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Flashcards in Cultural Differences Deck (32)
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1
Q

What is culture?

A

A concept which originated in anthropology
Increasing impact on social sciences over the course of the 20th century
Kroeber - famously listed 161 definitions

2
Q

Anthropological definitions

A

“That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”
“The man-made part of the human environment”
Includes both physical artefacts and social systems

3
Q

Psychological definitions

A

“The totality of equivalent and complementary learned meanings maintained by a human population, or by identifiable segments of a population, and transmitted from one generation to the next
“The collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group […] of people from another - transmits over generations

4
Q

What does social systems / cultural groups refer too?

A

“The behaviour of multiple individuals within a culturally-organized population, including their patterns of interaction and networks of social relationships”
Might include nations, organisations, families, etc.
Social systems ‘have’ cultures - group of people sharing meanings
Cultures do not ‘have’ social systems
Cultures make behaviour comprehensible

5
Q

Why did Hofstede carry out an analysis?

A

There was research previously done in the US expecting it would represent the human rase - however, classic findings showed that this didn’t occur
Conformity was higher in the rest of the world vs US and Europe
Problem was explaining these differences - want to know why
Need a theory of how cultures differ
Attempt to create a construct cultural map of the world

6
Q

What is social loafing?

A

Working less hard when in groups than when in individuals - US do this, whereas Asia work more hard in groups

7
Q

What was Hofstedes project?

A

IBM (hermes) employee surveys: conducted 1967 and 1973. 116,000 respondents in 72 countries, questions about job satisfaction, perceptions of work, personal goals - wide variety of response formats
He conducted secondary analysis to look for dimensions of cultural variation

8
Q

Why did Hofstede carry out an ecological level of analysis?

A

Because cultures are just not oversized individuals - dimensions which make individuals differ might be different to the dimensions which make cultures differ

9
Q

What made Hofstede think cultures are not just oversized individuals?

A

Robinson’s paradox - findings at one level of analysis might be different at another
Correlation in US states between the more immigrants = higher literacy
However, within states, there was a negative correlation between the more immigrants and literacy - 2 variables which are correlated in different ways at different levels of analysis

10
Q

What is the ecological and reverse ecological fallacy?

A

Ecological fallacy is falsely extrapolating group-level findings to individual level of explanation
Reverse ecological fallacy is wrongly attributing properties of individuals to cultures

11
Q

What did Hofstede want to avoid?

A

The ecological and reverse ecological fallacy

12
Q

What was the methodological problem Hofstede avoided?

A

Acquiescence bias - people in different cultures use response scales in different ways - variation n acquiescence - in some cultures, people tend to agree more with everything
Solution: country mean agreement with all items, subtract or control in analyses

13
Q

What analysis did Hofstede do?

A

Analysis at the ecological level, using 40 countries. Each item was weighted by the country mean:
combination of averages within different occupations groups within IBM - corrected for acquiescence
Theoretically guided data exploration led to discovery of 4 dimensions of CC variation - expected to find 2 but found 4

14
Q

What was the first dimension Hofstede found?

A

Power distance - extent to which members of a society accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally
Survey items:
Employees afraid to disagree with managers
Subordinates perceive Bosses as autocratic or paternalistic (as opposed to democratic or consultative)
Subordinates would like Bosses to be autocratic, paternalistic or democratic (as opposed to consultative)
When seeing them as powerful = high power distance
Highest: Malaysia, Guatemala, Panama
Lowest: Austria, Israel, Denmark

15
Q

What was the second dimension Hofstede found?

A

Uncertainty avoidance
Degree to which the members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity, which leads them to support beliefs promising certainty and to maintain institutions protecting conformity - if anxious, avoid it by conforming:
Company rules should not be broken—even when employee thinks in company’s best interest
% employees expecting to stay at least 5 years
How often feel nervous or tense at work (stress)
Highest: Greece, Portugal, Guatemala
Lowest: Singapore, Jamaica, Denmark

16
Q

What was the third dimension Hofstede found?

A

Individualism: A preference for a loosely knit social framework in society in which individuals are supposed to take care of themselves and their immediate families
Collectivism: A preference for a tightly knit social framework in which individuals can expect their relatives, clan or other in-group to look after them, in exchange for unquestioning loyalty
Assessed by items about work goals:
IDV: personal time, freedom, challenge
COL: training, physical conditions, use of skills
Highest: USA, Australia, Great Britain (richer)
Lowest: Guatemala, Ecuador, Panama (poorer)
Strong negative correlation with PD (r = -.68)
Enormous amount of subsequent research

17
Q

What was the fourth dimension Hofstede found?

A

Masculinity: A preference for achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and material success
Femininity: A preference for relationships, modesty, caring for the weak, and quality of life
Assessed by items about work goals:
MAS prefer: earnings, recognition, advancement, challenge
FEM prefer: relationship with manager, cooperation, live in desirable area, employment security
Highest: Japan, Austria, Venezuela
Lowest: Sweden, Norway, Netherlands

18
Q

What was the problem with masculinity?

