an essay on cultural diversity does not shape our national character
Answers
Answer:
The term “national character” is used to describe the enduring personality characteristics and unique life styles found among the populations of particular national states. This behavior is sometimes considered on an abstract level, that is, as cultural behavior without actual reference to necessarily different personality modalities. It may also be considered as motivated by underlying psychological mechanisms characteristic of a given people.
History Of The Field
Europe has had a long history of self-conscious awareness of national differences. In ordinary conversation and in essays one finds discussions of the differences between Danes and Swedes, between Belgians and Dutch, between Germans and Italians, or even between northern and southern Italians, northern and southern Belgians, or northern and southern Dutch. Every national group develops over a period of time certain stereotypes of members of other national entities. Commonly held stereotypes may be discussed in a tone of objective detachment or with varying degrees of approval of the traits considered. While the perception of behavioral differences has led to a great deal of verbal expression and impressionistic writing, only since the 1940s have serious efforts been made to explore systematically the validity or precise nature of the perceived differences with respect to underlying personality configurations.
The social or cultural anthropologist’s observations of the behavioral configurations found in highly divergent non-Western cultures have afforded him a much wider view of manifest variability in human behavior than is found within the western European tradition. The anthropologist has had to contend with radically different language structures and cognitive-perceptual patterns which define the natural and social environment; divergent patterns of causality and logic; unusual decision-making patterns in social groups; patterns of internalized or coerced responsibility and authority unknown in the West; different patterns of expressing, disguising, or denying feelings and emotions—not to mention wide variations in moral definitions and values. Almost every generally accepted, unquestioned “universal” concerning the psychological nature of man and the basic elements of social, economic, or political life has been seriously challenged by the anthropological data which present the full spectrum of world cultures.
Functional prerequisites
Another type of national-character study examines the basic personality traits that are necessary for at least a working minority of individuals within a society to keep that society functioning on its own terms. When Erich Fromm, the psychoanalyst, discussed national character (1941) he contended that in an industrial society with ever-increasing bureaucratization and standardization of occupations, the personality traits of discipline, orderliness, and punctuality are necessary. These traits have to be present in a significant portion of the population if a complex industrial society is to continue to function effectively. Robert K. Merton, the sociologist, has also concerned himself with defining the types of personality structure that function best in bureaucratic settings (1940). He discusses how the settings themselves are influential in determining personality variables.
Answer:
short note on our diversity cultural has shaped our national character