Individualism as an American Cultural Value - 823 Words

Individualism as an American Cultural Value Individualism is often viewed as a positive trait in America, suggesting a certain level of personal confidence. American society tends to reward independent thinkers and those who decide autonomously. To this end, individuality has become a value in many American homes. Although individualism is widely received and respected in American culture, it is not as well respected in other cultures. One culture in particular which frowns on individualism is the Asian culture. Thai family values are very different from American family values. In Asian cultures the family unit is highly valued and emphasized, whereas, in American culture, the focus is on individuality. Values derived from the American†¦show more content†¦This training and rearing of children in individuality projects a great air of importance, however, it places many Americans in a position of being lonely. The connotation of individuality in America is that of being strong and confident yet many Americans struggle with loneliness because they have been taught to do for themselves, think for themselves, and to stand on their own two feet. While I believe that some of the intents of individualism can be respected and do contribute to many positive aspects of American life, I do not believe that we as Americans should rely so much on the value of individuality. It has been said, it takes a village to raise a child, and Asian culture has grasped this concept of community. I must say that I agree with Dr. Sponsel, â€Å"individualism as one of the dominant values in American culture is expressed in many ways† (425). If you asked most Americans what the cultural values in the U.S. are, you might get some blank stares, or a statement of some basic beliefs. The question may seem simple, but the answer is quite complex. In a society as highly diverse as the United States, individualism towers over everything else. Works Cited Natadecha-Sponsel, Poranee. â€Å"Individualism as an American Cultural Value.† One World Many Cultures. 7th ed. Eds. Stuart Hirschberg and Terry Hirschberg. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009.Show MoreRelatedrhetorical analysis draft 1.11095 Words   |  5 PagesEnglish 1301-54123 September 19, 2013 Draft 1.1 Rhetorical Analysis Individualism is a habit of being self- reliant. A cultural value is a persons desired and preferred way of acting. Every culture has their own cultural values and individualism but whether individualism is their cultural value is up to the person entirely. This could pose a conflict when persuading the wrong culture especially a culture as diverse as the American culture. Poranee Sponsel is a born and raised Thai who is now a professorRead MoreQuestions On Managing Diverse Classrooms1050 Words   |  5 PagesManaging Diverse Classrooms: How to Build on Students Cultural Strengths Elise Trumbull’s theory that a cross-cultural conflict in values between Latino immigrant families and the schools was the heart of the problem of formal education for the families of these children and Carrie Rothstein-Fisch’s expertise in pre-service teacher training produced Managing Diverse Classrooms: How to Build on Students Cultural Strengths. This book also provides educators with an understanding of how cultureRead MoreThe Importance Of Social Work1507 Words   |  7 PagesSocial workers should be helping others without being judgmental and cultural biases in order to conduct effective and ethical practice. In social work practice, understanding diversity and individual differences are the very important tools to be closely connected to people in need. As a matter of fact, social work strongly emphasizes cultural competence due to the delivery of services to people with different cultures. Cultural competence allows social workers to increase the ability to understandRead MoreEssay Summary and Response on Growing Up in America921 Words   |  4 Pagesthe mold on that. Poranee Natadecha- Sonsel argues that Americans are unlike many other countries because they have a certain individualism about everything they do in their culture. In her article, â€Å"The Young, the Rich, and the Famous: Individualism as American Cultural Value†, the author reiterates over and over again that the way Americans value their individualism really impresses her. She names a few examples of American individualism such as conversational topics, privacy, and family life.Read MoreInfluence Of Cultural Values On Advertising Essay1124 Words   |  5 Pages Influence of Cultural Values in Advertising Name: Institution: Introduction Commercial products of multinational companies are being marketed to people from different cultures owing to an increased growth in the world economy (Lin, 2012). Samli (1995) states that in most cases, consumer attitudes are largely driven by the framework of their culture. Mooji points out that global marketing strategies are not culture-free and should not be because its influence on consumer behavior isRead MoreAnnotated Bibliography of Articles about the American Culture861 Words   |  3 PagesAmerica as the other by looking at American culture, society, politics, intellectual traditions, and attitudes from the perspectives of outsiders. DeVita and Armstrong emphasize that it is hard for a social scientist to fully understand the uniqueness and strangeness of ones culture. Growing up within the