Culture and social behavior

Abstract

Chapter 13 begins by seeking a definition of culture. It then explores the influence of culture on social behavior by examining cultural dimensions, cultural syndromes, and relational models. The cultural dimensions examined include individualism vs. collectivism, power distance, masculinity vs. femininity, long-term vs. short-term orientation, and indulgence vs. restraint. The cultural syndromes covered include tightness vs. looseness, individualism vs. collectivism, and cultural complexity. The known relationships between cultural syndromes and cultural dimensions are also explained. Social behavior is inspected in its four elementary forms of communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, and market pricing, and cultural differences with respect to the emphasis placed on each of these four forms are outlined.