taylorsculturalblog

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Cultural Blog #8

For many people in Canada, identiy is not only tied to just one culture, but is instead a mix of multiple influences. This can be the case for children of immigrants, third culture children or individuals who have lived in different countries. Although the blending of cultures can be empowering, it also has challenges.

one challenge is the feeling of being in between cultures. Individuals who have two very prominent cultures in their lives can often feel like they do not solely belong in either one. This can be discoruaging and hard, due to norms within each culture. They may not be fully accepted into either and it can be a cause of stress.

Another challenge is balancing both cultures in their lives. For some people, cultures overlap in having opposite views or being celebrated at the same time. For myself growing up, sometimes Chanukkah fell on Christmas, which caused a rift in my family and a feeling of being torn in myself. Feeling like you have to choose a religion is a very stressful thought, and it can cause backlash from parents or family and a feeling of guilt in yourself.

code switching is a very good tool to be able to overcome this because it allows you to embrace both identities. many individuals can adapt their behaviour, language or practices depending what situation they are in to be able to feel a part of both communities.

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Cultural Blog #7

Media and pop culture have a very large impact on our beliefs over time. From the minute we are born our parents teach us their beliefs and values so that we can grow up to be good, decent people. We are taught right from wrong, norms and religious/spiritual practices.

However, when social media comes into play as we grow older, there is other influences than family, friends and schooling that begin to mesh with our preexisting values.

Apps like Tik Tok, Instagram and X(twitter) all have millions of people from all over the world giving their opinions, sharing their values and telling stories. The age at which we begin to use social media is an age that makes us susceptible to believing anything we see. This can alter our values and change our opinions from the ones that we were taught from our parents and schools. We must pay attention to this because just because it is on the internet does not make it viable or true, and can alter what we beleive to be normal. Although it is helpful to be able to see other points of view, it is important for individuals to be taught and maintain critical thinking skills as to not just believe everything that is seen on the internet. We must weigh options, opinions and reasonings from all sources to create a well rounded set of values and opinions that are inclusive and valuable

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Cultural Blog #6

How we interact with others is dependant on the social situations we are in. Everyone acts differently around specific individuals or in certain contexts due to cultural norms.

To expand on this, when you interact with your family, friends and in a work/professional setting, you tend to use different body language, words and tones. When you are in a workplace, it is a norm to speak professionally, not swear, treat others with respect and to hold yourself at a higher standard. It is more formal communication with more rigid (unwritten and written) rules and guidelines you are expected to follow. On the other hand, when interacting with friends or classmates it is often a lot more informal. Individuals may swear, make inappropriate jokes or use different body language. When hanging out with friends, each group is different. There are different types of friendships and attitudes when interacting with them. Some of us have more formal friends, some have informal friends or both.

We also may interact with these people differently depending on the setting that we are in. At work, we may treat out colleagues more professionally than we would at a staff christmas party for example. As well as when interacting with friends, we may act more formal than usual if the group takes a trip to a fancy resturant or museum instead of the informalities of being in your own space.

The social norms that we follow always have exceptions for different people and situations, although it very much has an impact on how we act and how we feel we should act

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Cultural Blog #5

Your level of comfort with your cultural self can be dependant on whether you are a part of a minority or dominant group. Having a sense of belonging is really important for mental health and feeling good about yourself.

Being a first generation immigrant can be very hard on individuals due to having to adapt to different lifestyles and meet all new people. Being seen as different from others can make you feel like an outcast because most of the cultural validation goes to the dominant group.

My bubbie and zaida used to talk about this all the time. When my ulta bubbie and zaida emigrated here from Germany during the second world war they found it hard to understand others as well as be understood by them. A lot of Jewish people thought this way, which is why they often moved in packs and moved to the same areas as other Jewish people. My bubbie and zaida grew up in Thornhill, Ontario, and they also raised my father in the same area. My ulta bubbie and zaida moved there originally because that was where a lot of the Jews went. There were synogogues on every other corner, not churches, Jewish cuisine, and most people you saw were orthodox Jews. It is not so much like this now, as a lot of them have spread out over the last 70 years. However, this is a prime example of people choosing to go where they are accepted and understood instead of trying to assimilate into other peoples culture. This takes away some of the microaggressions, confusion, and stereotypes they may face. It can be way more easy to get used to being in a new country when there is a sense of normalcy around, and that is exactly what my grandparents were looking for. I believe it allowed us to continue to stay proud of our culture and continue to pass it down to generations.

