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Cultural Psych 372

When I first signed up for this course I was unsure what to expect as I had never taken a cultural psych before, I had only taken lifespan development. At first I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but as the weeks went by the material got more and more interesting to me. It was cool to learn about different cultures, and how they adapt when then immigrate (acculturation) and how culture has changed over all of the years (cultural evolution) however, as I said in my previous blog my favourite part was the physical health in cultures. That is what peaked my interest the most. I love learning the science behind things and that is just what it was. The articles that we provided were very intriguing and most often I was able to apply previous knowledge to what I was learning to further enhance what I was reading; for example I have taken plenty of biology courses and the first part of this course was on evolution and how it plays part in culture. Although there are two types of evolution, having a previous knowledge of biological evolution, allowed me to enhance my learning on cultural evolution. Another thing is, since I am a university student, it was interesting to read the research on pluralistic ignorance and hooking up, as I see much of this in my day to day life while in school. It is the social norm now to engage in that type of behaviour. Because of this course I was able to become more aware of my own culture and my own person values and beliefs to increase my understanding of the person who I am, and why I am that way. I would definitely recommend to my other classmates if they are looking for a way to learn about cultural differences and an insight into their own culture and cultural influences to take this course! 

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Physical Health in Culture

As a nursing student you are taught what cultures are more apt to develop certain diseases and what precursors certain ethic groups have, the text by Heine (2014) also talks about some of those things that people in different cultures have. Genetics is a big thing, as we know each and every person is genetically different and unique, but some cultures have influences on the human genomes such as; the enzyme for lactase - it was present in ancestors in Africa, but the populations in Northern Europe developed a mutation for the lactase enzyme. One of the biggest ways that people in cultures differ is in weight. It is known that the Americas have a high obesity rate meaning they have a BMI score of 30 or greater, although genes are said to have a contributing factor in weight, there is definitely cultural influences that also add to the extra body weight. Americans consume high amounts of fast food and soda pop accompanied with larger portions and sedentary lifestyles. The text mentions the French paradox which I thought was very interesting although the French population indulge in fatty foods such as rich creams, butters and sugary foods, yet, they have longer life spans, and lower instances of cardiovascular disease. This is puzzling to a lot of researchers because how can you have high fat foods, higher cholesterol yet have longer lives and less CVD. One explanation is that the french drink more wine, which helps platelet activity and decreases the chance of CVD (as a nurse, how cool is that!! ) Another simple reason is that, the French simply eat less than Americans portion wise and they consume fewer calories in a day. This chapter of the textbook is my favourite because it truly lays out how different each cultures really are regarding why certain ethnicities are this way, as opposed to why  this culture is this way. Its funny how in nursing school you learn all of these things, and they usually apply in every instance. For example this text talks about the socioeconomic status of people, and how African- Americans have a worse health outcome due to poor SES. The school of nursing preaches this information to its students in every class, and its so true, the SES plays the most important role in the lives of every individual and culture. Having a poor SES can lead to many health issues due to the fact that you might not have the education to know what is going on, the means, or transportation to get to a hospital, or you may have poor quality housing which is contributing to your illness. It really is just a circle of life, and its extremely sad that we are just watching certain cultural groups go round and round the circle without providing any support, or helping them receive the care they need. Another super interesting thing is medicine in cultures, some cultures choose not to accept the medication that is provided from hospitals (western medication) , instead they chose to use Chinese medicine which of course is extremely different than what we are used to and some people may have negative attitudes toward it, thinking that it is not going to work because its not what most people are used to. But, we have to accept each culture for being who they are, and we must also adapt to their ways of thinking to make it easier on everyone.

