Introduction
African American population includes all people with mixed cultural heritage and ethnicity. They originated from the slave trade which took Africans to various parts of the world, including south America, west indies, the United States, and Central America. The group is extremely varied, and interactions have been experienced largely with European Americans and Indian Americans. African Americans have occupied various sectors, including religion, professionalism, and education, and legal entities. Although most of them are low-income earners, their segments are growing in the middle and upper class categories. Their culture is unique and it influences thinking, emotions, behavior, interactions, diversity, professional ethics, and ethnocentrism.
Culture and Emotions
Cultural scripts dictate how positive and negative emotions should be experienced and displayed; they may also guide how people choose to regulate their emotions, ultimately influencing an individual’s emotional experience. Cultural contexts also act as cues when people are trying to interpret facial expressions. Examining the universality of emotional expressions explains how culture affects emotions. Evolutionary adaptations have affected the way people act, including how they express sensations. Matsumoto & Juang (2017) state that emotions are biologically innate and evolutionarily adaptive. The authors note, “Humans had evolved from other, more primitive animals, such as apes and chimpanzees, and that our behaviors exist today because they were selected through a process of evolutionary adaptation” (p. 214).
Culture dictates types and frequencies of emotional displays considered acceptable within a community. The norms may guide how people choose to control their emotions, affecting individual sensational experiences and leading to cultural diversities in experience and expressions. For example, American cultures prioritize personal self-promotion, expressing disgust, anger and fear when they are alone or with others. However, Asians emphasize social harmony and express fear, disgust, and anger when they are alone. African Americans express social cohesion, suppressing emotional reactions to assess the probable responses in a particular situation. Their culture also differ addressing social consequences, is why men are indirectly or directly ostracized from crying.
Culture and Behavior
Culture includes beliefs about ethics, values, and behaviors that a majority of people holds in a society. It could be individualistic or collective culture, affecting how people behave. Individualistic culture is common among African Americans, and it states that a person’s life is under their control. Individualistic cultures more value is placed on being extroverted. Individualistic cultures find people to be more open, supporting introverted personality styles and encourage behaviors that are representative of the majority of people (Matsumoto & Juang, 2017; Eley et al., 2019). Collectivistic cultures are good at seeing other people’s perspective to foster group harmony, whereas there is not as much in Individualistic cultures.
Culture and Thoughts
So sometimes people might think they make decisions, but it is more of the cultural experiences stored in their brain that guide decision making. Culture influences how people perceive the world. Not only is perception influenced by culture but also more complex thought processes, such as problem solving and making dynamic decisions, which include the ones made over time in a changing environment, for example, thinking about as suitable profession will change depending on whom the person meets, talks with, and the readings they make in their lifetime. People decide on what to eat depending on the food culture they grew up.
Culture and Interactions
Experience working in a foreign language reduces the influence of culture on interactions. As a result, one becomes considerate in statement formulation. Some cultures encourage a closer physical proximity when in conversation, while others foster loud, even argumentative verbal exchanges, and some may prize soft-spoken, polite conversation. National culture influences an individual’s perceptions of their peers (Matsumoto & Juang, 2017). Strong situations are characterized by having salient behavioral cues, for example, everyone is interpreting the circumstances similarly, leading towards identical expectations regarding the appropriate response in their interactions. Feedback from critical incidents makes individuals learn and adjust their behavior.
Culture and Diversity
Learning cultural diversity helps to understand different perspectives within the world. It helps dispel negative stereotypes and personal biases about different groups. In addition, cultural diversity helps us recognize and respect “ways of being” that are not necessarily inherent in other groups. Some religions encourage people to interact across cultures and build bridges to trust, respect, and understanding. Culture can promote bias and discrimination of people from other social backgrounds. Living in a culturally diverse environment reduces people’s presumptions about others based on culture. Social environment dictates cross-cultural perceptions. For example, an individual that grew up where parents yell at them to condemn particular acts is different form another one who would consider it an abuse because it is not part of their tradition. Conservatives discourage intermarriages as they want to preserve their original identities.
Culture and Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is a belief in the superiority of your own culture. It results from judging other cultures by your own cultural ideals. Ethnocentrism is linked to cultural blind spots, which occur when we fail to attribute differences between our behaviors and beliefs, and those of others to differences in cultural schemas. Differences in values, beliefs, and behavioral norms can trigger emotional resistance or backlash in a community. Similarly, cultural intelligence encourages a nonjudgmental respect for difference (Matsumoto & Juang, 2017). This improves people’s interactions—when people feel respected, they are more likely to reciprocate the favorable sentiment with pro-social behavior and you are more likely to achieve your goals.
Culture and Professional/Personal Ethics
Ethics reflect beliefs about what is right, what is wrong, what is just, what is unjust, what is good, and what is bad in terms of human behavior. While individuals hold ethical beliefs, they can also be reflected in the values, practices, and policies that shape the choices made by decision makers on behalf of their organizations. Personal values provide an internal reference for what is good, beneficial, important, useful, beautiful, desirable, and constructive. Over time, the public expression of personal values has laid the foundations of law, custom, and tradition (Matsumoto & Juang, 2017). Personal values in this way exist in relation to cultural values, either in agreement with or divergent from prevailing norms.
Conclusion
Culture helps to adapt to various contexts to meet social and biological needs. It dictates people’s interactions, emotions, professionalism, ethnocentrism, thoughts, and view of diversity. Religions helps to define values and behavior towards others. Some cultural traits affect behaviour while others do not.
References
Eley, N. T., Namey, E., McKenna, K., Johnson, A. C., & Guest, G. (2019). Beyond the individual: Social and cultural influences on the health-seeking behaviors of African American Men. American journal of men’s health, 13(1), 1-11. Web.
Matsumoto, D., & Juang, L. (2017). Culture and psychology (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.