Bulldogger's Path

                       Culture and Psychology      In all cultures of the world, there are cultural stereotypes. Sometimes, the belief in these stereotypes can grow so strong they unconsciously affect our actions. These strong beliefs also can affect our Psychology. This effect can be felt even here in the USA.     In this blog, I will be taking stories and quotes from Professor Ivers of BYUI. His lesson transcripts can be found here:  https://content.byui.edu/file/c615d56d-e670-4fbe-8b8b-64325e977465/1/06%20Culture%20and%20Psychology.html.     In the islands off the coast of Panama there is an indigenous group called the Kuna. The Kuna have strong a cultural belief in evil spirits. Professor Ivers related the following story. "Another thing written by an anthropologist who spent some time with the Kuna. He says the spirit realm is constantly impinging on the lives of the Kuna ...

06 Difference in Manners                My mother passed away when I was eight. When my father remarried, it was to a lady from England. As I was still a kid at the time, I did not notice how much of a shock our family culture and mannerisms were to her. Culturally, I was raised by two parents from Utah and northern Nevada. They brought their culture and manners with them. I was also brought up in Texas. This added different dimensions to my personal culture and manners. Neither of these cultural mannerism were what my step-mother’s British upbringing gave her. There were definitely some adjustments made on both our parts.     Once again, I will be pulling a lot of information from Professor Ivers of BYUI. The transcript I will be using is found here:  https://content.byui.edu/file/3b9f9a3b-1633-41fd-a1cb-371052401ec8/1/Differences%20in%20Manners.html. He gives out a lot of great examples of the differences in cultu...

06 Cross-Cultural Students in the Classroom     There are many different cultural paradigm based on the culture your were raised. These paradigms vary from state to state and from country to country. In the last few of my blogs, I have discussed some of these. Today, I am going to blog about culturally educational paradigms.     As you have probably guessed, I will be taking a lot of my information and quotes from Professor Ivers of BYUI. Here is the link to the transcripts of his lesson:  https://content.byui.edu/file/5ea5aa3a-0806-4dd5-8106-1ba4f85b3656/2/Cross-Cultural%20Students%20in%20the%20Classroom.html.     I was raised in the South West. As was raised and went to school in Texas. In school, we were taught to respect the teachers. As an example, we were taught in Kindergarten to always answer our teachers with "Yes, Ma'am or no, Ma'am." If it was a male teacher, we would use Sir instead of Ma'am. I thought this was how all students in the ...

       Attributional Tendencies Cultures     This is a subject that I do not believe I have heard explained before. The attributional tendencies  theory attempts to explain a persons reasoning behind their blaming themselves or others for successes and failures.      In Professor Ivers class transcripts ( https://content.byui.edu/file/45b9e59e-e91a-44eb-879b-18efd35d7bab/3/Attributional%20Tendencies%20Cultures.html) I learned this is not just an issue found in the USA, it is found in all cultures. I guess you could say it is a human trait.     An example of an attributional tendency could be shown in my response or reaction to my tripping and falling down the stairs. If I blamed myself by claiming to be clumsy, I would be showing an internal attribution. I am the cause, or something attributed to me. If I was to blame the stair, or the craftsman who built it, I would be exhibiting external attribution. It is someone e...

            Personal Space Differences     We each have a amount of space we like to keep around ourselves. This is often referred to as personal space. This is the subject I studied about this week in my TESOL class as we learned more about cultural differences and how they affect teaching English as a foreign language. I am going to refer to two different articles for my information in this blog post. The first is found at this website   https://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/book_of_body_language/chap9.html. I am unsure of the author. The second a lesson transcript by Professor Ivers of BYUI and is found here: https://content.byui.edu/file/b224d5c7-20ff-4f88-9660-7bfb4d1669fc/2/Personal%20Space%20Differences.html.     Professor Ivers points out that we all have differing amounts of personal space we feel comfortable maintaining. These space requirements are often culturally instilled in our psyche. Ge...

                   Individualism vs. Collectivism     Continuing on my previous post about cultural differences, I want to discuss the differences between individualism and the group mentality.     I really enjoyed this subject. I have previously stated how I served a proselyting mission in Japan for my church. Much of this weeks reading in my TESOL class discussed the group mentality found in Japan. I agree with the majority of what was covered by Professor Ivers of BYUI. Transcript address is:   https://content.byui.edu/file/5312ca2a-4f25-4d01-8386-f505b0c1dad6/3/Individualism%20vs%20Collectivism.html      Professor Ivers related a story of a Japanese High School baseball team who had some players involved in a drunk driving accident. While the damage was minor, in regards to the vehicles involved, the damage to the students, the ball team, the coach, and the reputation to the scho...

             Differences in Emotional Expressivity     I am working on improving my marketability after I retire in a few years. As part of that improvement, I am taking a TESOL class from BYUI.      In the most recent class assignment, I read a lesson given by a professor Ivers at BYUI. This class is about cultural diversity. The link to the to the transcript is:  https://content.byui.edu/file/81c5f26e-4a29-4c68-accb-c2b1539f93a0/2/Differences%20in%20Emotional%20Expressivity.html     I learned some interesting things about culturally controlled emotional expression. Professor Ivers used a line graph as a basis with low and high public emotional expression on either end. The emotional expression of the USA was mostly centered on the graph with Oriental countries on the Low end and Central/South American countries on the High end of public displays of emotional expression.     I have serv...

                                              Cultural Miscommunication      As I stated in a previous blog post, I have been studying cultural differences between cultures. Today I will be taking from the transcripts of a lesson taught by Professor Ivers. The transcripts can be found here:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vS0ZiRnLAFQvvqGISzyL4c3-oeo_fSBVr2BuvCARnjcAUOEfrud3OAp-AqbyOp81OJ3CFT12vR2VwBo/pub.     There are many different cultural misunderstandings that cause strife in between societies. Reading this lesson opened my eyes to quite a few. For example, in Japanese society and custom, it is considered rude to accept a compliment. If you give a complement, the person receiving it will self-deprecate themselves to offset it. I am remembering another Japanese custom from my mission in Japan. In Japan,...

               Culture Differences Concerning Time     I have recently been learning a lot of interesting things about Cultural Differences. This time I want to mention time, or rather the difference in the American (USA)  and the American (Central and Southern countries)  culture in regards to time.     I will be taking this blog post from Professor Ivers' BYUI lesson of the same title as this blog post. His video lesson can be found here:    https://video.byui.edu/media/04+Cultural+differences+in+Concerning+TIME/0_1cjop6lc.     There are two distinct cultural ways time is expressed:  polychronic and   monochronic. In the USA and most European countries, we are a monochronic culture. Monochronic cultures focus on doing one thing at a time. In the USA, when we set an appointment, we expect it to start on time. We expect the other person to be on time. Starting on time is ma...

10-12-2021                      W05 Blog: Culture Paradigms     I have recently gone back to school. I am studying online, seeking to gain a degree to increase my personal marketability for when I retire. I have a largish family and have not been able to save enough for a work free retirement. One of the courses I am studying this semester is TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course. I am seeking a TESOL certification, so I can potentially teach English online as a retirement job.  This week we are focusing on personal and interpersonal Paradigms.     Paradigms control how we perceive the world.  They are quite literally the lens through which we see the world. They control our interactions and emotions. They are often a product of our culture.     I learned some interesting examples of cultural paradigms. Professor Ivers, a dean in BYUI (Brigham Young...