Question

Discussion 1: What is the significance of a “Small Axe” and who is wielding it, and how do this song and chapter connect to both rural and urban Jamaican life as described in Catch a Fire?

Discussion 2: What are some ways culture (i.e., values, beliefs, customs, and norms) influence behavior and the way humans see the world?

Answer 1

Your Discussion 1 does not fall within the paradigm of psychology, so I suggest please take help of some other domain. However I will explain Discussion 2.

This topic comes under the discussion of cross-cultural psychology. To begin with let me describe culture in psychological terms.

Culture consists of behaviour, belief, values, customs, objects, norms and other characterists common to members of a particular society or group.

Culture by its means of norms, values and customs set aside few rules and regulation which dictates our way of living. Culture plays a major role in the way we think, we behave, what we eat, what we wear and how we interact with others.

To simplify such diverse cultures around the world, we broadly recognise two different types of culture, ie, (1) Collective or interedependent culture and (2) Individualistic or independent culture. Other ways in which we can categorise culture are as follows:

1. Complexcity ( Difference between modern, influencial,affluent culture and that of simpler culture such as residents of monastry)

2. Tightness Vs Looseness ("Very little deviation from norm behaviour tolerated" Vs "Fairly large deviation from norm behaviour tolerated")

However the most popular way of categorising culture is in terms of Individualism Vs Collectivism.

In individualistic culture people are mainly concerned with themselves and only close family and friends, while in Collective society people have a sense of belonging to larger in-groups and has a sense of loyality and commitment towards other members of the group.

Both this cultures have a strong influence on Social confirmity: Collective culture are more likely to do social confirmity when the rules and norms are clearly defined and where deterrant behaviour is likely to be penalised. Where as Individulistic culture are less likely to do social confirmity because of its loosely defined norms and rules. Moreover in collective societies, identification with the in-groups is higher therefore it leads to higher confirmity whereas in Individualistic society, identification with ingroups is lower and thus thus lower confirmity. The identification of Individualistic culture is low because there are multiple in-group which makes it difficult to identify with all.

Culture also influence the way we view or see ourselves. One study conducted by Markus and Kitayama, found that Individualistic people tend to view themselves independent-define themselves unique, relatively stable and unchangeable character and see themselves as different from others and emphasise on their personal traits-whereas people from collective society are more likely to hold interdependent view of themselves-characters are more changable to the options of others, more connected with others and define themselves in relationship with others.

Individualistic and Collective culture can be moderated by social context as well. For example, in one study it is found that people from two cultural backgrounds are more likely to become individualistic when shown images of individualistic culture and collective when shown images of collective culture. Therfore individuals are likely to shift between cultures depending upon the social context.

Culture also impact relationships: Colective culture views relationship to be more stable and unchangeable. Additionaly other research has also found that, in collective society there is greater commitment to not to be a burden on close members. In individualistic culture, relationship is viewd as voluntary and the person can choose to end or begin a relationship out of personal benefit.

Western culture like the one found in United States and other Western Countries are more likely to have Individualistic culture whereas as Eastern Countries like Japan and other south eastern countries are likely to have Collective culture.However, it is not necesary that all the indiviaduals from Eastern countries should depict collective culture or vice versa. For example in one study by Kitayama found that, indivuduals from Northern frontier of Japan are more likely to commit fundamental attribution bias (external traits are responsible for behaviour while ignoring internal traits) much like American unlike those of mainland Japan.