Different Value and Belief Systems Present Across Cultures

This report discusses the different value and belief systems present across cultures through cultural profiling and self-construal. It includes a cultural autobiography and a comparison of two cultural frameworks to explain both cultural differences and similarities.

Assignment 2: Cultural
Autobiography
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
Different value and belief systems present across cultures through cultural profiling and self-
construal.................................................................................................................................1

Own cultural autobiography...................................................................................................1
Cultural autobiography of someone else................................................................................4
Compare and contrast the two profiles using the different cultural frameworks to explain both
cultural differences as well as similarities..............................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
The Cultural autobiography is tend to present the personal arrive and interpretation about
one’s own life along with the identification and evaluation of culture that tend to explore the
basic beliefs and perspective of the culture and society (Meskell, 2021). The current report
comprises of a discussion about the different value and belief system that are tend to present
across the culture through having effective profiling and self-construal. Finally, a Compare and
contrast of the different cultural frameworks to explain both cultural differences as well as
similarities is also provided.
Main Body
Different value and belief systems present across cultures through cultural profiling and self-
construal
It has been analysed and seen that the culture is vital within life of each individual that tend
to define and present that the individuals tend to see themselves and how they relate with the
others. Thus, the culture has significant influence on the life of an individual as it shapes the
development of its self concept and also reflects hoe one see ourselves and others (Wilson,
2021). Further, the terms self-construal tends to define and describe the cultural variation in the
way and manner the how people from different cultural backgrounds tend to conceptualise and
understand themselves for which use of an own cultural autobiography and analysis of some
these culture has been made that is provided as below:
Own cultural autobiography
A cultural autobiography comprises of a reflective and self-analytic information about the
cultural aspect of an individuals based on the past and present experience. Use of the below
stated questionnaire has been made to present my own cultural autobiography:
Questionnaire
Q1) To which cultural group and ethnicity do you belong?
a)White British
b) Black British or Afro-Caribbean
c) Gypsy/Traveller/Irish Traveller
d) Other
Q2) You and your family prefer to speak and interact in which language?
1

a) English
b) Polish
c) Arabic
d) French
e) Other
Q3) What are the main cultural values that are being taught to you by your family and
cultural society?
a) Democracy and Rule of Law
b) Respect and Tolerance
c) Individual Liberty
d) Individualism and power distance
e) All of the above
Q4) Your culture is based on and following across which belief system?
a) Christianity
b) Islam
c) Hinduism
d) Confucianism
e) Other
Q5) In your culture, if two or more persons are having a conversation and they both start
to speak at the same time, then how you would react when it has been realized that both of
two are speaking at the same time?
a) Both of them may continue talking simultaneously
b) One of them stop talking and the other one continue speaking
Q6) What tend to the people in your culture do when the one person is talking in a
conversation and at the same tune the listener one suddenly interrupts the speaker?
a) The speaker stops talking and the other one continues for speaking as nothing as happened
b) The one who interrupted apologies for having the interruption and either tries to give up their
thoughts quickly or just tend to indicates their intention to talk later when it is their turn.
Q7) Which one is the most happiest moment of your life and how your culture supported
2

its celebration?
a) Getting highest marks in an exam
b) Achieving and securing your dream job
c) Going to church for praying
d) Any other moment
Q8) How your culture tends to express the feeling of sadness and gloominess?
a) High arousal emotions are valued and promoted more than low arousal emotions.
b) Comfortable reporting of the depressive symptoms
c) Physical support is provided to comfort during sadness
d) External mental support is provided to comfort feeling of sadness and depression
Q7) Any other feeling and information wants to share about different value and belief
systems present across your culture?
Interpretation of the findings and own cultural autobiography based on answers of above
questions:
I belong to white British cultural group and ethnicity and me and my family prefer to
speak in English language. The main cultural value that are being taught to me com prises of
respect and tolerance along with having democracy and rule of law in our day to day life. I
belong to Christianity group of belief system. Further, in my culture of two or more persons are
having a conversation and they both start to speak at the same time, then One of them stop
talking and the other one continue speaking to cultural and ethically react when it has been
realized that both of two are speaking at the same time. Further, it has been also analysed and
seen that the when the one person is talking in a conversation and at the same tune the listener
one suddenly interrupts the speaker than the one who interrupted apologies for having the
interruption and either tries to give up their thoughts quickly or just tend to indicates their
intention to talk later when it is their turn. The most happiest moment of my life is the time when
I Pray to God and goes to church to thank God for all my achievements and success. Along with
this, my culture supports and High arousal emotions are valued and promoted more than low
arousal emotions to express the feeling of sadness and gloominess.
An analysis and reflection can be made out by me that my culture is having major
influence my life as the belief system of my culture that comprises of respect and tolerance as a
3

tolerant person leads to other views in a patience manner and respect that and effectively
understand their perspective to promote and create a peace and civil society. Further, democracy
and rule of law are also effective belief system of my culture that makes me more ethical and
create a scene of freedom and equality in my daily life. Along with this, praying to God is also
promoted by my culture that supports mental peace and reflects power of prayer to bring
positivity and happiness in my life that have influence in form of leading enthusiasm and more
positivity.
Cultural autobiography of someone else
Use of the above stated questionnaire has been also made to analysis and evaluate the
cultural autobiography of one of my known person who belongs to a different cultural
background an interpretation and discussion of which has been provided as below:
He belongs to a Turkish culture and the culture and ethnicity that has been adopted by him
and his family is based on Islamic culture as he belongs to a Muslim population. Further, he and
his family are habitual to speak on Turkish language but as they live in UK so are now having
effective use of language also. The main cultural values that are being taught in Turkish culture
consists of individual liberty along with respect and tolerance for other thus, a more emphasis on
the individualism as well as power distance has been made. While, it has been also seen and
analysed that in the Turkish culture of two or more persons are having a conversation and they
both start to speak at the same time, then One of them stop talking and the other one continue
speaking would react when it has been realized that both of two are speaking at the same time.
Along with this, within Turkish culture one who interrupted apologies for having the interruption
and either tries to give up their thoughts quickly or just tend to indicates their intention to talk
later when it is their turn when the one person is talking in a conversation and at the same tune
the listener one suddenly interrupts the speaker. Beside this, it has been also seen and analysed
that the achieving and securing dream job is the most happiest moment for an individual within
Turkish culture as it supports individualism and better life. Along with this, it has been seen that
the external mental support is provided to comfort feeling of sadness and depression which
provides and comprises of free, private and confidential telephone and online counselling
services are used to comfort a depressed person in form of Islamic community mental health
teams and systems.
4

