The Role of Culture
Culture:
- Value
- Behaviors
- Culture
- Beliefs
- Attitude
- Customs
Characteristics of Culture
Ø Learned behavior
Ø Interrelated elements
Ø Adaptive
Ø Shared
Elements of Culture
- Language
- Social structure
- Communication
- Value/ attitude
- Religion
Social Structure
• Individuals, families, and groups
• Social stratification – categorization based on birth, occupation, educational achievements
• Social mobility – ability to move from one stratum of society to another
Language
• 3000+ different languages worldwide
• 10,000+ different dialects
• Primary delineator of cultural groups
• Lingua Franca
Forms of Nonverbal Communication_1
• Hand gestures
• Facial expression
• Posture and stance
• Clothing/ hair style
• Walking behavior
• Interpersonal distance
• Touching
• Eye contact
• Architecture/ Interior design
• Artifacts and non-verbal symbols
• Graphic symbols
Forms of Nonverbal Communication_2
• Art and rhetorical forms
• Smell
• Speech rate, pitch, inflection, volume
• Color symbolism
• Synchronization of speech and movement
• Taste, symbolism of food, oral gratification
• Cosmetics
• Sound signals
• Time symbolism
• Timing and pauses
• Silence
Religion
• Christianity
– Catholicism
– Protestant
– Eastern Orthodox
• Islam
• Hinduism
• Buddhism
Values and Attitudes
• Values: accepted principles and standards
• Attitudes: actions, feelings, and thoughts that result from values
Theories of Culture
• Hall’s Low-Context, High-Context Approach
• Cultural Cluster Approach
• Hofstede’s Five Dimensions
Understanding New Cultures
• Self-reference criterion
• Cultural literacy
• Acculturation