Chapter 3: Culture and Identity
Chapter Overview
Chapter 3: Culture and Identity examines the questions: What is your individual cultural
identity? What makes up social and cultural identities and how do these affect the way we see
the world? What can we learn from social influences such as ethnicity, language, gender, age,
disability, social class, education, religion, and roles? Why is it important to understand
concepts of race and ethnicity? These are the key questions we will address in Chapter 3.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Our individual cultural identities are made up of cultural, personal, and relational aspects of
how we are socialized while growing up.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Discover your individual cultural identity.
LEADERSHIP APPLICATIONS
• If we are to be effective leaders, we must first understand who we are and what has
influenced us.
Introduction
• Cheerios and Coca Cola commercials
Watch the Cheerios commercial.
Why do you think this offended some people?
Individual Identity
• Who Am I?
Watch Taiye Selasi’s TedTalk: “Don’t Ask Where I’m From, Ask Where I’m a Local”
Do the “WHO AM I” exercise. Discuss with a partner—debrief as a class.
Social and Cultural Identities
• Enculturation/acculturation
Social and Cultural Identities
• Each of us has our own unique identity that makes us who we are.
• We first develop our identities through our families from whom we learn about values,
Identity Negotiation
Watch Hetain Patel’s TedTalk:
Identity Negotiation
• As we interact with people and experience life, we find that we are constantly
negotiating our relationships with others—this is not something about which we are
aware, but it’s actually a sociological phenomenon.
• Identity negotiation is the process that people go through when trying to figure out who
each is within any given relationship.
• A social psychologist who studied social interaction, William Swann, came up with the
Enculturation and Acculturation
• Since we are influenced through our numerous social environments, we gain our
identity through what is called enculturation.
• This is a lifelong process within our country of origin—and especially during our
Salience in Cultural Identity
Identity is about our sense of self, or our self-image, that we develop first through our families
and then through the process of socialization.
Salience in Social Identities
• There are many forms of social identities—see the illustration of the variety of social
(cultural) identities as defined by social scientists William Gudykunst and Young Yun
Kim.
Social Identities
William Gudykunst & Young Yu Kim:
• Cultural or ethnic identities: aspects of a group’s cultural background—belonging to the
same ethnic category (e.g., Asian-American, Japanese-American, etc.).
• Language identities: languages often mark boundaries between our ethnic/national
origins and others. Language is one major criterion for ethnic group membership.
• Gender identities: the way we define our gender roles, which are the psychological traits
Watch the Coke commercial “America the Beautiful.” What is this video trying to
communicate?
Uncertainty Anxiety Management
It is natural that we are usually comfortable with those who are familiar to us; however, we
experience anxiety when interacting with people who are unfamiliar.
William Gudykunst’s theory, uncertainty/anxiety management, refers to intergroup interaction
and that we experience anxiety when interacting with people who are unfamiliar to us.
• We have an innate need to manage our levels of uncertainty (whether high or low),
which is our cognitive ability to identify and predict the behavior of others, while at the
Group Membership
• Ethnicity
• Race
Group Membership
What are race and ethnicity?
Ethnicity
Ethnicity relates to sociological factors that can include a shared language, nationality, religion,
cultural traditions, and group history.
• Ethnicity is defined in terms of shared ancestry.
• It can be actual or presumed.
Race
In the United States, originally using the term “race” meant placing people into groups based
upon physical characteristics, such as bone structure, eye color, skin color, and hair—and these
characteristics were supposedly the result of distinctive genetic differences.
• The first US census is as old as the presidency of the United States—being conducted in
1790, a year after George Washington was inaugurated. According to Census.gov, there
Changes in the Definition of Race
Race is modern social construction of identity: in ancient times, people were not classified
according to their physical attributes; rather, religion, status, and language.
1. Race is not genetic: there is no such thing as a gene that differentiates members of a
“race” from another. Therefore, race is not biological.
2. There are no subspecies of humans: humans have not evolved into subspecies; rather,
humans are the most similar of all species.
The US Census on Race and Ethnicity
US Census information on racial categories contains seven categories: American Indian or
Alaskan Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian or Other
Pacific Islander, White.
• These categories date back to the 1970s, and it is said that the creation of such
But how can people be defined in the same way?
Latino/a and Hispanic Cultures
The census questions are unclear, complicated, and often don’t make sense to any of us who
have to fill it out. A study by the Pew Research Center explains that according to policy the term
Hispanic is not considered a race but an ethnicity.
If you ask ten people what the term “Hispanic” or “Latino” means, you’ll probably get a variety
of different answers.
• The definition varies depending on who you talk to.
• In Texas and New Mexico, people might refer to themselves as Hispanic (usually a US–
born Mexican).
Individual Cultural Identity
Remember in Chapter 1 we talked about Marshall Singer’s stimulating perspective on culture—
That we are culturally unique? It is worth repeating here:
Let’s look at a creative way for understanding cultural identity. Take a few moments to ponder
Singer’s analogy of culture via a cake metaphor. What do you think about his idea below and
how do you make sense of this in light of your own understanding of culture?
Summary
In the beginning of this chapter you were asked to reflect on “Who am I?” After reading this
chapter, write down all of the things that identify you—roles, relationships, occupations, status,
etc.
• What are the ones that are most important to you?
• Which identity in particular has shaped your group individual identity?
Now that you have an idea about who you are, what might this say to you as a global leader?
Being able to articulate something about our individual nature is extremely helpful in placing
ourselves where we are at in the world. The more we know about ourselves, the more
equipped we are to learn about others.
• There are many forms of identity, and we’ve talked about them—personal, family,
social. We’ve talked about primary and situational identities—some can be changed,
others cannot.
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CASE: Cheerios Commercial: 30 Seconds that Exceeds 30 Days of Controversy
ACTIVITY: Exploring “Who Am I?” Exercise