Culture Flashcards
What is culture?
Abilities, notions and forms of behaviour persons have acquired as members of society (Hylland)
Culture refers both to basic similarities and to systematic differences between humans
- we are all similar because we all have culture, but we are all different because of our culture
What influence does culture have ?
We take our culture with us wherever we go
Culture is the background, which we do not question
Culture is a filter through which we interpret our daily life and a way of orientation
What is a Describtive culture perspective?
It is possible to pinpoint features, which are common to all member of the concerned culture
Culture changes only very slowly
Culture is used as an explanation on, why members of the culture act as they do
What is a Complex culture perspective?
Not all individual in a culture do the same things
Culture is not something you have, culture is something you do – something which is created among humans
Culture is always changing
Cultures influence can never be predicted.
What is ethnocentrism?
The other cultures are evaluated on the basis of one’s own beliefs relating to customs, behavior, language and religion.
Describe methods to investigate culture
Be in the culture “see it from the inside”
Systematic observation
- We construct our observational research in such a way that if someone else did it, under the same or similar circumstances, they would come up with the same result.
Intern person as ”translater”
Teoretic knowledge used in analyse
Hypotheses before observation
Report
Describe culture in interprofessional coorporation
Different cultures within each profession
- unique professional culture
Prejudice toward other professions and their culture
Stereotyping and preasumptions
What is cultural relativism?
The understanding that all cultures and societies are different and have their own logic, and therefore it is scientifically absurd to rank them on a scale
What is culture intelligence ?
To be able to negotiate appropriate in situation where culture differences are significant
To make oneself understandable and etablish a constructive cooperation across culture differences.
Name 3 dimensions in cultural intelligence?
Interculture engagement
- Motivation for making results together with someone different from oneself
Culture understanding
- Knowledge and thoughts
- Experiences from other culture meeting can be general knowledge
Interculture communication
- The skill dimension
- Verbal and non-verbal
- Be aware of automatic culture references
Explain the cultural iceberg:
Some cultural elements are often obvious but possibly less influential than the nonvisible elements
Visible aspects of culture
- food, dress, literature, music game etc.
Non-visible aspects of cuture
- Beliefs, values, ethics, traditions, communication style, handling emotions etc.
How does culture influence the perception of illness?
Ilness and health are created by our culture
Different ways of explaining disease depends on culture
The reason of an illness can be found in the
- individual
- nature
- social world/ cultural world
- Supernatural world
What is the definition of culture according to Hylland?
The knowledge, values and patterns of behavior people acquire as members of a society.
How does network/culture impact on health and disease?
A small/ limited network —> Increased vulnerability —> Which produces greater risk for disease
A strong network is important for good health
Mention 4 important ICC (inter cultural collaboration) concepts
Cultural awareness
- understanding of the differences between you and people from other countries or other backgrounds
- Especially differences in attitudes and values.
Cultural knowledge
- Health beliefs and behaviors
- Anthropological, sociopolitical and biological understanding
- Similarities and differences
- Health inequalities
Cultural sensitivity
- The ability to be aware of relevant cultural differences
Cultural competence
- The ability to think and act in interculturally appropriate ways
What is Intercultural competence
The ability to think and act in interculturally appropriate ways
What is intercultural sensitivity?
The ability to be aware of relevant cultural differences
Explain the 6 stages in development of intercultural sensitivity (The Bennett scale)
Denial, Defense, Minimization, Acceptance, Adaption, Integration
Denial
- Being comfortable with the familiar
- Not anxious to complicate life with “cultural differences”
- Not noticing much cultural difference around you.
- Maintaining separation from others who are different.
Defense
- A strong commitment to one’s own thoughts and feelings about culture and cultural difference.
- Some distrust of cultural behavior or ideas that differ from one’s own.
- Aware of other cultures around you, but with a relatively incomplete understanding of them and probably fairly strong negative feelings or stereotypes about some of them.
- Reversal is the opposite of Defense.
- The person feels that some other culture is better and tends to exhibit distrust of their own culture.
Minimization
- People from other cultures are pretty much like you, under the surface.
- Awareness that other cultures exist all around you, with some knowledge about differences in customs and celebrations.
- Not putting down other cultures.
- Treating other people as you would like to be treated.
Acceptance.
- Aware of your own culture(s)
- See your own culture as just one of many ways of experiencing the world.
- Understanding that people from other cultures are as complex as yourself.
- Their ideas, feelings, and behavior may seem unusual, but you realize that their experience is just as rich as your own.
- Being curious about other cultures.
- Seeking opportunities to learn more about them.
Adaptation
- Recognizing the value of having more than one cultural perspective available to you.
- Able to “take the perspective” of another culture to understand or evaluate situations in either your own or another culture.
- Able to intentionally change your culturally based behavior to act in culturally appropriate ways outside your own culture.
Integration.
- To varying extents, have integrated more than one cultural perspective, mindset, and behavior into one’s identity and worldview.
- Able to move easily among cultures.
What are the 6 Stumbling Blocks in ICC? (Barna)
- Assuming similarity
- Language differences
- Nonverbal misinterpretations
Signs and symbols such as gestures, postures etc. - Preconceptions and stereotypes
Stereotypes reduce the threat of the unknown
Making the world predictable
Can be true or false, positive or negative - Etnocentrism
Approve or disapprove
Tendency to evaluate according to one’s own perspective - High anxiety (tension)
Culture chock or culture fatique
Explain the 5 elements of Intercultural competence (Byram)
Attitudes
- curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and belief about one’s own.
Knowledge
- of social groups and their products and practices in one’s own and in one’s interlocutor’s country, and of the general processes of societal and individual interaction.
Skills of interpreting and relating:
- ability to interpret a document or event from another culture, to explain it and relate it to documents from one’s own.
Skills of discovery and interaction:
- ability to acquire new knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to operate knowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-time communication and interaction.
Critical cultural awareness/political education:
- an ability to evaluate critically and on the basis of explicit criteria perspectives, practices and products in one’s own and other cultures and countries.
