PERSONAL CONTROL OVER THE ENVIRONMENT

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 523.

US VALUES FOREIGN COUNTERPART VALUES

Personal Control over the Environment 1 Fate

Change 2 Tradition

Time & Its Control 3 Human Interaction

Equality 4 Hierarchy/Rank/Status

Individualism/Privacy 5 Group's Welfare

Self-Help 6 Birthright Inheritance

Competition 7 Cooperation

Future Orientation 8 Past Orientation

Action/Work Orientation 9 “Being” Orientation

Informality 10 Formality

Directness/Openness/Honesty 11 Indirectness/Ritual/“Face”

Practicality/Efficiency 12 Idealism

Materialism/Acquisitiveness 13 Spiritualism/Detachment

Source: © Cengage Learning 2013

The earliest European settlers arrived in America confident they could tame this wild new land and imbue it with political and religious institutions of their own choosing. No doubt many felt they were simply following God's directive in Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” The idea of exercising domain over nature and bending the environment to one's own will underwrote the physical and political resolve required to move the American frontier westward. In the United States today, the value of mastering nature can be seen in the construction of highways that crisscross the nation, dams that hold back the waters of large rivers, tunnels that go through mountains, bridges that cross wide bays, and spaceships that take men and women into outer space. The ability to control nature is considered normal and even right. This results in bold approaches to overcome all obstacles and the belief that an individual should have control over their personal environment and the ability to achieve any goal.