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Multiculturalism

Canada is a multicultural society, in fact they adopted a multiculturalism policy in 1971 which allowed all cultures and ethnic groups to feel safe and valued regardless of their language, background or religion. When you travel to bigger cities like Halifax, Toronto, or Montreal you can clearly see that their is a diversity in culture. Many Asians, Filipino or Muslim cultures seem to be the poplar minority culture who immigrate to Canada. The textbook written by Heine (2016) brings up speaks about different strategies for immigrants to acculturate there are four of them; integration strategy, marginalization strategy, assimilation strategy and separation strategy. The integration strategy is when immigrants chose to make the best of their situation and have positive thoughts about their new culture and their old. Marginalization strategy on the other hand is the complete opposite, these immigrants have negative thoughts toward both their new culture and their heritage culture, this strategy is rarely seen and would also be very strange?? Assimilation strategy is when the immigrant tries to fit in with they new culture by adapting to the new traditions of their host culture while making no effort to remember their heritage culture and lastly, Separation strategy involves maintaining their own culture while having no desire to adapt the traditions of their new culture, they have positive thoughts of their own culture and negative thoughts towards their new culture, which means they have no desire to acculturate. Im many other psychology courses I have completed I have learned about assimilation and I feel for me personally, it would be difficult to fully assimilate. If i were to immigrate to a new culture I would follow the integration strategy by keeping my own culture, but learning new things about other cultures, and valuing their traditions just as much as my own and keeping and open mind to the host culture. I think that as a Canadian who lives in a multicultural society, it is great knowing that we are so welcoming to other cultures, and that other cultures come to Canada as a place to be free from war. Another thing is, I think that being a caucasian female I am part of a majority culture and feel very safe and comfortable within my culture. Conversely someone who is a minority  may not feel as valued, or as safe as say me, a caucasian, and I don't think that should be the way, everyone should feel safe and comfortable within a culture even those two are native to the area. We can hope for a society like this one day. 

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Religion & Morality

As I have previously mentioned I was raised Catholic, and although I am not a practicing Catholic, I still consider myself to be a Catholic and was baptized, therefore I believe in God. But does that make me any better, or moral than someone else? An article that we had to read written by Norenzayan (2014) talks about religions and morality, saying that religion does not necessarily make you moral, nor do you need to have religion to be moral. You can act kindly to others without any kind of spiritual or religious belief. I believe this to be true as you can have people who are not religious in any way but would give their arm and leg to someone if it would benefit them in the smallest way. I have spoke about the fact that I work in a long term care facility many times throughout this course, and with that, I have had the experience of dealing with people who are palliative and have requested to be seen by their higher power (priest) to give them their last rights, or pray with them. This is an interesting subject because there are so many different religions and cultures, and nationalities that are coming together, but ultimately in the end, they are all asking for the same thing. Forgiveness and for their higher power to welcome them into their kingdom. I have had the experience of being with some elders while they received this prayer, and let me tell you the experience is unreal. Seeing the love of religion, and the love for the higher power, and the love for culture is unbelievable. In finishing this, you don't need to be religious to be moral, you can always be a good person just by basic values and beliefs of your own personal view, rather than spiritual or cultural views. However, often times religion is associated with morality mainly because their is said to be a higher power who is controlling the way you think or believe making you act in ways that are moral, but as we learn from Norenzayan (2014) those things can exist independently, and are not dependent of each other. 

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Provincial Election Day

As today is election day in Nova Scotia it brings a whole new light to the meaning of cultural tradition. In my nursing home today I was having the conversation with some older adults about the election - and its funny because many of them say they only vote the way they do because their parents did, and their grandparent did and so on and so forth - how it that for culture?? We were also talking about people choosing or not choosing to vote and how everyone should exercise their right to vote - this reminded me of the article by Savani et al (2011) about how individual choices may be good, or could be detrimental to society. Everyone has the right to vote, and when everyone exercises that right, it could be beneficial to society or not so beneficial depending on the government majority chooses. And, the the government also can contribute to how people experience culture. Some governmental parties are more welcoming to immigrants and give them a more positive experience and some make it difficult for immigrants to come to a country where they would flourish. As a side personal note, I was always taught that when voting I should compare all the platforms and make an educated vote based on who I thought would be best suited for our government - and I consider what they will do for our health care, education and how much money will be given to other resources such as mental health, or immigration services. I think this is a good tactic to pass down to my children to allow them to make their own decisions, and cultural beliefs based on how they as individuals feel and making sure they are away they have a choice to make, and as individuals they make a choice that could affect a society as a whole, either negatively, or positively!