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Cultural Psychology Blog #4

Cultural scripts are unwritten guidelines that shape our traditions, expectations and daily behaviours. They influence how we interact with family and friends, how we celebrate milestones and how we express our emotions. We often dont question these behaviours because it is what we know and what we are used to. Holiday rituals can shape the way that we act during certain times of year and shape what we view as normal.

Holidays are a very important way that cultural scripts form us into who we are. Which holiday we celebrate, the food we eat on those holidays, the family or friends we spend time with and the rituals we perform all reflect cultural history. We are used to the traditions that we celebrate, that sometimes we can forget that other countries and ethnicities may have a completely different tradition. For example, in December, Christians, Catholics and many other religions celebrate the birth of Christ in celebrating Christmas, but those who practice Judaism celebrate the oil burning for the seven days of Chanukkah.

Cultural scripts are more than just habits, they offer insight into who we are and where we come from. We inherit them through through our parents and reinforce these learnings in our every day lives, eventually to pass them on to the next generation.

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Cultural Psychology Blog #3

Our family history influences how we view every day life, our values, and the paths we take to accomplish our goals. Whether its through immigration, our family traditions or historical trauma, the experiences that previous generations have continue to shape our lives emotionally, physically and interpersonally.

Immigration has a big impact on family history because it often brings many hardships. These hardships such as finding education or work, language barriers, financial barriers or trauma from the migration often effect later generations. These experiences can shape a persons worldview and that view is often passed down to generations. If a couple, for example, migrates from Germany to flee the war, their children may hear many stories of loss, and rebuilding life. This can impose on them a deep sense of gratitude and pressure to succeed, they may be anxious about politics and whether it may happen to them, and they may struggle with balancing their heritage with where they currently live. This is the same with historical trauma and family traditions. The views that our ancestors have are based on their experiences which affect how they raise their family. Relating back to Tomasello, he expressed that what makes human culture so complex compared to animals is our ability to teach what we learn and pass these ideas down. This is exactly how our family history has an impact on our thoughts, feelings, values and emotions, whether it is a direct or indirect influence.

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Cultural Psychology Blog #2

When reflecting on my level of comfort with my cultural self it is quite hard. The level of comfort with ones social identity often depends on how ones social group aligns with the dominant culture in society, and ones personal experiences as a result. I had a very complex relationship with that.

I am a third generation Jewish-Canadian. My ulta bubbie and zaida were very lucky to have successfully immigrated to Canada and escape the hardships and despair that the Holocaust brought to Germany. With this, my family had to change their name from Gerzbein to Baine in order to conceal our identity. For my zaida, this was extremely hard, and he did all he could to make sure that our family stayed true to our roots and kept in contact with our people. This meant settling in a community that was mostly Jewish. My bubbie grew up surrounded by her culture, going to synagogue, being in Hebrew school, and being proud of the culture her parents risked their lives for.

My bubbie, in turn, married a Jewish man and raised my father and aunt in the same community. He had the same sort of upbringing where he went to hebrew school, had a bar-mitzfah and was immersed in Judaism with prayer and practice.

My father did not marry a Jewish woman. He never wanted to. My mother is a Christian, and that drastically changed the way that I was raised in comparison to him and my Jewish ancestors. We were raised in a different community where there was one other Jewish boy in my whole grade. We did not go to synagogue, we did not participate in prayer, we did not learn Hebrew. We still celebrated all of the holidays such as Chanukkah and Yom Kippur and went to all the family gatherings, but we also celebrated Christmas and Easter. Jewish culture was new for my mom and Christan culture was new for my dad, so it was a soft subject, and therefore not often discussed. My brother and I did not have the opportunity to embracce either culture, if anything it was a fight as to which one should be respected and followed more. with this, i found myself at a cross roads in terms of what i feel i am religiously, and my level of comfort with both of them.

