Cultural Values

«Urals State Technical University - UPI»

Foreign language department

Thesis

«Cultural Values»

Student: Zaitseva S.V.

Group: PП-4

Supervisor: Hramushina Zh.A.

Ekaterinburg

2004

Table of contents:

Summary

Key words

Introduction

1. Definitions: beliefs, values

The value / belief puzzle

Contrastive orientations

Japanese interpersonal norms

2. Japanese and American patterns of social behavior

The national status image

A Cultural model of interaction

Seven statements about Americans 31

3. Factors influencing values

Intercultural communication: a guide to men of action

Cuisine, etiquette and cultural values

Patterns of speech

4. Contrast Russian’s stereotypes

Nine statements about Russians

Middle Eastern interview responses

5. American’s view of Russian. Russian’s view of American

American interview responses

Russian interview responses

Conclusion

Literature

Appendix

SUMMARY

A diploma work contains 80 pages, 2 tables, 1 figure, 4 books are a

source of it.

Key words: cross-cultural communication, values, beliefs, clusters,

stereotypes.

In detail it is said about concept "values", factors influencing

values, the meaning of values in intercultural communication and

understanding between different nations.

In brief it is mentioned differences between beliefs, values.

The actuality and novelty of a theme consist in the following points.

Problems of the intercultural communications and cultural values are

"young". Scientists started to consider them rather recently. In Russia

researches have begun only in the 80th years. In such a way, there is not

enough literature and materials on the given questions. Therefore any new

works and researches make the significant contribution to studying these

problems.

So in my work I tried: to research the influence of cultural values to

attitude one country to another; to explore and to compare Japanese and

American patterns of social behavior; to understand the factors influencing

values; to discover stereotypes between different countries.

In conclusion it is noted that excellent knowledge of language is only

half-affair for successful cooperation with other country. Also it is

necessary to know features of people of other country in negotiating or

their attitude to business. Also it is necessary to take into account

features of dialogue, etiquette, relations with grown-ups and many other

things.

KEY WORDS

Cross-cultural communication is the information exchange between one

person and any other source transmitting a message displaying properties of

a culture different to the one of the receiver’s culture. The source of

such a message can be either a person, in an interpersonal communication

process, or any form of mass media or other form of media.

Values. A value is something that is important to people — like honesty,

harmony, respect for elders, or thinking of your family first. They are

represents what is expected or hoped for, required or forbidden. It is not

a report of actual conduct but is the inductively based logically ordered

set of criteria of evaluations by which conduct is judged and sanctions

applied.

Beliefs are generally taken to mean a mental acceptance or conviction in

the truth or actuality of something. A belief links an object or event and

the characteristics that distinguish it from others. The degree to which we

believe that an event or object possesses certain characteristics reflects

the level of our subjective probability (belief) and, consequently, the

depth or intensity of our belief. The more certain we are in a belief, the

greater is the intensity of that belief.

Clusters are groups of inter-related industries that drive wealth

creation in a region and provides a richer more meaningful representation

of local industry drivers and regional dynamics trends than traditional

methods and represents the entire value chain of a broadly defined industry

from suppliers to end products, including supporting services and

specialized infrastructure.

Stereotype is a fixed set of ideas about what a particular type of person

or thing is like, which is (wrongly) believed to be true in all cases.

INTRODUCTION

The subject of my diploma work is cultural values.

Our perception of foreign cultures is usually based not on their

complex reality, but on the simplified image they project. The clearer and

more sharply defined that image is, the more convinced we will be that we

are intimately acquainted with it: it is a mere outward confirmation of

knowledge we already possess.

All cultures have been designed to meet universal human needs: for

shelter - for love — for friendship. While they have commonalties, they

have great variety too! Values - universal feature of culture, how they

might vary within and between cultures.

One universal feature of culture is values. A value is something that

is important to people — like honesty, harmony, respect for elders, or

thinking of your family first.

We can't see values directly, but we can see them reflected in

people's ordinary, day to day behavior. What we value shapes what we do. If

respect for elders is important to me, I might listen very patiently to

grandmother's stories and not argue with her. In fact, I might turn to her

for valuable and wise advice. If I value honesty, I will hope that my

friends will tell me the truth and not what they think I want to hear. If

harmony is more important to me, I prefer to say things that make people

happy, even if those things are not exactly true.