culture means accepting ones cultural assumptions for granted. Being closed to the perspectives only outsiders might have, those who grow up in American culture fail to ask the kind of questionsRead MoreCultural Diversity in Perception: Alternative Views of Reality1577 Words   |  7 PagesCHAPTER FOUR CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN PERCEPTION: ALTERNATIVE VIEWS OF REALITY UNDERSTANDING PERCEPTION The physical mechanism of perception is pretty much the same in all people: sensory organs such as the eyes, ears, and nose permit us to sense our environment, and the sensations received by them are routed to our brains, where they are interpreted and accorded meaning in a two-stage sequence. The first stage is recognition or identification, in which a configuration of light or sound wavesRead MoreInternational Management Essay example1678 Words   |  7 Pages In answering this question I will use the dimensions that Geert Hofstede identified to attempt to provide a composite picture of the cultures. The four dimensions Geert Hofstede examined were power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and masculinity (Luthans Doh, 2012). Power distance deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal – it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. Power distance (PDI) is defined as theRead MoreWhat Are The Differences Of Ethics In Chinese Business?963 Words   |  4 Pagesguidelines are provided by different organizations such as the American Psychological Association (APA, 2017), the American Counseling Association (ACA, 2014), and may also be provided for specific industries or organizations. These codes of ethics can be used as a way to demonstrate differences in perception of ethics from one country to another, but are only guidelines rather than exhaustive rules or regulat ions. However, these are American institutions, which may be helpful for TMI in understandingRead MoreWestern Mindset Vs. Eastern Mentality937 Words   |  4 Pagestoday has a lot of cultural differences, mainly from the different cultures that are housed within the United States. Core values is the first segment under cultural differences. Some of America’s core values includes: liberty, self-government, equality, diversity and unity. The United States tendencies or characteristics is the second segment, examples include health, religion, and mobile phone revolution. The last segment is the Western Mindset vs. Eastern Mindset. Individualism is the main aspect

Black Resilience Against Violence Effects Essay - 1559 Words

Black Resilience against Violence Effects (BRAVE) is an intervention that aims to empower Black youth with access to culturally-sensitive, mental health treatment for depression and suicide as well as resources to become involved within the political sector of social justice issues, such as police violence on Black lives. The target populations of this intervention are Black youth in middle school and high school who have shown behaviors in relation to depression and suicide ideation and reside in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and St. Louis, Missouri, regardless of socioeconomic status and gender. Oklahoma City Police Department is one of the largest city police departments that has killed civilians at the highest rate in 2015. In fact, the average rate of police killings of Black individuals is 108.1 per million people, while the rate for all citizens in Oklahoma is 24.52 per million. According to the U.S 2010 Census, Black citizens make up 15.1% of the total population in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and only 8% in the entire state (Mapping Police Violence 2015). Even though this racial group is less predominant in this area, unarmed Black individuals are more than 4x as likely to be killed by law enforcement than their white counterparts. In addition, the St. Louis Police Department is 1 out of 14 police departments that has killed only Black individuals with a rate of 9.5 police killings per million people. Unlike Oklahoma City, Black Americans make up 49.2% of the total populationShow MoreRelatedThe Socio Political And Economic Effects Of Colonialism On African Women1290 Words   |  6 Pages The ramifications of the socio-political and economic effects of colonialism on African women have stunted African development. The economic impact of colonial rule led to a further decrease in significance and power held by women in society. 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Evolution Lab Free Essays

Evolution Lab The finches on Darwin and Wallace Islands feed on seeds produced by plants growing on these islands. There are three categories of seeds: soft seeds, produced by plants that do well under wet conditions; seeds that are intermediate in hardness, produced by plants that do best under moderate precipitation; and hard seeds, produced by plants that dominate in drought conditions. The lab is based on a model for the evolution of quantitative traits-characteristics of an individual that are controlled by large numbers of genes. We will write a custom essay sample on Evolution Lab or any similar topic only for you Order Now These traits are studied by looking at the statistical distribution of the trait in populations and investigating how the distribution changes from one generation to the next. For the finches in Evolution Lab, the depth of the beak is the quantitative trait. I investigated how