Social Identity, Personality and Gender

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Social Identity, Personality and Gender

• Chapter 6

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Nature vs. NurtureHow is culture obtained?

• Nurture John Locke (1690) An Essay Concerning
  Human Understanding
• Theory A baby is a blank slate. Adult
  personalities are exclusively the products of
  post-birth experiences, which differ from culture
  to culture.
• Nature Genetic Research
• Some genes/gene combinations are linked to human
  nature To what extent we are not yet sure.
• Both
• Genetics (Nature) are responsible for broad
  behavioral potentials and limitations.
• Cultural values and expectations, and life
  experiences especially in the early years
  (Nurture), contribute more to the intricacies of
  personality formation.

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EnculturationExactly what is passed down from
generation to generation, and how is it done?

• What
• Self-Awareness
• How Early positive reinforcement of the self via
  Mom, family and peers. Personal naming.
• Concepts of the Environment (Worldview)
• How Object orientation, spatial orientation,
  temporal orientation and normative orientation.
• Personality
• How Childhood experiences, dependence and/or
  Independence training,
• Gender Concepts
• How Through ideas about Intersexuality,
  Transgender, and the male/female gender split
• Culturally Acceptable Behaviors
• How Through behaviors deemed normal/abnormal,
  what is considered psychotic.

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Self-AwarenessThe ability to identify oneself as
an individual, to reflect on oneself and evaluate
oneself.

• Allows one to assume responsibility for ones
  conduct, to learn how to react to others, and to
  assume a variety of roles in society. Develops
  along with neuromotor skills
• Early mother/family cultural impressions
• Modern industrial societies vs. small-scale
  farming/foraging communities
• Modern industrial Self-awareness develops slowly
  (2yrs old) perhaps due to limited
  mother-to-infant contact.
• Ex (United States) Infant sleeps isolated from
  mother, does not nurse as frequently, spends 20
  of time directly next to mother. Positive
  correlation between longer breastfeeding and
  higher cognitive test scores, lower risk of
  attention deficit disorder, fewer allergies, ear
  infections and diarrhea.
• Small-scale farming/foraging communities
• Ex (Ju/hoansi zhutwasi) Infant sleeps with the
  mother, is carried/held most (70) of the time,
  and frequently breast-feeds (4 times an hour for
  1-2 minutes). http//www.youtube.com/watch?vSba4o
  jtfXFA
• Personal Naming
• Naming acknowledges a childs birthright and
  establishes its social identity. Without a name,
  an individual has no identity, no self. For this
  reason, most cultures have naming ceremonies A
  special event or ritual to mark the naming of a
  child
• Ex Icelanders. A patrilineal society. A girl
  would take her fathers first name (i.e. Olaf)
  and add dotter on the end, creating
  Olafdotter as her last name. A son would take
  his fathers first name (i.e. Sven) and add
  sen on the end, creating Svensen as his last
  name.
• Ex?

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Concepts of the Environment (Worldview)

• Object Orientation
• Cultures single out for attention certain
  environmental features, while ignoring others or
  lumping them together into broad categories
• Ex What objects could be labeled classroom
  items? Of the category we term animals, which
  are the most important to us? Why?
• When confronted with uncertainty, humans must
  clarify and give structure to the situation.
  Cultures construct explanations of the universe,
  and every culture has a different view, a
  different cultural lens.
• Spatial Orientation
• Names and significant features of places.
• Ex Plymouth is located at the Mouth of the
  river Plym
• Ex Mediterranean (Greek) means Between the
  Lands (of Egypt/Greece/Troy).
• Ex How to direct someone to the Cafeteria?
• Temporal Orientation
• Connecting past actions with those of the present
  and future provides a sense of self-continuity.
• Ex How old are you? How (by which units) do you
  measure this? At which age are you no longer a
  child? When would you consider yourself ready
  for retirement?
• Normative Orientation
• How to morally gauge your own actions or those of
  others. How to evaluate yourself based on
  culturally transmitted ideals, moral values and
  principles.
• Ex Why would taking and then permanently keeping
  your neighbors backpack/purse without asking, be
  considered wrong?

