Orientation Postulated Range of Variations

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 618.

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's Value Orientations

Activity Being Being-in-becoming Doing

Relationships Linearity Collaterality Individualism

Human nature Evil Mixture of good and evil Good

People-nature Subjugation to nature Harmony with nature Mastery over nature

Time Past Present Future

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's third conclusion is their answer to an apparent contradiction that scholars found when studying cultures. They argued that, within any culture, a preferred set of solutions will be chosen by most people. However, not all people from a culture will make exactly the same set of choices, and, in fact, some people from each culture will select other alternatives. For example, most people who are part of European American culture have a “doing" orientation, a veneration for the future, a belief in control over nature, a preference for individualism, and a belief that people are basically good and changeable. But clearly not everyone identified with the European American culture shares all of these beliefs.

The fourth conclusion by Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck explains how cultural patterns develop and are sustained. A problem that is regularly solved in a similar way creates an underlying premise or expectation about the preferred or appropriate way to accomplish a specific goal. Such preferences, chosen unconsciously, implicitly define the shared meanings of the culture. Over time, certain behaviors to solve particular problems become preferred, others permitted, and still others prohibited.

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's ideas have been very influential among intercultural communication scholars, and they form the foundation for our understanding of cultural patterns. In the following section, we extend their work to explain, in a general way, the variations in beliefs, values, norms, and social practices that are typically associated with cultural patterns.

How do you understand Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's Value Orientations Theory? What are the five problems that each culture must address?