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Parenting Styles

In the text book - it talks about three types of parenting - Authoritarian parenting which involves high demands of children - Authoritative parenting which involves a child-centered approach which holds high expectations of the maturity of their children - Permissive parenting which involves parents being very involved with their children; these are the main three types of parenting and I would say that growing up my parents were more of the authoritative type of parents who held high expectations for me but were also very warm and caring - because of this I believe that I had a different upbringing than my friends who had authoritarian type of parents. They were unable to do anything, and in turn rebelled from their parents when they were on their own. Another thing is that, since they were unable to do things, because their parents were hovering over them, they didn’t have as many cultural experiences as I did. As the text reads, many different cultures have different parent styles, with non-western cultures being more of the Authoritarian type for example: the Chinese have very strict rules and their parents are not as warm and responsive as parents in the US, which may be seen as cold to western cultures but, to other non-western cultures it is the norm. Since I grew up in the parenting style household that I did, my mother and I have a very close relationship, which makes me sad when I think of other cultures where daughters don't have very good relationships with their mothers, because this saddens me it also makes me more culturally aware that it is happening in other cultures and for a reason - allowing for the children to be socialized differently and have either individualistic or collectivistic visions of themselves. Final statement - i’m glad that I was raised in a parenting style that was warm and welcoming to my needs, i’m afraid that if I were raised any other way, I may not be the person who I am today, and for that I am thankful 

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My friend Lukas

When I was in high school I had a friend who was an Immigrant from Germany, he and his parents moved from Germany to Nova Scotia when he was 16, which as I just learned from the articles for my position paper is well past the sensitive period for acculturation. He and his parents had a difficult time adapting to the Canadian culture and the english language. I remember me and my friends trying to help him with his English homework because he just couldn't wrap his head around some of the way words were written and such. After doing my position paper and agreeing with Cheung 2010 I believe that if he had moved to NS at a younger age say 6, things may have been easier for him, his parents not so much. It is interesting to be able to bring what I have learned about culture in this course, and bring it into my own life with my own experiences. For Lukas, I think that having friends who were supportive was helpful in creating the change of cultures for him. His parents had a difficult time adapting to the Canadian culture and in particular the food, it was different for them and they had a hard time adjusting to their new lifestyle. Every weekend me and my friends would go over to his house and we would cook Canadian foods for them like poutine, maple syrup and the delicacy KD,  things that they don't usually have in Germany and then they would cook their native foods for us as well. It was our way of helping them adapt to their new surroundings, and eventually it helped them come out of their shell and they became more involved in the community and it helped them learn our culture which they came to love! As I just learned it is difficult for people to adjust to new cultures at an older age, but having a welcoming host culture helps in the difficult times. 

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Language

From 8 months old, I was able to walk, which is quite impressive for most children- I was 6-7 months when I said my first word which was BATH. As I grew up, I was in an English school in a very small community, and I excelled at spelling, writing and reading. I won all the awards for english and got all the prizes for spelling tests. But, what would have happened to me if I didn’t grow up in a surrounding where my parents taught me language. What would have happened to me if i had missed the sensitive period to learn how to speak English. After reading the text, it says there is a crucial period to learn language and after that period of time it becomes more and more difficult to learn language. It gives examples of children who were socially and physically isolated and when they were found, most were unable to speak, or spoke only few words, this shows the importance of nature and nurture and how important it is for children to be in a learning environment surrounded by people speaking their primary language. It is said that children are born ready to learn language and they start speaking words that are spoken to them often. Children are very smart, and learn very quickly, but when you take away that sensitive period for them to learn, it becomes more difficult for them to learn as normal children would. I had always wished that I could speak a second language (still to this day I wish I knew French) and I was upset with my mom for not putting me in French-Immersion, I did take the Core French classes in school, and did fairly well - but it was extremely difficult to learn another language. Now after reading that part of the text, I am aware that it may be influenced by the fact that my sensitive period to learn another language was closed. It does not making learning another language impossible (lots of people do it) , but it certainly makes it more difficult. I am still not giving up hope, maybe someday I will learn another language! One thing I thought was extremely interesting about the text was that they did a study in people who became bilingual later in life and did an fMRI of their brain and played their primary and secondary language and different parts of their brains would activate for each language (how cool) but when people who were bilingual from a very early age did they same thing, the same part of their brain activated for each language (even cooler) - Guess there is still hope for me to learn French! 

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What I have learned so far...

