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Assignment 1

My scores on the cultural orientation survey did not match the dominant vertical collectivist culture of India that I come from. I identified more as a horizontal collectivist. When taking the survey from the perspective of a prototypical member of my culture, my responses did align with vertical collectivism. This reflects how I was raised to understand societal norms, even if my personal views differ as someone who grew up in Kuwait in a nuclear family away from extended family influence. My personal scores diverged from cultural norms as they reflect my independent perspective, though I still understand and adhere to shared social expectations in larger group settings.

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22 views

Assignment 1

My scores on the cultural orientation survey did not match the dominant vertical collectivist culture of India that I come from. I identified more as a horizontal collectivist. When taking the survey from the perspective of a prototypical member of my culture, my responses did align with vertical collectivism. This reflects how I was raised to understand societal norms, even if my personal views differ as someone who grew up in Kuwait in a nuclear family away from extended family influence. My personal scores diverged from cultural norms as they reflect my independent perspective, though I still understand and adhere to shared social expectations in larger group settings.

Uploaded by

halelz69
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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Step 1: Go to https://uiuc.qualtrics.

com/jfe/form/SV_3IcY9f7QWn6YZet and complete the


exercises (survey).
Step 2: After completing the exercise, answer the questions. Prompts:

Question 1. Do your scores match the dominant cultural orientation of your


culture? That is, if your culture's dominant orientation is vertical
individualist, did you score the highest on this orientation compared to
others? How would you describe the beliefs and values nurtured in your
culture? Explain your answers.

My scores were vastly different as compared to the culture that I come from.
I am Indian and have lived in the middle east all my life. My culture is purely
vertical collectivism where hierarchy, whether through social status or age,
or other such metric, is much looked at. In typical Indian families, there is a
patriarchal structure where the head of the family must be consulted for all
decisions in the family. This can range from buying a house, to going to
college, taking a vacation, and even whom to marry (Pg. 16, Gorodnichenko
& Roland). They may not be as well informed on many topics, but their ‘go-
ahead’ is essential to take things forward. Even at the workplace, it is
common to see that employees are made to follow orders of their bosses
without question and generally, do not speak up or speak against, for fear of
repercussion. Collectivistic norms within so

I personally consider myself more of a Horizontal collectivist. I treat and


work with everyone as they are equal to me and try to see the greater good,
when possible. But there are times, when with the family, where my actions
are more vertical, just to keep within the culture. Since I am the youngest
family member of my generation, there are certain tasks that are always
assigned to me and it is my duty to fulfil them. I believe that I work better
with groups and prefer to take in peoples input and see different viewpoints,
before I decide. This is a mindset I apply, whether in a professional or
personal setting. In both scenarios, I like to choose the people I speak to, to
get a better understanding of the scenario, and this will vary each time
based on the topic on hand.

In the survey, my responses were very high in the Question 9-12 range,
which reflects my personal orientation towards a horizontal collectivist.
Although, being born and raised in a Vertical Collectivist culture and society,
I am very familiar with the societal norms and scored relatively high
questions 13-16 of the survey as well, reflecting teachings that have been
ingrained in me from childhood, which is also why I believe I was not highly
affected by the doctor’s approach to the patient in Case 1 of the exercise. I
personally preferred the second approach but have actively seen approach 1
being applied.
Question 2. a) Do the scores from the perspective of an average or
prototypical member of your culture match what you know about the
dominant cultural orientation of your culture? How do your own personal
scores compare to the scores from the perspective of an average or
prototypical member of your culture? Do your own personal scores match
your perceptions of how others would score on the cultural orientation scale?
What does this tell you about your own views about your culture? Explain
your answers. b) Finally, please compare your responses to the survey in the
two contexts (personally and from the perspective of others) with the norm
in your culture.

In which case did you find a better match between your answers and those
expected from your culture? Why? Please explain using the concepts
discussed in this Module.

Yes, my responses for the perspective of a prototypical member does match


the dominant cultural orientation of the place I am from. Being Indian, I
believe I come from a vertical collectivistic culture where social hierarchy
and group decision making are the norm. In such cultures, people do not
make decisions by themselves, they depend on people around them for a
variety of things and family is a key element of the culture. Many external
factors will be sacrificed for the sake of the family in such cultures.

Even though I am Indian, I have lived in Kuwait for all my life. I believe that
Kuwait also has a Vertical Collectivism culture. Being away from the larger
extended family, I had the opportunity to grow up in a nuclear family, where
all our decisions were made within our nuclear household and did not involve
extensive extended-family interventions. This multi-cultural upbringing
taught me how to be independent and be responsible for my personal
actions and most importantly, decide for myself.

My personal choices and scores on the survey are vastly different from an
average member of my culture, but I believe I will see many similarities and
a better match with the scores of other individuals within my culture, as we
each have our personal knowledge or perspective and want to focus on
ourselves, but we realize the important of being a part of a community and
must abide by the norms of such a community when in a larger social
setting. There is a shared-knowledge within the society that all members
should abide by to maintain a civil society.
Questions 13-16 of the survey were focused on the Vertical Collectivist
culture I come from. I see a perfect match between my perspective of others
in my culture and the norms of my culture. My responses to the survey were
much different from my cultural norm, as they reflected my personal-
knowledge and my preference on how I choose to operate within the society.

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