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PersonalityThe distinctive way a person thinks,
feels, and behaves

• Personalities are products of enculturation, as
  experienced by individuals, each with his or her
  distinctive genetic makeup
• Culture Genetic makeup Personality
• Culture is like a mask. Gradually the mask of
  culture as it is placed on the face of the
  child, begins to shape that person until there is
  little sense of the mask as a superimposed alien
  force. Instead it feels natural, as if one were
  born with it. The individual has successfully
  internalized the culture.
• Dependence vs. Independence training
• Dependence Training Child-rearing practices that
  foster compliance in the performance of assigned
  tasks and dependence on the domestic group,
  rather than reliance on oneself.
• Ex Docility, individual is subordinate to the
  group, community wishes and ideas have more
  weight than an individuals. Selfish/aggressive
  behavior actively discouraged. Family members
  all actively work to help and support one
  another. Characteristic of societies with an
  economy based on subsistence farming, or in
  foraging societies in which many family groups
  live together.
• Independence Training Child-rearing practices
  that foster independence, self-reliance, and
  personal achievement.
• Characteristics of societies in which a basic
  unit of parent(s) and offspring fends for
  itself. Typically found in trading and industrial
  societies. Babies are more separated from the
  mother. Children typically not given
  tasks/chores until later childhood. These tasks
  are usually carried out for personal benefit
  (i.e. for an allowance) rather than contributions
  to the familys welfare. Competition and winning
  are emphasized in school and life. Displays of
  individual will, assertiveness, an even
  aggression encouraged.
• Which category does predominant U.S. society fall
  under?

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Gender Concepts

• Biology Sex is determined according to whether a
  persons 23rd chromosomal set is XX (female) or
  XY (male). People born without one or the other,
  or with a mutation on the X or Y chromosome do
  not fit neatly into the male/female gender split.
• Intersexual A person born with reproductive
  organs, genitalia, and/or sex chromosomes that
  are not exclusively male or female.
• 1 of all humans (60 million people)
• Transgender A person who crosses over or
  occupies a culturally accepted position in the
  binary male-female gender construction.
• Winkte Among the Lakota, a third recognized
  gender, accorded considerable prestige in their
  communities.
• Acceptance/Importance of people who are
  intersexed varies culturally
• Greece/Ottoman Empire (1500 years ago)
• Eunuchs Castrated male individuals. The term
  means guardian of the bed in Greek. Ottoman
  Empire Were in charge of harems, but also
  occupied valued position such as priests,
  administrators and army commanders.
• India
• Hijra (also called Eunuchs) http//video.national
  geographic.com/video/player/places/culture-places/
  work/india_eunuchs.html
• People who are Intersexual/Transgender widely
  accepted in Western Society?
• Issues over Gay Marriage http//video.nationalgeo
  graphic.com/video/player/places/culture-places/bel
  iefs-and-traditions/uk_gaymarriage.html
• Changing sex http//video.nationalgeographic.com/
  video/player/places/culture-places/work/thailand_s
  exchange.html

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Culturally Acceptable Behaviors

• What is considered normal and acceptable in one
  society may be abnormal and unacceptable
  (ridiculous, shameful, and sometimes criminal) in
  another).
• Some cultures tolerate or accept a much wider
  range of diversity than others and may even
  accord special status to the deviant or eccentric
  as unique, extraordinary, even sacred.
• Ex (ancient Egypt) Dwarfs and the Blind.
• If one had Achondroplasia Associated with the
  protective God Bes (below far right) and were
  revered for their jewelry-making skills (above)
• If an individual was blind, playing the harp was
  destiny ?
• Ex (North America) the Manic and Hyperactivity
• More and more viewed as assets in the quest for
  success.
• Finely wired, exquisitely alert nervous
  systems, able to make one highly
• Sensitive to signs of change, able to fly from
  one thing to another while pushing
• the limits of everything and doing it all with
  an intense level of energy focused
• totally on the future.
• Culture-bound syndrome A mental disorder
  specific to a particular culture.
• Windigo among northern Algonquian Indian groups
  Individuals afflicted by the psychosis developed
  the delusion that, falling under the control of
  these monsters they were themselves transformed
  into Windigos, with a craving for human flesh.
  Although there are no known instances where
  sufferers of Windigo psychosis actually ate
  another human being they were acutely afraid of
  doing so, and people around them were genuinely
  fearful that they might.
• Paranoid Schizophrenia among Euramerican
  cultures Characterized by feelings of
  persecution from others, a withdrawal of the
  individual from society, a fear and mistrust of
  nearly everyone.
• Both draw upon whatever imagery and symbolism
  their culture has to offer. Northern Algonquian
  culture, this includes myths featuring cannibal
  giants. Irish Schizophrenia draws on
  Saints/Virgin Mary imagery. In secular
  Euramerica, this includes more non-religious
  persecution ideas.
• Check out Table 6.1 on pg. 147 of your book.