Lec 7 Flashcards
(10 cards)
What was Hofstede’s argument about “persons are not king-size cells?”
This means that what describes individual differences do not necessarily describe cultural characters, and vice versa
Note:
Such cultural characters should be revealed by a culture/geographical level study
What was Hofstede’s (pyramid) model?
At the top: personality is partly inherited and learned, it is specific to the individual.
Middle: culture as the mediator. This is the accumulation of generational knowledge.
Collective programming: how culture affects values and beliefs shared among a group of people). Shared “rules” or thinking which influences learned behavior to act in society. => his cultural dimensions
The base: universal human nature (inherited), e.g. our basic emotions and motivations
A process of distillation - process of simplifying complex data in core dimensions of collective programming
How do cultural practices reinforce certain traits in people?
1. Rice-wheat counties and individualism vs collectivism
- The Nintendo Switch in US and Famicon in Jaman
- Round table Chinese banquets
- Counties (Southern China) that grow rice are maintained by the community. They must work together which could reinforce a collectivistic culture. Whereas in the north, they cultivate more wheat, which can be done independently. Their culture / values are more independent.
=> Type of agriculture / geography can affect ind/col culture - The functions are the same. But in the US, it’s a bigger size and the controllers are detachable. Emphasizes more personal distance/space. In Japan, you have to sit closer together because of the the controllers are connected to the console. Implies group harmony, social connection and closer physical relationship.
=> Reflected in product design - Collectivistic culture: a round table to enforce group harmony. Share food (could also be from intensive agriculture culture). Everyone uses chopsticks (right-handed to not trouble the person next to you). VS individual plates in individualistic cultures.
What are the carriers of culture?
(tools to maintain, rather than change culture)
Inner circle: values
Rituals - to sustain the culture for generations and main values (core). E.g. the practice of burning incense paper.
Heroes - prized individuals in culture, e.g. a cardinal person.
Outer circle: Symbols - these are versatile and changeable, e.g. language (slang every decade despite same meaning), memes, advertisements.
Practices: (through the last three).
What was a factor analytic approach to national cultures (IBM study)?
Cultures (NOT individuals) produce responses to standardized items
IBM study:
- employees from more than 50 different cultures
- survey was about values
- facilitate corporate efficiency of the multinational (e.g. some practices efficient in in the U.S may be seen as offensive in others)
Individual-level surveys => reduced into cultural or national aggregates (factor analysis)
What were the results?
Hint: 4 in original, but ended up being 6
Hofstede’s six-dimensional model
1. Power distance (PDI) - how they see their power distance / relationship with supervisors
2. Individualism vs Collectivism (IND) - relationship between the individual and the team
3. Masculinity vs Femininity (MAS) - gender differences on corporate policies
- not just gender identity
- Masc.: if you fail, it’s a big deal
- Femn. : if you fail, it’s not a big deal
Part 2 of Hofstede’s six-dimensional model
- Uncertainty avoidance (UAI) - dealing with ambiguity at work
- low: welcomes uncertainty - Long-term orientation - inspired by Chinese Values Survey as they have habits of saving money.
- Indulgence vs Restraint (IVR) - inspired by the World Values Survey
Ecological fallacy
- and the Simpson’s paradox
- Because a culture scores high on a certain cultural dimension, this does not mean ALL of its members will score high as well
- Different levels of interpretation (culture is not and the individual level, just affect personality through different practices)
The Simpson’s paradox:
- the big picture shows a general positive trend
- but when you break the groups down into clusters, they are negative trends
(Mistake of thinking what’s true for the group is also the same for the individual)
Climate, economic wealth and altruistic culture (van der Vliert)
=> Can the effects of climate and conomic wealth explain why some cultures adopt more altruistic values?
When cultures use economic resources to cope with climate changes (e.g. food uncertainty) and basic needs are met => people in the culture can grow towards freedom and autonomy e.g. altruism
But when a culture is dealing with these challenges and lower basic needs are still being met, it restrains them from achieving higher needs
=> van der Vliert’s study predicted this: despite hot or cold climates, high-income cultures were more likely to be altruistic (quadratic curve)
Note: the patterns we see might not happen when the country’s climate changes
What did Ng’s proposal (2025) suggest?
Geographical analysis (different countries / regions at one point in time)
Temporal analysis (study same country as the climate warms)
- Wealth helps people cope with harsh climates (hot or cold), so they have the capacity to be more caring
Fit of curves not as good as van der Vliert because a lot of hot, lower-income countries displayed higher than expected altruism
- As temperature increases, so does altruism
Sociological explanation => warmer weather encouraging social interaction
