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Lesson 4 Ethics

This document provides an overview of how culture shapes human behavior. It defines culture as the shared attitudes, values, goals and practices of a group. Cultural norms are passed down through generations and influence what behaviors are considered moral. The document discusses how culture shapes behavior through socialization and influences interpretations of morality. It also notes that while culture is powerful, some individuals can resist cultural influences, and that different cultures can have differing views of what is ethical.

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joel lacay
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533 views3 pages

Lesson 4 Ethics

This document provides an overview of how culture shapes human behavior. It defines culture as the shared attitudes, values, goals and practices of a group. Cultural norms are passed down through generations and influence what behaviors are considered moral. The document discusses how culture shapes behavior through socialization and influences interpretations of morality. It also notes that while culture is powerful, some individuals can resist cultural influences, and that different cultures can have differing views of what is ethical.

Uploaded by

joel lacay
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LESSON 4: HOW CULTURE SHAPES HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
a) articulate what culture means;
b) explain how culture shapes human behavior;
c) attribute facets of personal behavior to culture; and
d) survey differences in moral behavior of different cultures.

Pretest
Essay. Answer the questions briefly and concisely. (5 points each)
1. What are the practices of other cultures that you like?
2. What are the practices of other cultures that you don’t like?

Learning Content
What does culture mean?

Culture has the power over individuals to create beliefs, such as belief in God (Emile Durkheim).
Culture is the way of life of a group of people that “includes their knowledge, belief, art, morals, law,
customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by a man as a member of society”(Tylor,
1974, 1981).

Culture describes a collective way of life, or way of doing things. It is the sum of attitudes, values,
goals, and practices shared by individuals in a group, organization, or society. Cultures vary over
time periods, between countries and geographic regions, and among groups and organizations.
Culture reflects the moral and ethical beliefs and standards that speak to how people should behave
and interact with others.

Cultural norms are the shared, sanctioned, and integrated systems of beliefs and practices that are
passed down through generations and characterize a cultural group. Norms cultivate reliable
guidelines for daily living and contribute to the health and well-being of a culture. They act as
prescriptions for correct and moral behavior, lend meaning and coherence to life, and provide a
means of achieving a sense of integrity, safety, and belonging. These normative beliefs, together
with related cultural values and rituals, impose a sense of order and control on aspects of life that
might otherwise appear chaotic or unpredictable.

This is where culture intersects with ethics. Since interpretations of what is moral are influenced by
cultural norms, the possibility exists that what is ethical to one group will not be considered so by
someone living in a different culture. According to cultural relativists this means that there is no
singular truth on which to base ethical or moral behavior for all time and geographic space, as our
interpretations of truths are influenced by our own culture. This approach is in contrast to
universalism, which holds the position that moral values are the same for everyone. Cultural
relativists consider this to be an ethnocentric view, as the universal set of values proposed by
universalists are based on their set of values. Cultural relativism is also considered more tolerant than
universalism because, if there is no basis for making moral judgments between cultures, then
cultures have to be tolerant of each other.

How does culture shape human behavior?

Culture is a complex phenomenon. It contains nearly all aspects of human experience.


As social beings, we as people, are also naturally drawn to participate in culture.
Being part of the social group not only feeds our need to be accepted, it increases the human being’s
chances to survive.

Human beings learned to modify behaviors to match that which their cultural group deem acceptable.

However, not all is well with culture’s power over people.


Worried about idols and ideologies of his day, Plato warned about the power of the public to corrupt
a young person’s mind.
Culture served to justify inequality because the ruling class determines what is right and wrong while
the rest merely follow (Karl Marx).

How does culture define moral behavior?

Plato’s The Republic cited three critical elements that jointly influence the human person’s moral
development (Pekarsky , 1998).
1. Native traits (genetic characteristics)
- Genetic characteristics are the traits inherited from parents. These include
individual’s physical and physiological aspects, one’s behaviors (Bank, 2017). The
sets of chromosomes we receive from our parents contain all the data that make an
individual a person.
2. Early childhood experience
- This includes the bundle of experience that was experienced by a person during
childhood days. This experience contributes in becoming a person.
3. One’s cultural surroundings
- You become according to your surroundings.
- Plato offers the social psychological insight that the overwhelming majority of
individuals will prove incapable of resisting the voice of the culture that surrounds them:
in the typical case, their values, their beliefs, indeed, their very perceptions will tend
to mirror those of the surrounding culture. To be sure, some individuals may at times
find themselves in social contexts (like certain educational or religious settings) that
enable them to take a step back from the culture's norms and to apprehend and affirm
moral values that diverge from the culture's drift; but such counter-cultural values are
unlikely to survive in a meaningful way when these individuals re-enter day-to-day life
in the culture.

Learning Activities

Activity1. Reaction Table (20 points)


Direction/s: Write down your reaction about the following statements:

Statement Reaction

“My culture is superior to


other cultures.”
(Unknown)
Filipino culture is inferior
to American culture.

Activity No. 2. Reflection Paper (20 points)


Guide Questions for Reflection:
1. What are my negative and positive traits that I think I inherited from my parents? What do
you think are the ways to change your undesirable behaviors?
__________________________________________________________________________
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2. If culture can shape one’s behaviors, do you think we can change a culture that provides
negative influences to a person? If yes or no, defend your ideas.
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________
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Mastery Test

1. Make at least 3 relevant questions about this lesson. (5 points for each question)

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