A

Unfortunate choice of name by Hofstede
Masculinities and femininities differ across cultures!
a.k.a. toughness vs. tenderness
Reverse ecological fallacy - attributing individual properties to cultures
But has predictive value
e.g., fem spend more on international development - shows they want to help others
NB: Uncorrelated with IDV (r = .00)
FEM: focus on relationships, others, helping outgroup
COL: focus on in-groups, social position

19
Q

Why is masculinity uncorrelated with individualism?

A

Because femininity would want to help the outgroup, whereas collectivist cultures only focus on their own group

20
Q

Are these the big 4?

A
Hofstede’s dimensions of cultural variation found:
Power distance (PD)
Uncertainty avoidance (UA)
Individualism (vs. Collectivism) (IDV)
Masculinity (vs. Femininity) (MAS)
Provide 4D cultural ‘map of the world’
Guided much future research (esp. IDV)
21
Q

What was Schwartz 6 critiques of Hofstede?

A

Exhaustiveness of the value dimensions - the values only came from a list, might be other things which weren’t captured with the items

Adequacy of sample of nations - only used specific nations

Effects of sample type - IBM samples, but this is only active in some cultures, does IBM represent the whole culture

Historical change - these were carried out in 1960’s, cultures change

Culture-level vs. individual-level dimensions - didn’t look at an individual level, there might be differences here

Meaning equivalence of items - people may not have understoodd what they meant

22
Q

What was Schwartz value survey? 1990-now

A

Research into structure of values
Individual and cultural levels of analysis
List of 56 values rated for importance “as a guiding principle in my life”
Items derived from diverse sources - asked people what to include in there: Rokeach Values Survey, Chinese Culture Connection, social sciences and humanities, research collaborators

Initial study sampled teachers and students - teachers transmit lots of info to their students
Currently >80,000 participants in 82 countries

23
Q

What did Schwartz show within cultures?

A

Do items have similar meanings in each culture?
Separate within-culture smallest space analyses in each sample to check for similar structure:
Responses ipsatised within participants to control for acquiescent response bias - average score for each ppt across 56 items and subtracted this from score on each item
Therefore, analysis is of relative value endorsement - how much someone endorses value on average
Similar structure observed in most samples - found 10 segments of values which go together, which have subtypes under them

24
Q

What did Schwartz show between cultures?

A

40 of 56 values showed similar positions in structure within all cultures
Country means for ecological analysis
Standardisation to remove acquiescence
Ecological smallest space analysis shows circumplex model of seven value types - used 7 rather than 10
There are similarities in the structure
Found similarities in the structure: competitive hierarchical values like achievement, authority contrasted with harmony etc

25
Q

What did the comparisons of level show?

A
Within-cultures
Openness to change vs. conservation
Self-transcendence vs self-enhancement
Across-cultures
Autonomy vs. embeddedness
Harmony vs. mastery
Hierarchy vs. egalitarianism
NB differences in selected values
26
Q

What was the difference shown by Schwartz from the individual level vs cultural level?

A

Individual - power included social power and authority, which was contrasted with humble. if you have these, won’t be humble

Culture - these were all put together under hierarchy. If power was undistributed, have to have some humble people to accept the welt of others

27
Q

What did Schwartz find in comparison with Hofstede?

A

Some conceptual similarities
Correlations:
Individualism correlates with autonomy + egalitarianism versus negatively with power distance + embeddedness + hierarchy
Mastery correlated with masculinity - femininity
Harmony correlated with uncertainty avoidance

28
Q

What was the most recent study?

A

Minkov 2018: refinement of existing data, new samples from 56 nations, new items to measure Hofstedes dimensions and more. Bipolar format to account for acquiescence (choosing between 2 statements). between culture analysis only

Found individualism replicated = low power distance
Masculinity and uncertainty avoidance not replicated
New dimension of flexibility versus monumeentalism

29
Q

What are individualist vs collectivist traits?

A

Individualist - I prefer to mind my own life, will argue, I will arrive on time, I do favours only for favours

Collectivist - I am very religion, I would like to achieve fame, I am often late, I would like to be a boss

30
Q

What is monumentalism vs flexibility?

A

Monumentalism - having a status, positive sense of self, not willing to change: I have strong values guiding behaviour, I like to compete, I am always the same

Flexibility - have an adaptable view of self, more humble: I hate to compete, I can pretend, I rarely agree to help

31
Q

Is there a correlation between collectivism-individualism and monumentalism-flexibility?

A

Not really - small one
Individualist and collectivist cultures differ between north and south
Monumentalism-flex - differ between east and west

32
Q

What was the most replicated factor found?

A

Individalism-collectivism shown in lots of studies but there are lots of ways they differ

still not final consensus on the way they differ