Cultural identity and Cultural biases.ppt

PPT on cultural identity and biases

1. CULTURAL IDENTITY
AND
CULTURAL BIASES
© Phan Thị Vân Quyên
ULIS -VNU

2. CULTURAL IDENTITY

3. THE NATURE OF IDENTITY
•IDENTITY is who you are, the way you think
about yourself, the way you are viewed by the
world and the characteristics that define you.
•One’s identity = one’s self-concept
•An individual’s self-concept is built on cultural,
social, and personal identities

4. •Cultural identity = one’s sense of belonging to a
particular culture or ethnic group
•Social identity= the consequence of memberships in
particular groups within one’s culture.
The characteristics and concerns common to most
members of such social groups shape the way
individuals view their characteristics
•Personal identity = people’s unique characteristics,
which may differ from those of others in their cultural
and social groups

5. CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURAL IDENTITY
•Cultural identityis related to nationality, ethnicity,
religion, social class, generation, locality, or any kind
of social group that has its own distict culture
•Cultural identity is the central, dynamic, multifaceted
component of one’s self-concept

6. Cultural identities are multifaceted
•At any given moment, people have many
“components” that make up their identity
•“Many people’s identities are not locked into a single,
uncompromising category, but incorporate other
identities as well” (Young Yun Kim)

8. Cultural Identity is central to a person’s identity
•Most components of identity become important only when they are
activated by specific circumstances
•E.g. the experience of living in another culture or interacting with a
person from a different culture triggers an awareness of one’s
own cultural identity that he did not have before

9. •Aspects of one’s cultural identity can be activated
not only by direct experiences with others but also
by
–Media reports
–Artistic portrayals that have particular cultural
themes
–Musical performances that are identified with
specific cultural groups (such as rap music)
–A range of other personal and mass-mediated
experiences

10. Cultural identity is dynamic and changes with one’s
ongoing life experiences
•Over time, as people adapt to various intercultural
challenges, their cultural identity may be
transformed into one that is substantially different
from what it used to be

11. Conflicting identities
•Conflicting identities arise as a result of membership of
different groups
•Second-generation immigrant youth (i.e. children of
immigrants): bicultural by holding both heritage and
mainstream cultural identities
•When cultural expectations do differ, these individuals can
typically switch between cultural identities as a strategy to
avoid conflict
•However, for some issues, switching between identities will not
resolve the conflict because fulfilling the expectations
associated with one identity is done at the expense of the ones
of the other identity

12. Third Culture Kids
•TCKs = children who spend their formative years in
places that are not their parents’ homeland
(expatriate children)
•TCKs often develop an identity that’s rooted in
people rather than places
•TCKs = citizens of everywhere and nowhere

13. CULTURAL BIASES

14. •During the socialization process, people learn to view
themselves as members of particular groups (ingroups)
•People are also taught about groups to which they do not
belong, and they often learn that certain groups should be
avoided (outgroups)
•Our culture affects our view about where we belong and
whom we consider to be “US” and “THEM”
→ A universal human tendency: define others as either
part of our own ingroup or as part of our outgroup

15. Cultural biases are based on normal human tendencies
to view ourselves as members of a particular group and
to view others as not belonging to that group

16. In-group bias
The tendency to favour one’s own group
Cultural biases are rooted in cultural identity

17. ETHNOCENTRISM
The bias towards
ingroup results in
ethnocentrism

18. •The notion/emotional attitude that one’s own race, nation, or
culture is superior to all others
•The view of things in which one’s own group is the center of
everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference
to it
(William G. Sumner)
→ Ethnocentric people interpret the world from their own
viewpoint
Definitions of Ethnocentrism

19. Why Ethnocentrism?
•Culture shapes it people’s thought and behavior
→People tend to
-perceive their own experiences as natural, human,
and universal
-believe that their behavior is right and correct
•Thus, people from other cultures who do things
differently are wrong

20. •Ethnocentrism is found in every culture (including co-cultures)
in varying degrees
•There is nothing wrong with ethnocentrism when our culture
is simply preferred over others. Indeed, it may result in great
pride, from which we draw our psychological support and
personal self-worth
•Howerver, the natural tendency to use our own culture as a
starting point when evaluating others’ behaviours can
escalate and result in stereotype(cognitive bias), prejudice
(emotional bias) and racism(behavioral bias), which are
genuine obstacles to intercultural competence

21. The difference
betweenEthnocentrismandXenocentrism
•Ethnocentrism= the
tendency to overvalue
one's own native
cultural beliefs and
values and therefore
devalues the worth of
the elements of other
cultures
•Xenocentrism=the
tendency to value other
cultures more highly
than one’s own
(i.e. preference for the
products, styles, people,
food or ideas of a different
culture, rather than of
one's own)

22. CULTURAL GENERALIZATION
•GENERALIZATIONS are descriptions of commonly observed
patterns , broad tendencies or norms in the behavior of a
group of people
•Be careful : not everyone will fit the generalization. Culture,
unlike language, does not contain fixed rules that apply to all
of its members
•It’s possible to generalize about culture, and we have to when
communicating with people from different cultures
•A generalization is only a working hypothesis, a starting place
to help us understand those from a different culture

23. •The most accurate generalizations about culture are
expressed in terms of
+ “In general, …”
+ “Many/ Some Americans …”
+ “Americans prefer that ...”
+ “Americans may react in this way when ...”
•Words such as : all, no, always, never, … usually
indicate an overgeneralization or a stereotype.

