining Cultural Patterns

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 718.

Shared beliefs, values, norms, and social practices that are stable over time and that lead to roughly similar behaviors across similar situations are known as cultural patterns. These cultural patterns affect perceptions of competence. Despite their importance in the development and maintenance of cultures, they cannot be seen, heard, or experienced directly. However, the consequences of cultural patterns - shared interpretations that are evident in what people say and do- are readily observable. Cultural patterns are primarily inside people, in their minds. They provide a way of thinking about the world, of orienting oneself to it. Therefore, cultural patterns are shared mental programs that govern specific behavior choices.

Cultural patterns provide the basic set of standards that guide thought and action. Some aspects of this mental programming are, of course, unique to each individual. Even within a culture, no two people are programmed identically, and these distinctive personality differences separate the members of a culture. In comparisons across cultures, some mental programs are essentially universal. A mother's concern for her newborn infant, for example, reflects a biological program that exists across all known cultures and is part of our common human experience.

In addition to those portions of our mental programs that are unique or universally held, there are those that are widely shared only by members of a particular group or culture. These collective programs can be understood only in the context of a particular culture, and they include such areas as the preferred degree of social equality, the importance of group harmony, the degree to which emotional displays are permitted, the value ascribed to assertiveness, and the like.

Cultural patterns are not so much consciously taught as unconsciously experienced as a by-product of day-to-day activities. Most core assumptions are programmed at a very early age and are reinforced continuously.

Saudi Arabians, for example, are taught to admire courage, patience, honor, and group harmony. European Americans are trained to admire achievement, practicality, material comfort, freedom, and individuality.

Because of their importance in shaping judgments about intercultural competence, we will discuss cultural patterns in great detail through several approaches. We emphasize both what is similar about all cultural patterns and what is different among them. We begin by describing the basic components of all cultural patterns: beliefs, values, norms, and social practices. We then turn to characteristics of cultural patterns.

Define cultural patterns. What can you say about the character of cultural patterns? How are they formed?