Enculturation, culture, and psychological outcomes.

The infant being born into a culture has no cultural attributes. Culture is a learned phenomenon obtained through a process of enculturation where the family is the primary socializing agent. However, other social institutions also play a role as the child grows and develops including the educational system, and other religious, cultural or social organizations. Culture is the communal response to the major external ecological factors confronting the individual. The climate in Africa and Greenland are sufficiently extreme that they have consequences for human development as well as for social institutions keeping in mind that the culture developed out of the need to survive. Social factors also affect child development and reinforce culture for adults as well. All humans also possess a genetic heritage that affects adaptability in various ways through for example perceptual response variation. None of these developmental factors are static, but they constantly interact with one another. The world is in a period of great transition for most cultures of the world, and the Internet and new means of communications may turn out to be stronger forces in enculturation than more traditional cultural factors.

Enculturation gradually shapes the individual so cultural world views are internalized and not challenged by most members of cultural groups. Since social pressure is unpleasant most members of society learn early to adapt to these views or experience the penalty of sanctions. Over a period of time culturally congenial attitudes and values are internalized as the “only true way”. In turn these attributes are expressed in beliefs about the world and social institutions. On a societal level these forces find expression in social norms and also in behavior.

Globalization has produced new cultural dynamics’ in cross-cultural psychology. Some have argued for the need to not only study traditionally accepted cultural categories, but also to understand the increasing contacts within multi-cultural societies and resulting multi-cultural identities (Hermans & Kempen, 1998). Many researchers are working under the illusion of ahistorical cultural development as if societies are static and remain the same for all time. However, what we have observed in the last decades are new combinations of cultures, new arenas of culture, and people possessing multi-cultural identities. Cultures are constantly adapting and changing in response to the realities of the world and to changing power relationships. Some of our cultural information is derived from travel and migration and more and more from the ubiquitous use of computers. Therefore cultural identity is also increasingly dynamic reflecting many sources of influence including those of popular music and scientific development.

Even the most isolated societies can only keep these influences under control to a limited degree. Despite conformity pressures people will chose what and who to believe on questions of personal or social development.The outcome is more heterogeneous cultures encouraging tolerance for the discrepant (Giddens, 2000). It is now quite common for people growing up in European and North American countries to have bi-cultural identities, and even multi-cultural attachments. The typical migrant may bring along the culture of the previous society, may adapt to the culture of the new homeland, and may also be influenced by global culture. These facts require a cross-cultural psychology that has the ability to adapt to these changes and makes obvious the need to replicate previous findings as these may be tenuous with changing times.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 909