Sociology: Critical Self Reflection on Respect for New Cultures

This essay explores the development of respect for new cultures through the lens of sociological principles and personal values. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the differences between new and existing cultures, aligning personal values with new cultural norms, and maintaining ethical considerations. The author reflects on the principles of optimism, generosity, and religiosity, and their application in navigating cultural differences. The essay also addresses the potential anxiety of losing one's own cultural identity and suggests maintaining a balance between cultures through continued engagement with one's original culture. It concludes by discussing the need for emotional strength and intellectual politeness in adapting to a new culture, ensuring that existing cultural values are not compromised and ethical biases are avoided. Desklib provides a platform for students to access similar essays and study resources.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Developing respect for the new culture.....................................................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................3
Reference....................................................................................................................................4

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Introduction
The three principles or values that were chosen included optimistic attitude,
generosity and religiosity. These principles or values can help me to remain positive in any
ethical condition and abide by the rules of the policies implemented. The application of these
principles can be made during respecting any new culture.
Developing respect for the new culture
In order to develop respect for new cultures it is necessary to understand the basic
difference that exists with the new culture and the existing culture in which I have been
brought up. As stated by Bleidorn et al. (2016) every new culture consists of values and
beliefs that develop the core of the culture. Hence, in order to develop respect I need to try
and align my value system with the new culture by developing friends and companions. I
need to learn about the ways adopted by the new culture so that I can align my beliefs and
remain ethical in terms of speaking or making any gesture that may be offensive for the
culture.
In this regard, I need to follow the principle of truth and maintaining ethical
consideration so that I remain respectful towards the culture. For example, I need to ensure
that I speak the truth about my culture and make the fact known that I am uncomfortable with
the new culture but in a respectful manner. As observed by Hruschka and Henrich (2015)
considering the ethics related to the policies and principles of the culture can help in the
development of respect. These principles are different from other principles like being
optimistic, generous and religious is that I can speak out directly about my feelings and can
bring about assistance so that I can continue with my effort of gaining knowledge about the
new culture.

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However, there are certain anxious moments that need to be kept in mind while trying
to adapt to the new culture. The greatest anxiety is that I may have to leave my own cultural
beliefs in trying to part of the new culture. Gurung and Prater (2017) are of the opinion that
the danger of losing self culture is that it makes people lose its identity. Hence, I need to
ensure that I manage it by maintaining a balance between the two cultures and this can be
done by visiting or engaging in conversation with the people that follow my original culture.
Conclusion
One of the elements about culture that I disagree is that I need to make quick
adjustment with the new culture. Sheldon et al. (2017) is of the opinion that it is necessary to
balance emotion and intellect manly because to keep away the two culture from overlapping
on one another. Therefore, adopting a new culture need to be done by being emotionally
strong so that the existing culture does not get hampered. At the same time, intellect in the
form of being polite over the new culture needs to be maintained so that any ethical biasness
is shown towards the new culture.

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Reference
Bleidorn, W., Arslan, R.C., Denissen, J.J., Rentfrow, P.J., Gebauer, J.E., Potter, J. and
Gosling, S.D., 2016. Age and gender differences in self-esteem—A cross-cultural
window. Journal of personality and social psychology, 111(3), p.396.
Gurung, A. and Prater, E., 2017. A research framework for the impact of cultural differences
on IT outsourcing. In Global Sourcing of Services: Strategies, Issues and Challenges (pp. 49-
82).
Hruschka, D.J. and Henrich, J., 2015. Prosocial Behavior, Cultural Differences in.
In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences: Second Edition (pp. 238-
243). Elsevier Inc..
Sheldon, P., Rauschnabel, P.A., Antony, M.G. and Car, S., 2017. A cross-cultural comparison
of Croatian and American social network sites: Exploring cultural differences in motives for
Instagram use. Computers in Human Behavior, 75, pp.643-651.