Compare and contrast the two profiles using the different cultural frameworks to explain both
cultural differences as well as similarities
It has been seen and analysed that the people and individual from different cultures tend to
constructive and live their life in different way. The cultural formworks and theory supports the
two distinct ways of culture that is independent self and interdependent self that made a dramatic
impact on the study and reflection of the culture. Implication and use of the Cultural Self-
Representation Theory has been made to effectively analysis and seen the cultural difference
and similarities based on association between the macro level cultural elements as well as the
micro level behaviour (Cultural Frameworks, 2021). This, cultural framework supports the fact
that culture presents and understood as the set of the common belief and also uphold the people
together. Further, these cultural frameworks and theorises also supports the facts that the Cultural
representation is an incredibly important thing that allows for people of different ethnic
backgrounds to be represented in ways that highlight their cultures (Fragkou, Martha and
Vrasida, 2021). Along with this, this cultural framework also supports the fact that the cultural
representation is vital and important because it makes people feel seen and validated when they
see characters like themselves.
The BID model is also a vital cultural framework that focuses and emphasis on the
natural order that is involving a balanced system resulting in form of interdependent integration
of differentiated components thus supported better analysis and implication of similarity and
difference among the culture. The BID model also supported consistent attachment theorist that
is important for both effective attachment and exploration of culture based on propose autonomy
and relatedness (Azeem and et. al., 2021). Further, based on the above analysis, a compression
between the White British and Turkish culture has been made. It has been seen that the White
British are followers of Christians culture while the Turkish family are admiring of Islamic or
Muslim Culture. Along with this, a contrast has been also made that the White British are
habitual of speaking and interacting in English language whereas Turkish language offer to talk
and interact in Turkish language (Shumar and Bengtsen, 2021). It has been analysed that the
White British individuals like to pray and goes to church to celebrate their happiness while for
Turkish culture achieve the dreams and getting a dream job is the happiest moment. Along with
this, it has been also seen that White British supports tolerance and respect that has been also
admire by the Turkish people which is a common phase between these two culture. Beside this,
5

the one who interrupted apologies for having the interruption and either tries to give up their
thoughts quickly or just tend to indicates their intention to talk later when it is their turn is also a
similarity among the British and Turkish culture (Knapp, 2021). Along with this, it has been also
observed based on the current cultural autobiography that the White British people are having a
culture of collectivist values along with having an outlook that emphasizes relatedness together
with sharing a close tie with the family, relatives, and neighbours (Hiller and MacMillan, 2021).
On the other hand, the Turkish culture seemed to have emphasize individualistic values and self-
construal involving independence, autonomy, self-direction, and personal achievement (Borges
Florsheim and Simão, 2021).
CONCLUSION
On the basis of current study and analysis, a conclusion can be made that individuals tend to
have different culture that has significant impact on their life. A summarisation could also be
made that cultural autobiography provides an effective way to reflect about and have self-
analytic information about the cultural aspect of an individual based on their past as well as
present experience. Further, a conclusion can be made that the Cultural Self-Representation
Theory supports better comparison and analysis of different culture along with BID model that
supports effective cultural framework.
REFERENCES
Books and journal
Azeem, M. and et. al., 2021. Expanding competitive advantage through organizational culture,
knowledge sharing and organizational innovation. Technology in Society, 66, p.101635.
Borges Florsheim, D. and Simão, L.M., 2021. Towards rethinking the primacy of
foundationalism: Epistemology, dialogue, and ethics in psychopathology. Theory &
Psychology, 31(2), pp.161-178.
6

Fragkou, D., Martha, L. and Vrasida, M., 2021. Intangible Cultural Heritage in Spata Greece:
From Mythology to Gastronomic Folklore and from Tradition to Contemporary Culture.
In Culture and Tourism in a Smart, Globalized, and Sustainable World (pp. 729-736).
Springer, Cham.
Hiller, C. and MacMillan, D.C., 2021. How worldview and personal values can shape
conservation conflict–The case of captive-bred lions. Biological Conservation, 258,
p.109151.
Knapp, P.J., 2021. Understanding Religious Abuse and Recovery: Discovering Essential
Principles for Hope and Healing. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Meskell, L., 2021. Object worlds in ancient Egypt: Material biographies past and present.
Routledge.
Shumar, W. and Bengtsen, S.S., 2021. An Entrepreneurial Ecology for Higher Education: A New
Approach to Student Formation. In The University Becoming (pp. 125-138). Springer,
Cham.
Wilson, A.F., 2021. The Commingling of Religion, Politics and the Folkloresque in a Far-Right
Groupuscule. Folklore and Nation in Britain and Ireland.
Online:
Cultural Frameworks. 2021. [Online] Available Through:<
https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/
9780195075809.001.0001/acprof-9780195075809-chapter-3 >.
7