Week 3

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Scenario Design and Analysis

For this assignment, you will identify the main concepts and terms learned in this week’s online lectures and textbook readings and create a fictional scenario (may not be related to actual individuals).

You will use the following guidelines while writing your scenario:

  • Background: You need to describe the demographics of individuals involved in the scenario such as their age, gender, occupation, education, relationships, and family history.
  • The scenario story: You need to describe a scenario using third person in which cultural differences challenge a group’s ability to accomplish a specific project.
  • Analysis of the scenario: You need to utilize the information learned from the online lectures and text readings to analyze the scenario. Be specific in your analysis using supporting evidence from outside sources when needed.
  • Recommendations: You need to end the scenario with your recommendations or suggestions you would have implemented in such a situation to assist in changing the behavior of the individuals involved in the case study.

Gender and Social Norms.html

Gender and Social Norms

There are obvious physical differences between a male and a female, but other than mating rituals and procreating, why is there a need to identify what defines a male and what defines a female? For this discussion, you need to focus particularly on how gender is translated into expected roles in culture and how those expected roles affect the individual. Cultural traditions have dictated the roles of each gender, but one area where cultural traditions regarding gender have evolved is in the workforce.

For instance, Lucille Ball was the star of her own television shows and was cofounder of Desilu Productions, a large television studio that she took over as the chief executive officer (CEO) in 1962. However, in the 1950s, she starred in a television situational comedy called I Love Lucy. Her role was of a stay-at-home wife who spent her day trying to persuade and sometimes infiltrate her husband’s work life. Although some people might say she was one of the funniest actors of her time, if she truly lived the life she portrayed in that show, her actual life probably wouldn’t have been that funny.

Next, let’s discuss the laws prohibiting discriminatory practices based on gender.



Role Perceptions.html

Role Perceptions

View the PDF transcript for Laws to Eliminate Discriminatory Practices at the Workplace

If there are laws prohibiting discriminatory practices based on gender, then why does such discrimination still occur? For example, consider registered nurses in the United States. In 2007, 91.7 percent of the nurse workforce consisted of women (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008a), but they earned about 88.9 percent of the wages a man would earn for the same job (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008b). What do these statistics demonstrate? The obvious response is there are differences in the perception concerning the roles of men and women, even within an overwhelmingly female-dominated profession.

The differences between male and female will always have a biological basis. In addition, varying with the individual there are variations based on which you can define a trait exhibited by an individual to be more masculine or feminine. However, when it comes to performing a set of tasks requiring the same amount of knowledge, skills, and abilities, there should be no difference in how men and women are perceived. The question for the social psychologists deals with why role perceptions still exist and why levels of social dominance occur even in today’s seemingly equal environments?

The underlying issue offering a possible explanation about social dominance and issues with gender equality is culture. Cultural traditions, as explained, are shared beliefs and values enduring from one generation to the next. Changes in cultural traditions seem to be more of an evolution than a revolution. When you compare and contrast the traditions depicted in the show I Love Lucy of 1950s with the comedy style of Tina Fey in 30 Rock, you will observe that times have changed drastically and seem to continue to change.

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2008a). Employment by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic ethnicity, 2007 annual averages. Retrieved from ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/aa2007/aat11.txt

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2008b). Highlights of women’s earnings in 2007. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswom2007.pdf

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). (n.d.). Federal laws prohibiting job discrimination. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/qanda.html



media/week3/SU_PSY3010_W3_L3_S3_G1.pdf

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PSY3010_Social Psychology

© 2009 South University

Laws to Eliminate Discriminatory Practices at the Workplace

In the United States, there have been laws passed to eliminate discriminatory practices in the
workplace. These laws are as follows:

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII): This law prohibits employment
discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

• Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA): This law protects men and women who perform
substantially equal work in the same establishment from sex-based wage discrimination.

• Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA): This law protects individuals
who are 40 years of age or older from being thrown out of their jobs because of their age.

(Source: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.p., n.d.)

Cultural Traditions and Diversity.html

Cultural Traditions and Diversity

Picture a middle-aged man sitting at a table and a robust woman serving him his meal of spaghetti and meatballs. The man says, “Mama Mia, that’s some spicy meatball” (Bayer HealthCare, 2005, n.p.).

