Chapter 4 - Cultural Beliefs Flashcards
4.1. Define cultural beliefs and explain how they reflect a culture’s symbolic inheritance.
Cultural beliefs are attitudes about expected behaviours based on symbolic inheritance, which is a culture’s inherited set of perspectives on the reality of people, relationships, nature, and divinity.
4.2 Describe the process of socialization and the three main outcomes.
Socialization is the process by which young people acquire the behaviours and beliefs delivered to them by the society they live in. Three outcomes of socialization are self-regulation (the capacity to control one’s own behaviour to align with social expectations), role preparation (practice following work, gender, family roles), and sources of meaning (communication of society’s beliefs about what gives life meaning).
4.3 Define individualism and collectivism and explain how they foster independent and interdependent selves.
Individualism is a belief system that emphasizes the importance of independence and self-expression. It fosters development of the independent self by placing importance on individual achievements. Collectivism is a belief system that emphasizes the obedience and conformity for the sake of the well-being of larger groups of people. This fosters development of an interdependent self by placing importance on living up to social obligations and having harmonious relationships.
4.4 Distinguish between broad and narrow socialization and specify how they are related to individualism and collectivism.
Broad socialization refers to the process by which people are socialized to have a great deal of individual freedom and self-expression - the process by which people are socialized to have an individualistic belief system, in other words. Narrow socialization is the process by which people are taught to obey and conform, leading to a collectivist belief system.
4.5 Identify eight sources of socialization and describe the broad and narrow forms each one takes.
Sources of socialization include family, peers/friends, school, the workplace, the community, media, the legal system, and cultural beliefs.
Families showing broad socialization give children a great deal of freedom and value independence in adolescents, while narrow socialization takes the form of obedience to adults in the family and valuing family contribution.
Peers/friends in a broad socialization context are chosen by individual adolescents based on their own interests and attractions, while in a narrow socialization context peers/friends are chosen by adults, often within an ethnic group and/or social class.
Schools with broad socialization tailor the curriculum to individuals and encourage creativity, while those with narrow socialization emphasize learning the standard curriculum and confirming, such as through wearing school uniforms.
Workplaces exhibiting broad socialization will reward innovation, while those exhibiting narrow socialization reward maintaining order.
In broad socialization communities, people do not know each other very well and tolerance of wide variety of beliefs and behaviours is common, while in a narrow socialization setting people have close relationships and expect conformity.
Media in cultures with broad socialization are free to say what they like, and often focus on gratification of individual impulses, while media in narrow socialization cultures are more tightly controlled by the government and their content is meant to not disturb social order.
The legal system is a culture with broad socialization punishes few crimes, and those only lightly, while the legal system in narrow socialization cultures is applied to many more behaviours, including sexuality and political activity, and punishments tend to be harsh.
Cultural beliefs aligned with broad socialization emphasize individualism, while cultural beliefs aligned with narrow socialization emphasize collectivism.
4.6 Explain how the teaching of the Law to Aborigines represents socialization for cultural beliefs.
The Law was taught to adolescents, especially boys, through cultural belief rituals and the community. It is an example of narrow socialization in that every person must participate in the rituals, every person must conform to the community beliefs (including arranged marriage), and value is placed on collectivism.
4.7 Summarize the change in values shown in the two Middletown studies.
In the 50 years from 1928 to 1978, the importance of childrearing values such as “loyalty to church” and “strict obedience” fell, whereas the importance of independence and tolerance rose.
4.8 Define custom complex and give your own example of how it operates in adolescence.
A custom complex consists of a distinctive cultural practice and the cultural beliefs that are the basis for that practice. Many aspects of development and behavior in adolescence and emerging adulthood can be understood as custom complexes.
4.9 Describe the main variations in cultural beliefs among American immigrant groups.
Many studies have shown that the cultural beliefs of American minority cultures tend to be less individualistic and more collectivistic than the cultural beliefs of the American majority culture. African American families especially emphasize obedience and respect for elders, whereas Latinos and Asian Americans emphasize family obligations.
4.10 Specify the features of American adolescents’ religious beliefs and practices, including Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.
American adolescents are more religious than adolescents in other developed countries, in their beliefs and practices, with most stating a belief in God and at least occasional involvement in religious practices. Most embrace what researchers call “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” which includes the belief that God wants us to be good people and to feel good about ourselves, as well as a general “deistic” belief in God rather than embracing a strict doctrine of any particular denomination.
4.11 Summarize the similarities and differences between American adolescents and emerging adults in their religious beliefs and practices.
Ideas about religious faith tend to become more abstract and less concrete in adolescence, compared with preadolescence. In American studies, religiosity generally declines from adolescence through emerging adulthood. Both religious participation and religious beliefs decline throughout the teens and are lower in the late teens and early twenties than at any other period of the life span.
4.12 Describe Kohlberg’s levels and stages of moral development and the evidence supporting the theory.
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development proposed that moral development occurs in a universal sequence regardless of culture. Kohlberg developed a system for classifying their explanations into three levels of moral development (preconventional, conventional, and postconventional), with each level containing two stages. Research generally shows that people progress through Stages 1 through 4 from adolescence through young adulthood, but few people have been found to reach the highest stages.
4.13 Identify the main points of the cultural critique of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.
Although Kohlberg did not deny that culture has some influence on moral development, in his view the influence of culture is limited to how well cultures provide opportunities for individuals to reach the highest level of moral development. However, these assumptions have been called into question by scholars taking a cultural approach to moral development. The most extensive and penetrating critique has been presented by cultural psychologist Richard Shweder, who has disputed Kohlberg’s theory in research comparing Indian and American adolescents.
4.14 Describe the worldviews theory of moral development, including the three ethics and the template model.
According to Lene Jensen, the ultimate basis of morality is a person’s worldview—a set of cultural beliefs that explain what it means to be human, how human relations should be conducted, and how human problems should be addressed. Worldviews provide the basis for moral reasoning. The outcome of moral reasoning is moral evaluations, which in turn prescribe moral behaviors. Moral behaviors reinforce worldviews. The three ethics are Autonomy, Community, and Divinity. In the template model, there is a universal template for the development of the three ethics, but it is influenced by cultural context.
4.15 Describe Adelson’s view of how cognitive changes from early to late adolescence result in changes in political beliefs.
Adelson described a change in “cognitive mode” from early to late adolescence, which included more use of abstract ideas and a greater tendency to see laws and political systems as human creations rather than as absolute and unchangeable. Late adolescents were less authoritarian than early adolescents and more likely to be able to articulate a political ideology as the basis of their views.