this trait changes under different biological and environmental conditions. I manipulated various biological parameters (initial mean beak size, heritability of beak size, variation in beak size, fitness, and clutch size) and one environmental parameter (precipitation) of the system, and observed changes in the distributions of beak size and population numbers over time. Assignment 2: The Influence of Precipitation on Beak Size and Population Number The first experiment is designed to study the influence of beak size on finch population numbers. For finches, deep beaks are strong beaks, ideally suited for cracking hard seeds, and shallow beaks are better suited for cracking soft seeds. I experimented first with the finches’ adaptation and evolution of their population over 300 years, and changed the Wallace birds beak size to 28mm, and Darwin’s birds stayed at the default of 12mm. I hypothesize a since there are more hard seeds (64%) on the islands than soft seeds (4%). The birds with the smaller beak (Darwin) will not be able to get enough food which may cause some of the birds to die, resulting in a decrease in the smaller beak bird’s population and an increase in the larger beak (Wallace) birds population because of the larger beak size better able to eat hard seeds. Darwin: Red Wallace: Blue I observed that the Darwin birds (smaller beak) actually grew up to about 25mm, as well as the Darwin bird’s population grew over time. The Wallace bird’s beak stayed the same as well as the population stayed steady but grew. The data actually refutes my hypothesis because I didn’t expect the smaller beak sized birds to grow to adapt to the seeds, I expected them to die off. This next experiment is designed to explore the effect of precipitation on finch beak size and population numbers. The experiment was to see how a decrease in precipitation on Darwin Island might affect beak size and how a decrease in precipitation might influence population numbers for these finches over time. I hypothesize a decrease in rain will produce more hard seeds because the hard seeds favor drought conditions, while the other seeds will not increase. And the decrease in rain may only slightly cause the finch population to decrease at first, but then will increase and stay steady as the birds have time to adapt to the drought conditions and their beaks will evolve. I observed that the beak sized for Darwin’s birds supported my hypothesis in that the birds beak sized increased with time. And the population did what I thought too, in that it decreased at first and then increased steadily. I then ran another experiment for 200 and 300 years separately. I observed that the 200 years population and beaks did about the same as the 100 year experiment. Which still confirm my hypothesis. But the 300 years, the bird’s populations and beaks sizes on both islands increased, but that the Darwin birds eventually passed Wallace’s birds in population and beak sized. I then performed the same experiment for both Wallace Island and Darwin Island simultaneously. I noticed that the 100 and 200 years beak size and population both increased and, but Darwin’s birds were still behind Wallace island birds. But then at the 300 year both beaks and populations were almost the same increase. My hypothesis on how an increase in precipitation on Darwin will influence beak size is that the beak sizes should become smaller and more shallow because the increase in rain will make softer seeds and smaller, shallow beaks are better for soft seeds. And the bird’s population will increase.. I observed just what I hypothesized – the beaks grew smaller and their populations grew huge. When I reran the experiment I observed that Wallace island birds also followed the similar growth for beaks and population as the Darwin birds. When I ran the experiment by increasing precipitation on Wallace Island to 50 cm/year and increasing beak size to 28 mm, for 300 years, I observed the beak sized actually decreased slightly and the population stayed steady and in line with the Darwin birds. Next experiment I decreased beak size on both of the islands to an intermediate value. I decreased rainfall on one island to a value close to zero. On the other island, I increase rainfall close to the maximum value and ran the experiment for 300 years. I observed different effects on each island. On the Darwin island with a medium beak size and almost no rain had increase in beak size and population. The Wallace birds with a medium beak size and lots of rain had a decrease in beak size and a steady increase in population. Assignment 4: Effect of Island Size My hypothesis for what effect an increase in island size will have on beak size and finch populations is that the beak size will have an increase and population will increase. I began my experiment by leaving all other parameters at their default values. Then changed the island size of Darwin to the highest it could go to 1km. The beak sized increased as predicted and so did the population increased. When I decreased island size, the beak size grew and the population dropped off first in the beginning but then increased with time. Based on previous experiments if I decrease the clutch size the birds populations will decrease a great deal. Also if I decrease the heritability parameter, and decrease clutch size the populations decrease – which looked like to the point of extinction. How to cite Evolution Lab, Essay examples