Cultural Psychology: Cross-Cultural Aspects and Individualistic Traits

Running head: CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY
Cultural Psychology
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Part 1
I have been fortunate enough to take the interview of an individual belonging from a
different cultural and religious background. As per my perception conducting these interviews
are really very helpful as they help in gaining a huge knowledge about the cross-cultural aspects.
In other words this is very helpful as it has aided me in becoming much more sensible and
proficient both in my personal and my professional lives.
The person whom I interviewed is named Kate McAleese. She is of 22 years of age and
is a resident of Canada. She is of a mixed origin as her father is Irish and her mother is Scottish.
This has resulted in mixed Nationality that is Scottish and Irish. Her mother has a diploma from
Sheridan College in Executive administrative studies and is currently a Librarian Technician at
an elementary school. Her father is in the profession of trade and commerce and has been
engaged there for about 35 years as an electrician. Kate has one sister who has completed her
commerce degree at Humber in marketing. She is currently pursuing her career in the course of
Human Resources Management, Business Commerce program at the Humber University. There
are four members that make up her family and they have no pets. She confirmed that she is not
sure about the religious order that she will follow. In other words she is suffering confusion in
this field as she has been exposed to two different types of culture right from her childhood.
Culture type – collectivistic vs. individualistic
Kate’s father follows the religion of Catholic Christianity whereas her mother happens to
be an atheist. Her sister has decided to follow the Catholic religion thus she is sure about herself
in the aspect of religion. However my interviewee that is Kate McAleese suffers from a state of
confusion regarding which religious sect to follow. Kate’s family is following more of a

3CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY
collectivist culture. This is because all of them work together and work for supporting and
helping each other. Thus they like to stay in an interconnected and interdependent manner.
However Kate shows a different nature as she has her own opinions and thoughts. This has
brought a kind of individualistic trait within her. Thus Kate is following the individualistic
culture over the collectivist culture. She is independent in nature and in her thoughts as well.
This is evident that even after reaching a good enough adult age of 22 years and being a college
student she refused to follow the religion of her father and confirmed that she is still trying to
figure out which religious order she wants to follow. Thus she is not showing the interdependent
trait as she confirmed that she is not blindly following the traits of religion or culture that has
been set by her family.
Part 2
I feel that this interview has been very helpful as it has helped me immensely to take up
the cross-cultural platform. I feel that dealing with the cross-cultural aspect is one of the most
important things in the modern day organizational setup. This helps in understanding the
difference and the variations that lie among people because of their culture, origin and linguistic
background. As per the opinion of Tricco et al. (2017) social factors play a major role in the lives
of individuals. Society often sets many predefined and age-old standards that define people.
 Educational standards
Kate confirmed that all the relatives and the extended relatives on the side of her father
are educated. They have all gone to the post-secondary level and have attained high educational
standards. On the other hand the relatives on her mom's side are not that educated. The siblings
of her mother have not received any graduation degree and it was only her mother to receive a

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post-secondary degree. Thus there is an expectation that Kate will also get herself a post-
secondary degree.
 Perspectives on occupation
Kate said during the course of the interview that at some point in time she got a kind of
pressure from her parents. This is because at times her parents had to think about the society and
the maintenance of the societal standards. Nolin (2017) has stated that one of the major
discrimination in Canada is because of income inequalities. There are discriminations and social
oppressions done towards people based on their income status. It is for this reason that Kate’s
parents often forced her to take some occupation that could help her to make money and fame
easily in society.
Kate’s parents often compelled her to go for professions like business law. However she
also confirmed herself to be lucky as her parents are also of a liberal mindset. Thus Kate
confirmed that her parents would not discourage her and her sister if they wanted to select any
professions of their own choice. However at the same time Kate's answers showed that there is a
reflection of the societal pressure prevalent. Rotundo (2017) has stated that there are incidences
of workplace discriminations in Canada against employees based on their social, cultural and
religious backgrounds. Thus her father often asked her to take up the trade and commerce line as
it would help their father to guide them since he belonged from the same.
Her family worries that there might be discriminations against Kate and her sister in the
corporate or the other job sectors which are totally unknown to them. As per the opinion of Boyd
(2018) the survey carried on with the Canadians regarding their workplace harassment
experiences they have shared that there have been discriminations against them because of their