How does cultural environment influence personality essay?
Answers
Personality is a product of culture and environment. Culture is majorly transmitted through modeling of behavior and language as varied conditions permit human to adopt similar historic periods, proximity to influence each other and possessing a shared language. Biological factors do not fully account for variance in behavior. Culture is majorly shaped by ecology which determines socialization patterns are responsible for personality variance (Triandis, 2002). In addition, personality has a direct impact on the socialization among people. For instance, in cultures where parents offer comfort, emotional stability, high self esteem and positivity is usually recognized among the children. When parents are rejecting, their children adopt hostile, unstable and negative views.
Environmental factors also play a great role in lifestyle. Societal influences, on the one hand, align one to living patterns that neighbors have adopted. One would feel strange to act differently in a close-knit village with particular mores of living. Natural factors, one the other hand, like the weather lead to choices of appropriate attire. One would feel out of the context if he or she wears t-shirts in places where it is perpetually wet. On the positive side, environmental factors like pollution enlighten people to adopt sanitary precautions for their homes and cities (Pescitelli, n.d). People always maintain cleanliness at their places so that they can feel one with nature. Rural communities, for example, always cut their hedges frequently to make their homes presentable, refreshing and reputable.
Life style predetermines personality, though many people argue that personality affects choices in one’s life style. Lifestyle is also determined by one’s life experiences which influence vital decisions. According to Triandis (2002) attitude of an individual are shaped from life experiences. People have varied perceptions about life. Thus, these attitudes can establish one’s destiny; failures and success in life ladder. In another study, (Pescitelli, n.d) opines that adults deal with issues more positive as compared to the youngsters. Thus, one’s experience in solving challenges may influence how people handle issues later in life. Young people pose immature defense mechanisms and cope negatively with life experiences.
In conclusion, personality traits emerge during childhood but are influenced by a myriad of factors. Personality traits are derived from both environment and cultural aspects of life. One’s character is shaped majorly by life experience. The unique life experiences which occur for each person help influence the traits which can be transferred from generation to the other. More so, culture and environment determine one’s behavior in unison. People also learn through language acquisition process which involves interaction and sharing of experience. Thus, culture and environment will shape people’s lifestyle over generations
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Answer:
According to some sociologists, the development of personality and the acquisition of culture are not different processes, but one and the same learning process. The studies carried out in 1937 by Linton, the social anthropologist, and Kardinar, the psychoanalyst, demonstrate that each culture tends to create and are supported by a “basic personality type”.
In their view, the basic personality type found among most of the members of a particular society is the result of the culturally similar early childhood experiences, and not of instincts or inherent ‘drives’. The child is not born in a vacuum but in a cultural context which affects his mental make-up, habits and attitudes.
A given cultural environment sets off its participant members from others operating under different cultural environments. The following illustrations may be cited in support of the above thesis. Culture consists of both material and non-material elements. According to Ogbum, both of these elements have a bearing on personality.
By way of illustrating the influence of material elements of culture, he referred to the influence of plumbing on the formation of habits and attitudes favourable to cleanliness and to the relation of clocks to punctuality.
Ogbum says that the American Indians who had no clocks or watches in their culture had little notion of keeping appointments on an exact time.
According to him, the difference in the personality of an American Indian from that of a white American in the matter of punctuality may be traced to differences in the material elements of their culture (in the instant case, the possession of watches or clocks or their absence in their respective cultures).
Likewise, some cultures greatly value cleanliness, as is clear from the saying – “Cleanliness is next to godliness”.
The trait of cleanliness is greatly encouraged by the technology of plumbing and other cultural aids that are found with it. Language affords an instructive example with regard to the connection between the non-material or abstract elements of culture and personality.
Since language is the medium through which an individual obtains his knowledge about the basic premises and various facets of the “culture” of his community, it may be regarded as the principal agency for moulding his personality. This is evident from the fact that people who cannot speak generally exhibit warped personality.
It is evident from the aforesaid examples that culture has a very close bearing on the development of personality. Ideas, values, and behaviour patterns of an individual are largely the outcome of cultural conditioning.
It should not, however, be concluded that culture is a massive die that shapes uniformly all those who come under it with an identical pattern. Within the same culture, personality traits differ— some more aggressive and some less, some more submissive and some less, some more sensitive and some not so sensitive, and so on. In fact, culture is only one among many determinants of personality.