I was unsure what you expect from this course at first, however it has been interesting thus far. I have been able to explore methods of conducting cultural research as well as really understand how close humans are to primates. I was always aware that they were similar, as many evolutionary theories suggest so, but after reading the text I am more familiar with the ways in how we are similar to the great apes. Anything thing I found interesting was the size difference in our brain compared to that of other species. I knew that human has the highest intellectual functioning but it is interesting to know that are brains are larger because of that. Who knew..  I never was one to sit down and think about the different cultures, so for this course to make me do I, i believe that will make me a better person, and nurse, as I can learn about new cultures, new people, and how the interact with each other. It is interesting to learn about new things, and I am intrigued about learning more within this course, and expand my knowledge about culture. 

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Culture & My Everyday Life

Everyday is a new experience for me; As a nursing student I work at a nursing home mainly with people who have Dementia. The ironic thing about people with dementia is although they might forget some things , they most often remember the things that are really important to them such as their cultural influences. Many of the older adults I work with are still very religious, speak very articulately and dress to the nines. Although these particular things are often associated with older adults it was a big part of their life growing up. Back then the culture was different than it is now, the women stayed home and were the housewives while the men went out and provided for the family. Slowly, culture evolved so now men and women are both the providers for a family. It is interesting to sit and talk with the older people about what their life was life back then and how much different it is today. Working at a nursing home you come into contact with many different cultures and ethnicities such as Jehovah Witness, Natives, African Canadians, Catholic and Baptist. This job allows me to be culturally aware without even realizing it, everyday when I walk into work I interact with each person differently depending on how I know they want to be treated. That is the benefit of being a nurse, you work with all kinds of people, and can learn all kinds of fascinating things just from sharing stories. Part of why I love my job!

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My Cultural Experiences

I grew up in a Catholic family, being baptized at a very young age. From then, until now, I participated in many Catholic traditions such as first communion, Sunday mass and Christmas Eve mass; one thing that is different about my family is that although we all grew up Catholic (on my dad’s side) no one forced us to go to church, we were able to make our own decisions about what we wanted to do, and because of that, I feel that I had freedom in my own culture. I got to chose what I thought was best for me. My parents were really great at making sure I knew different cultures, and got to experience many things that not many people my age have (travelling, trying different foods) My community that I live in, it is next to an Acadian community, so I was able to interact with people of Acadian culture, as well as try all of their foods which many of my friends do not like (rapure pie, fricot, poutine) I feel that being exposed to different cultures has made me a more culturally aware. I am able to accept the fact that people have different values and beliefs than I do, and I am able to recognize different cultures. As I further my career in nursing, I expect to interact with many different cultures, and beliefs for example the Jehovah’s Witness not accepting blood transfusions. Since I grew up the way I did I will be more accepting of their culture, and whom they believe in. Growing up, not being forced to believe in one certain thing, has allowed me to be more understanding which I thank my parents for everyday. 

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What Is Culture To Me?

In my opinion culture is something that is around us everyday, and we are unaware of it most of the time. When we make a conscious effort to become aware of culture we are shocked at how different some people are than ourselves. I recently became aware of my culture when I travelled to Alberta, although it is still a part of Canada you would assume it would be no different. However, the food is different, the people are different many of them being of different nationalities, they have different beliefs and values, for example they don't hold the door open for others as we do in Nova Scotia, and they value money and work all the time. Another unique thing about this province is that many people who live out here are from Nova Scotia. I encountered a situation while I was out here that really showed me how culture is shared; I was at a restaurant and was being friendly, and the waitress asked “Are you from Nova Scotia” I said “Yes, how did you know?” and she said - “ People from Alberta are not as friendly, the Nova Scotians really stick out here “ This showed me that the Nova Scotian culture is known for being friendly and there is something about us that makes us unique. I have certain beliefs and values that not necessarily everyone believes may be right, and others have the same. This allows culture to be unique to everyone. Recently, I read the article that Tomasello (2016) provided and found out that culture is not just unique to humans, other non-human species are culturally inclined as well. This was not a shock to me as humans are often compared to the great apes and through evolutionary theories humans may have ever derived from apes. So would that mean that this would make culture unique to non-human primates?? Have we learned our culture from them? Food for thought.