The level of comfort I have with my cultural self is the exact product of the attitude my parents had towards each others cultures. Although there was a feeling of minority due to growing up knowing no other Jewish kids, I never felt like I belonged with the Christian children because we did not practice in that sense either. It can be hard to find a sense of pride in your community when half of it is taboo where you live and the other half is prominent, but you know nothing about it. Pressures with internal conflicts can be extremely hard when you do not know where you belong or how to belong in either cultures. The dominance of Christianity showed throughout my childhood, and it altered my perception of Judaism. Having to hear about the size of my nose or beign told to pick up a quarter off the ground caused for confusion on my identity and my comfort with a culture that is so much a part of me.

My grandparents helped a lot with this as I got older because I was able to ask other people questions and find some answers and peace with it. I learned that you are able to blend cultures, celebrate and respect both ways of thinking and express them both at the same time. It took me a long time, but I was able to enhance my understanding of the histories of both cultures, appreciate them both for their similarities and differences, their simplicities and complexities, and really create a culturally diverse life for myself. Although it can be hard when there are hierarchies and cultural norms, I was able to embrace my Jewish side and show my pride in what my ulta bubbie and zaida sacrificed for us to carry this culture on.

Although it is different for everyone, my comfort with my cutlural self was shaped by my family in bad ways and good, but it was also shaped drastically by outside influences that were unclear to me at the time.

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Cultural Psychology Blog #1

The views that I have and live by are a mix of everyone and everything around me. I heard someone say once that we are the product of everyone and everything that has ever touched us, and I think of that as a very true, but intimidating way of looking at it.

My initial beliefs and values were directly imposed on me at a very young age by family members, caregivers, clinicians and education. When we are young it is crucial what is and isn't taught to us, because the younger we are, the more impressionable we are. If you told me now that a big fat old man named santa watched over us all and decided if we were good or bad to determine if we deserved the presents his elves made, I probably wouldn't believe you. But when I was 4, and lived by everything my parents told me, absolutely, that sounded like the greatest thing of all time!

Rules and sayings that I live by were mostly imposed on me by family members and caregivers that I had. For example, my Grandma always said 'no new shoes on counters'. To this day, no one in my family knows why, but no one dares place new shoes on any table-like surface. Family members also teach us behavioural traits that usually carry with us into adulthood. An example of this in my life is saying please and thank you, being compliant and respectful with those of authority, treating others as they treat you, never letting a man talk over me or belittle me and much more. My mom had some very strong opinions and values and i see those more in myself every day.

Academic knowledge, collaboration skills and interpersonal skills were taught to me in an educational and clinical setting. I learned to be able to work with any type of individual, whether I liked them or not, and I learned that maybe there was another way to solve a math problem or write a sentence if the first time I tried didn't make sense, and I learned that there is always two sides to a story. This was extremely important for my, and probably everyone else's development because it gave us a chance to be taught values and practices that aren't facilitated by our caregivers. This is crucial because sometimes there can be bias in terms of learning vocabulary, how historical events took place, or how to solve conflict with others. I found it was very important in my development to learn strategies and machanisms from a variety of different people in different fields so that i have lots of tools to use in many situations.

Beliefs that I have inferred include boundaries and consequences, social dynamics, and workplace etiquette and were developed through lived experiences, mistakes, and triumphs throughout my life so far.

When I was a teenager I somewhat-intentionally did everything I could to be the biggest pain to my parents as possible. I skipped curfew, I snuck around, I didn't go to school, I made bad friends and more. With this, I learned what warranted a worse punishment, I learned what was dangerous, I learned responsibility, I learned when to pick and choose my battles and more. The reactions that I got from my parents, school teachers and friends/romantic relationships taught me about unspoken rules in terms of respect, independance and safety. These lessons I now carry with me in all aspects of my life.

This also applies to situations such as the workplace. I had no idea how to act, what was appropriate for a job interview, how to speak to customers and more. However, with trial and error I learned what got me a positive versus a negative response and what to do in certain situations. Never again will I assume that two people are friends or if one person is paying or that they want their steak medium rare. These mistakes now allow me to thrive in workplace scenarios, and I owe all of that to my ability to learn from social cues, watch others and take advice.

By knowing where each of our values, beliefs, preferences and behaviours come from, and what/who has an influence on them, we are able to better understand why we hold the views we do and critically think about them. This can help us to be better people for ourselves, others and culture as a whole!