Cultural Values — страница 4

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perceptions-correct or incorrect, fair or unfair. In the following part of this chapter the concept of value orientations will be explored. This will be followed by a review of the major value orientations associated with people from the United States. These orientations will be contrasted with those of other culture groups. Such an approach to cross-cultural variations in values and beliefs is far more productive than flat denial or even anger, as we form evaluative frames of reference for ourselves and hold them up to the frames of others we shall, at the very least, learn a great deal about ourselves. VALUE ORIENTATIONS Compiling a list of cultural values, beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions would be an almost endless and quite unrewarding endeavor. Writers in the field of

inter­cultural communication have generally adopted the concept of value orientations suggested by Florence Kluckhohn and Fred Strodtbeck (1961). In setting forth a value orientation approach to cross-cultural variation, Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961:10) pointed out that such a theory was based upon three assumptions: 1. There are a limited number of human problems to which all cultures must find solutions. 2. The limited number of solutions may be charted along a range or Continuum of variations. 3. Certain solutions are favored by members in any given culture group but all potential solutions are present in every culture. In their schema, Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck suggested that values around five universal human problems involving man's relationship to the environment, human

nature, time, activity, and human interaction. The authors further proposed that the orientations of any society could be charted along these dimensions. Although variability could be found within a group, there were always dominant or preferred positions. Culture-specific profiles could be constructed. Such profiles should not be regarded as statements about individual behavior, but rather as tendencies around which social behavioral norms rules values, beliefs, and assumptions are clustered. As such, they might influence individual behavior as other cultural givens do; like other rules, they may be broken, changed, or ignored. In the Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck classification, three focal points in the range of variations are posited for each type of orientation. In the

man-to-nature contin­uum variations range from a position of human mastery over nature, to harmony with nature, to subjugation to nature. Most industrialized societies represent the mastery orientation; the back-to-nature counterculture of young adults during the 1960s and 1970s, the harmonious stance; and many peasant populations, the sub­jugation orientation. The time dimension offers stops at the past, present, and future. Human nature orientation is charted along a continuum stretching from good to evil with some of both in the middle. The activity orientation moves from doing to being-becoming to being. Finally, the relational orientation ranges from the individ­ual to the group with concern with the continuation of the group, as an interme­diate focal point. Value

orientations only represent" good guesses" about why people act the way they do. Statements made or scales constructed are only part of an "as if" game. That is to say, people act as if they believed in a given set of value. Because the individuals in any cultural group exhibit great variation, any of the orientations suggested might well be found in nearly every culture. It is the general pattern that is sought. Value orientations are important to us as intercultural communicators because often whatever one believes, values, and assumes are the crucial factors in communica­tion. CONTRASTIVE ORIENTATlONS Let us take some American cultural patterns that have been identified as crucial in cross-cultural communication and consider what assumptions, values, and

atti­tudes support them. Edward C. Stewart was a pioneer in examining such Ameri­can behavior in a cross-cultural perspective. His book - American Cultural Patterns. This book describes dominant characteristics of middle class Americans. Stewart distinguishes between cultural assumptions and values and what he called cultural norms. Cultural norms are explicit a repeatedly invoked by people to describe or justify their actions. They represent instances in which the behavior and the value attached to it seem at odds. Stewart writes, “Because cultural norms are related to behavior as cliches, rituals or as cultural platitudes, they provide inaccurate descriptions of behavior”. He points out that Americans are devoted to the concept of self-reliance but accept social