What was your reaction when you read this line? Did you laugh or were you offended? This was a line taken from a 1969 television commercial for an antacid medication. Television commercials are interesting examples to understand cultural traditions and diversity. On the one hand, they need to offer something to grab your attention and, hopefully, remind you to buy their product when you are shopping; and on the other hand, commercials may just reflect the attitudes and mindset of your culture at the time.

In some aspects, you can say television commercials promote ongoing stereotypes. For example, recall the romantic mop commercial where an old mop is trying to win back the affection of a stereotypical housewife. Alternatively, television commercials are designed to target specific audiences based on their traditional and cultural definitions.

Expanding on this thought, if you searched the Internet for international commercials (especially if it is for the same or a similar product), you may find a totally different approach to target market products. In most cases, the approach is based on the cultural traditions of the area to which the target audience belongs. For instance, restaurants like Subway or McDonald’s have franchises in different countries. If you observe the commercials of these restaurants in different countries, you will notice that several franchises have specific or adapted menus to fit the local cultural traditions.

Bayer HealthCare. (2005). Alka-Seltzer is 75! Retrieved from http://www.alka-seltzer.com/75/

 

Additional Materials

View the PDF transcript for Cultural Identity



media/week3/SUO_PSY3010 Cultural Identity.pdf

Cultural Identity

PSY3010 Social Psychology

©2016 South University

2
Cultural Identity

Cultural Traditions and Diversity

Cultural Identity

You identify yourself as belonging to a particular nation and demonstrating your nationalism through
patriotism. Although patriotism identifies your nationality, does it also identify your culture? Myers
(2008) defines culture as “the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group
of people and transmitted from one generation to the next” (p. 156).

Culture, by definition, can be more than just national identity. You all are citizens of some nation
(sometimes more than one), but that does not necessarily imply that all citizens of that nation share the
same culture. Although individuals may share certain cultural traditions such as a holiday season toward
the end of December and the beginning of the New Year, there are different ways in which the time of
year is celebrated by individuals residing in different countries. The reason being, there are great
variations in the culture of different countries.

This same reason acts a challenge when you try to understand the impact culture has on an individual’s
behavior. You first have to identify not only the major cultural norms (national), but also the cultural
norms of the individual’s heritage (family traditions), as well as the region to which the individual belongs.

For instance, individuals residing in the United States have a wide variety of cuisine traditions depending
on the part of the country they belong to. In the Southern United States, they call it hominy grits;
however, in the Midwest, many families of Italian descent call it polenta. Similarly, depending on where
you live, there are also variations in accents and communication and dressing styles.

PSY3010 Social Psychology

©2016 South University

3
Cultural Identity

Cultural Traditions and Diversity

References

Myers, D. (2008). Social psychology (9th ed). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

© 2016 South University

Cultural Identity

PSY3010 Social Psychology

©2016 South University

2
Cultural Identity

Cultural Traditions and Diversity

Cultural Identity

You identify yourself as belonging to a particular nation and demonstrating your nationalism through
patriotism. Although patriotism identifies your nationality, does it also identify your culture? Myers
(2008) defines culture as “the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group
of people and transmitted from one generation to the next” (p. 156).

Culture, by definition, can be more than just national identity. You all are citizens of some nation
(sometimes more than one), but that does not necessarily imply that all citizens of that nation share the
same culture. Although individuals may share certain cultural traditions such as a holiday season toward
the end of December and the beginning of the New Year, there are different ways in which the time of
year is celebrated by individuals residing in different countries. The reason being, there are great
variations in the culture of different countries.

This same reason acts a challenge when you try to understand the impact culture has on an individual’s
behavior. You first have to identify not only the major cultural norms (national), but also the cultural
norms of the individual’s heritage (family traditions), as well as the region to which the individual belongs.

For instance, individuals residing in the United States have a wide variety of cuisine traditions depending
on the part of the country they belong to. In the Southern United States, they call it hominy grits;
however, in the Midwest, many families of Italian descent call it polenta. Similarly, depending on where
you live, there are also variations in accents and communication and dressing styles.

PSY3010 Social Psychology

©2016 South University

3
Cultural Identity

Cultural Traditions and Diversity

References

Myers, D. (2008). Social psychology (9th ed). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

© 2016 South University

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