In the course of human interaction, evaluations are assigned to given

types of behavior, attitudes, and kinds of social contact. Taken together

they form the belief and value system, the cultural premises and

assumptions, and the foundation for law, order, and the world view of given

cultural groups. These systems embrace a number of assumptions about how

the world is put together. Some values and norms, differentiate between

good and evil, right and wrong. Some of these assumptions are made explicit

in the beliefs and myths of the people. Beliefs, value systems, and world

view often combine with other features of social and cultural organization

to provide shared cultural symbols.

The actuality and novelty of a theme consist in the following points.

Problems of the intercultural communications and cultural values are

"young". Scientists started to consider them rather recently. In Russia

researches have begun only in the 80th years. In such a way, there is not

enough literature and materials on the given questions. Therefore any new

works and researches make the significant contribution to studying these

problems.

Objects of research in my diploma work are behavioral samples and

cultural clusters.

1. DEFINITIONS: BELIEFS, VALUES

It is useful at this juncture to make some distinctions between

beliefs and values.

BELIEFS

Beliefs are generally taken to mean a mental acceptance or conviction

in the truth or actuality of something. A belief links an object or event

and the characteristics that distinguish it from others. The degree to

which we believe that an event or object possesses certain characteristics

reflects the level of our subjective probability (belief) and,

consequently, the depth or intensity of our belief. The more certain we are

in a belief, the greater is the intensity of that belief.

This is well attested to in the power of religious beliefs. There are

three types of beliefs, all of which are of concern to us. They are

experiential, informational, and inferential. Experiential beliefs come

from direct personal experience, of course; they are integrated at the

intrapersonal level. The second type involves information. This is

transferred on the interpersonal level and shows great cultural variation.

Here cultural beliefs are stated, transferred, learned, and practiced.

Informational beliefs are connected with what are called "authority

belief," or credible information sources. If a group of people believes

that exercising increases the individual's physical and mental well-being,

these believers may also be willing to accept athletes as authority figures

even though the testimonies of these idols range beyond their physical

prowess. Witness the selling success of Olympic champions and football

stars in promoting breakfast food or panty hose.

Inferential beliefs are those which go beyond direct observation and

information. These concern rules of logic, argumentation, rhetoric, and

even establishment of facts (the scientific method). Although internal

logic systems differ from one individual to another within a culture, they

differ more from one culture to another. The most dramatic difference in

cultural variance in thinking lies between Western and Eastern cultures.

The Western world has a logic system built upon Aristotelian principles,

and it has evolved ways of thinking that embody these principles. . . .

Eastern cultures, however, developed before and without the benefit of

Athens or Aristotle. As a consequence, their logic systems are sometimes

called non-Aristotelian, and they can often lead to quite different sets of

beliefs.

VALUES

Values bring affective force to beliefs. Some of these values are

shared with others of our kind some are not. Thus, we all adhere to some of

the beliefs and values generally accepted within our cultures; we reject

others. Values are related to what is seen to be good, proper, and

positive, or the opposite. Values are learned and may be normative in

nature. They change through time and are seldom shared in specifics by

members of different generations, although certain themes will prevail. For

example, the positive attributions placed upon competitiveness,

individualism, action, and other general principles that pervade the belief

and value orientation of members of the North American culture of the

United States remain. They include the constitutionally guaranteed and

socially valued "unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of

happiness" in individualistic, action-oriented, and competitive ways. These

values have endured their expression varies from generation to generation.

A cultural value system "represents what is expected or hoped for,

required or forbidden." It is not a report of actual conduct but is the

inductively based logically ordered set of criteria of evaluations by which

conduct is judged and sanctions applied.

THE VALUE / BELIEF PUZZLE

Value and belief systems, with their supporting cultural postulates

and world views, are complex and difficult to assess. They form an

interlocking system, reflecting and reflective of cultural history and

forces of change. They provide the bases for the assignment of cultural

meaning and evaluation. Values are desired outcomes as well as norms for

behavior; they are dreams as well as reality, They are embraced by some and

not others in a community; they may be the foundations for accepted modes

of behavior, but are as frequently overridden as observed. They are also

often the hidden force that sparks reactions and fuels denials. Unexamined

assignment of these characteristics to all members of a group is an

exercise in stereotyping.

ATTRIBUTIONS AND EVALUATIONS

Often values attributions and evaluations of the behaviors of

"strangers" are based on the value and belief systems of the observers.

Have you heard or made any of the following statements? Guilty or not?

Americans are cold.

Americans don't like their parents. Just look, they put their mothers

and fathers in nursing homes.

The Chinese are nosy. They're always asking such personal questions.

