2: Why Culture is Important
At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:
- Describe examples of how culture influences behavior.
- Define ethnocentric bias and cultural relativism.
selected template will load here
This action is not available.
At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:
Culture is a large part of our Bronfenbrenner's macrosystem that describes the attitudes, values and beliefs we encompass throughout life. It is the nonbiological aspect to life that describes the idea of learned behaviors. There is a cultural nature to how humans develop. Many researchers would argue that much of our identity, our sense of self, perspectives and how we perceive the world comes from our culture. Many of our skills and abilities may come from our cultural practices as well. Culture explains the question "why do we behave the way we do?" Cultures have norms, rules, and expectations that comes with its punishments and rewards. The many different aspects of culture are driving forces to our behaviors. Attitudes may influence how we treat or receive others. Traditions, values and beliefs may stem from other aspects of our macrosystem such as political ideation, or religion. Each aspect has influences over our behavior.