24. STEREOTYPE
•It’s easy to overgeneralize and apply the actions and
behavior of a few people from a particular group to
the entire group.
•Stereotype = general description of a group of people
which does not point out differences among
individuals in that group
•Stereotypes = exaggerated beliefs & images about
groups of people and are often based on a lack of
information or contact.
•Stereotypingis the tendency to put every single
person into a fixed category, and thus deny their
individual identity

25. •Stereotypes can be positive and negative
•Negative stereotypes can give false picture of a culture
•Positive stereotypes set the bar unrealistically high →
cause the stereotype holders to be disappointed when
confronted with the truth, and at the same time create
unnecessary burdens on those who are viewed through
such stereotypes (because they are under great pressure
to live up to unrealistic expectations)
•In a multicultural society, maintaining positive stereotypes
about one specific group accentuates negative
stereotypes about others → promote legal unjustice,
social hostility, racial hatred, and deepen group conflicts

26. Stereotypes tend to limit, rather than broaden,
one’s views of other cultural groups

27. PREJUDICE
DEFINITIONS OF PREJUDICE:
Prejudice = an evaluation or emotion toward people
merely based on their group membership
Prejudice = Negative attitudes toward other people
that are based on faulty and inflexible stereotypes

28. Prejudiced attitudes include
•Irrational feelings of dislike and even hatred for
certain groups
•Biased perceptions and beliefs about the group
members that are not based on direct experiences and
firsthand knowledge
•A readiness to behave in negative and unjust ways
toward members of the group

29. Xenophobia
Xenophobia, from the Greekxenos, meaning "stranger" or "foreigner",
andphobos, meaning "fear“
Some definitions:
•dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.
•fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is
strange or foreign
•an expression of perceived conflict between aningroupand
anoutgroupand may manifest in suspicion by the one of the
other's activities, a desire to eliminate their presence, and fear of
losing national, ethnic or racial identity.

30. •Prejudice = people’s attitudes or mental
representations
•Discrimination = the behavioral manifestations of
prejudice (or prejudice “in action”)
•Discrimination = unequal treatment of certain
individuals solely because of their membership in
a particular group
DISCRIMINATION

31. •Discrimination can occur in the form of biases in the availability
of housing, employment, education, economic resources,
personal safety, legal protections
•Individual acts of discrimination are not as common today as
they were in the past. What is more common is discrimination in
the fabric of social institutions—in the rules, processes,
procedures, operating systems, and practices of these
organizations.
•Many of the social issues we’re facing today are the indirect
consequences of institutional discrimination : gender pay gap,
shortage of women and minorities in leading positions,
achievement differences in education, higher suicide rate among
men and marginalized groups, etc.

32. •Often, biases and displays of discrimination are
motivated not by direct hostility toward some other
group, but merely by a strong preference for, and
loyalty to, one’s own culture
→ The formation of one’s cultural identity can
sometimes lead to hostility, hate, and discrimination
directed against nonmembers of that culture

33. •Naturally, we have evolved to build a strong affection for our
ingroup and our culture, it becomes the center of everything, a
yardstick that all other groups/cultures are measured and
judged by
•Our pride and sense of superiority leads to a tendency to look
down on and distrust outgroup memebers. Outgroup members
can mean “threat”
•In a nutshell, the love for our ingroup and culture automatically
causes us to have negative attitudes towards outsiders. Our
cruelty to “them” is the result of our kindness to “us”

34. POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION
•Discrimination on the basis of certain attributes such as age, sex,
race, religion or disability is not always against the law.
•The term ‘Positive discrimination’ is sometimes used to refer to
‘positive measures’ or ‘special measures’taken to redress historic
injustices committed against racial minorities and other specified
groups so they can have similar access to opportunities as others in
the community.
•It is theprovisionofspecialopportunities , often in education and
employment (e.g. a particular number of jobs, places
atuniversity,etc) for members of disadvantaged groups

35. •The US equivalent of Positive Discrimination is Affirmative
Action
•Positive Discrimination/Affirmative Action attempts to
provide immediate remedy for past discrimination and
prevent discrimination from taking place in the future.
•It promotes EQUALITY by recognising that when people are
in unequal positions, treating them the same perpetuates
systemic inequalities.

37. RACISM
•A tendency to categorize people who are culturally
different in terms of their physical traits, such as skin
color, hair color and texture, facial structure, and eye
shape. (Robert Blauner)
•Levels of racism : individual, institutional, cultural

38. •Racism is often used synonymously with Prejudice and
Discrimination
•What distinguish it from these 2 terms are oppression and
power
▼
•Power:Groups in control of institutional and cultural power
use it to keep members of groups who do not have access to
the same kinds of power at a disadvantage
•Oppression:Racism oppresses entire groups of people,
making it very difficult, and sometimes virtually impossible,
for their members to have access to political, economic, and
social power.

39. XenophobiaandRacismoften overlap, but
differ in that
•Racism is based on physical characteristics
while
•Xenophobia is "based on the perception that
the other is foreign to or originates from
outside the community or nation".

40. Ethnocentrism, stereotype, prejudice,
discrimination, and racism are so familiar and
comfortable that overcoming them requires a
commitment both to
•learning about other cultures
•understanding one’s own culture