Spaniards must hate animals. Look what they do to bulls!

Marriages don't last in the United States.

Americans are very friendly. 1 met a nice couple on a tour and they

asked me to visit them.

Americans ask silly questions, they think we all live in tents and

drink nothing but camel's milk! They ought to see our airport!

Americans just pretend to be friendly; they really aren't. They say,

"Drop by sometime" but when I did, they didn't seem very happy to see me.

Of course, it was ten o'clock at night!

How should such statements be received? With anger? With explanation?

With understanding and anger? Should one just ignore such patent half-

truths stereotypic judgments, and oversimplifications? Before indulging in

any of the above actions, consider what can be learned from such

statements. First, what do these statements reveal? The speakers appear to

be concerned about families, disturbed by statistics, apt to form opinions

on limited data (friendliness), given to forming hasty and unwarranted

generalizations (Spanish bullfighting), and angered by the ignorance of

others. No one cultural group has a corner on such behavior. Second, we

might be able to guess how certain speakers might feel about divorce,

hospitality, or even animals. Third, the observations, while clearly not

applicable to all members of the groups about which the comments were made,

represent the speakers' perceptions. To many, Americans are seen as cold

and uncaring. Because perceptions and native value and belief systems play

such important roles in communication, it is important to recognize and

deal with these perceptions-correct or incorrect, fair or unfair.

In the following part of this chapter the concept of value

orientations will be explored. This will be followed by a review of the

major value orientations associated with people from the United States.

These orientations will be contrasted with those of other culture groups.

Such an approach to cross-cultural variations in values and beliefs is far

more productive than flat denial or even anger, as we form evaluative

frames of reference for ourselves and hold them up to the frames of others

we shall, at the very least, learn a great deal about ourselves.

VALUE ORIENTATIONS

Compiling a list of cultural values, beliefs, attitudes, and

assumptions would be an almost endless and quite unrewarding endeavor.

Writers in the field of intercultural communication have generally adopted

the concept of value orientations suggested by Florence Kluckhohn and Fred

Strodtbeck (1961).

In setting forth a value orientation approach to cross-cultural

variation, Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961:10) pointed out that such a

theory was based upon three assumptions:

1. There are a limited number of human problems to which all cultures

must find solutions.

2. The limited number of solutions may be charted along a range or

Continuum of variations.

3. Certain solutions are favored by members in any given culture group

but all potential solutions are present in every culture.

In their schema, Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck suggested that values

around five universal human problems involving man's relationship to the

environment, human nature, time, activity, and human interaction. The

authors further proposed that the orientations of any society could be

charted along these dimensions. Although variability could be found within

a group, there were always dominant or preferred positions. Culture-

specific profiles could be constructed. Such profiles should not be

regarded as statements about individual behavior, but rather as tendencies

around which social behavioral norms rules values, beliefs, and assumptions

are clustered. As such, they might influence individual behavior as other

cultural givens do; like other rules, they may be broken, changed, or

ignored.

In the Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck classification, three focal points in

the range of variations are posited for each type of orientation. In the

man-to-nature continuum variations range from a position of human mastery

over nature, to harmony with nature, to subjugation to nature. Most

industrialized societies represent the mastery orientation; the back-to-

nature counterculture of young adults during the 1960s and 1970s, the

harmonious stance; and many peasant populations, the subjugation

orientation.

The time dimension offers stops at the past, present, and future.

Human nature orientation is charted along a continuum stretching from good

to evil with some of both in the middle. The activity orientation moves

from doing to being-becoming to being. Finally, the relational orientation

ranges from the individual to the group with concern with the continuation

of the group, as an intermediate focal point.

Value orientations only represent" good guesses" about why people act

the way they do. Statements made or scales constructed are only part of an

"as if" game. That is to say, people act as if they believed in a given set

of value. Because the individuals in any cultural group exhibit great

variation, any of the orientations suggested might well be found in nearly

every culture. It is the general pattern that is sought. Value orientations

are important to us as intercultural communicators because often whatever

one believes, values, and assumes are the crucial factors in communication.

CONTRASTIVE ORIENTATlONS

Let us take some American cultural patterns that have been identified

as crucial in cross-cultural communication and consider what assumptions,

values, and attitudes support them. Edward C. Stewart was a pioneer in

examining such American behavior in a cross-cultural perspective. His book

- American Cultural Patterns. This book describes dominant characteristics

of middle class Americans. Stewart distinguishes between cultural

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