Culture is composed of many important parts, including material objects, language, values, beliefs, norms, and behaviors. Values, as well as the beliefs, norms, and behaviors derived from these values, play a vital role in defining a specific culture. Values can vary from one individual to the next, but it remains generally true that people of the same culture hold similar values.
Values are the “standards by which people define what is good and bad, beautiful and ugly” (Essentials of Sociology, 49). Almost every other aspect of a specific culture is determined by that culture’s values. The prevalent beliefs, norms, and behaviors in a culture are almost completely dependent upon that culture’s values. Values shape people’s beliefs, influencing their ideas of religion, their ideas of right and wrong, their ideas of what is important or worthwhile in life, their ideas of human rights, and their ideas of who is superior or inferior to whom. Values determine a culture’s norms or the way in which the people of a particular culture are expected to behave. A culture’s values determine people’s behavior by compelling them to follow the norms, thereby influencing what they say, how they interact with other people, what careers/goals they pursue, what religion they practice, what they do for fun, what they eat, and how they dress.
One can better understand values and their effects on a particular culture by looking at a specific example, such as the effects of the values of freedom and equality on American culture. As a result of the value of freedom, the norm is for Americans to exercise their freedom by voicing their opinions (freedom of speech), practicing their desired religion (freedom of religion), publishing their chosen storie...
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...e other hand, most Asian-Americans are likely to embrace parts of the dominant culture by eating “American foods” from time to time and by holding some of the core values of the United States, such as freedom, equality, hard work, and education. This example demonstrates how a person can conform to the dominant culture in some ways, while maintaining the uniqueness of his subculture in other ways.
Values are extremely important in understanding and defining particular cultures. Values determine many other aspects of a culture, including norms, beliefs, and behaviors. Due to societal pluralism and subcultures, the values of each person within a particular culture may vary slightly, but it remains true that each dominant culture has its own unique set of core values. The diverse cultures of the world as we know them could not exist without their distinctive values.
The values that society cherishes gives protection to the people that live in it. Each society values something different like some value equality, religion, and freedom of speech. The importance of these values is to let people have there own freedom. People also base their decisions off of values.
Culture is an essential part of every human being. People can fall under the category of one culture or they can fall under many. Values derived from culture tend to reflect in an individual’s or a society’s understanding of what is wrong and right. In culture, there are many significant features. Some are material, such as food and clothing, and non-material, such as beliefs and ideas. These material and non-material objects help to push people into powerful roles and they maintain the power. With the power these people then have a strong influence on the beliefs and ideas of the lower people. They have the ability to alter and change their beliefs at any time and most times, they follow along with it. These ideas and thoughts have been in place for many decades, since cultural theorists, such as Marx and Habermas, began explaining them. They have been a thought for decades
Everyone has their own personal values that the gain throughout their lives. Some of these values are passed down through the different generations of their family. Values can change over time and some people learn more values as they grow up. I personally have gained a range of different values in the past eighteen years of my life. My own values include: respect, honesty, empathy and trust. I gained the value of respect through my parents as I was always told to show respect to others and they would then show me respect back. When I was really young I had to respect other people’s things and their feelings. Through my parents I was brought up to believe that it is always better to be honest and tell the truth about everything. I feel that
Cunningham, Lawrence S., and John J. . Reich. Culture and Values. 7th ed. Vol. 1. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2006. Print.
Culture by definition is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices, as well as customary beliefs, social forms and material traits that characterize a racial, religious or ...
"A value determines what a person thinks he ought to do, which may or may not be the same as he wants to do, or what is in his interest to, or what in fact he actually does. Values in this sense give rise to general standards and ideal by which we judge our own and others conduct; they also give rise to specific obligations” (CCETSW,
What are values? Values are the principles that help guide our behaviors, according to Anne Deering, Robert Dilts, and Julian Russell in Alpha leadership. “Our values reflect the core of our identity, and are a lens through which we execute our goals. Values are instilled in us from birth
Just as skills and abilities are varied, values and attitude differences are varied as well, they reflect a person's sense of right and wrong or what “ought” to be. Values influence the way we react to others and how others react to us. For example, you may value the belief that everyone has the right to be treated with respect and paid equally no matter what his or her gender or age. Lets say you go to work for a company that pays men who are older a higher salary than a person who is younger and female, even though they have equal qualifications. You will probably have the attitude...
Culture is a set of beliefs, values and attitudes that a person inherits from a society or a group that they are in and they learn how to view the world and how to behave, these principles can then be passed down from generation to generation so that the culture that has been inherited can live on for
Value to me is what a person thinks of as important and the worth they place on that importance. Value means in regards to society, as it is defined by Dictionary.com, (2016), “the ideals, customs, institutions, etc., of a society toward which the people of the group have an affective regard. These values may be positive, as cleanliness, freedom, or education, or negative, as cruelty, crime, or blasphemy”. Social values for me goes hand in hand with my morals which have been influenced by my family, “my parents have instilled their value in me…hard work, determination, and perseverance; they have shown me that anything is possible”, (Laird-Magee, Gayle, & Preiss, 2015), my upbringing, culture both financial and ethnic, ancestral traditions,
Culture can be summed up as the behaviors, attitudes, customs, and beliefs combined in a society at a given time and place. Culture joins people by establishing a common ground. There are many common elements that result in the formation of cultural subgroups such as religion, family traditions, and the arts. The two most important cultural elements that have influenced my own social group (for better or for worse) would be communication styles and roles within the family.
Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects and behavior. It includes the ideas, value, customs and artifacts of a group of people (Schaefer, 2002). Culture is a pattern of human activities and the symbols that give these activities significance. It is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they hold and activities they engage in. It is the totality of the way of life evolved by a people in their attempts to meet the challenges of living in their environment, which gives order and meaning to their social, political, economic, aesthetic and religious norms and modes of organization thus distinguishing people from their neighbors.
1. What is Culture? What I personally think is that our culture is the foundation of who we really are in life. It identifies the lifestyle and pursuits that are practiced in the group of people we relate with in our society. In other words, an important concept to understand is that cultural beliefs, values, and practices are learned from birth first at home, in church, and other places where people meet. Some practices and beliefs in human culture include religion, music, sports, food, health beliefs, and art which represent the values we have in life. Also, our own culture is diverse and it is significant to look with in and identify what we value the most, what is essentially needed, and how we see the world. It is our remaining tool and we don’t even realize it is needed to communicate and socialize with others.
How do personal values shape culture, and how does culture affect our understanding and interpretation of seemingly ordinary things?
Culture plays a significant role in shaping people’s behaviors. Humans start to expose to culture the day they are born and they learn cultural values through their everyday life interacting with the people and environments around them. The cultural values often help us in guiding our behaviors and provide us a context in helping us identify the proper way of responding to various situations. Culture can help to determine human behaviors because culture can influence individuals’ psychological processes, development of self, and motivation. However, individual differences should also be examined in determining people’s behaviors.