Culture and Psychology

There are many, many elements of American culture that can affect a person's self-esteem.  This year I will celebrate my 40th (gasp!) birthday.  As I have gotten older, I have become more and more comfortable with myself.  I'd like to think the degree of the cultural influence on my personal self-esteem goes down with age.  Yet, the very fact that I am dreading the label of being a forty-year-old female is indicative that it still has quite a hold on me.  I think this is true with most American women.  Why else would the word "botox" have a familiar place in our vocabulary?  I think in the United States there is a fear that as we age we become irrelevant or even burdensome.  I have read that in some cultures getting older is something to be envied.  To reach an age where your hair turns gray and your skin is wrinkled is a fortunate thing.  Older people are honored and revered.  Their families look to them for guidance and wisdom.  I think that Americans could stand to learn a lot from these attitudes.

Learning about the "ought" self, or the expectation within our culture was interesting to me.  The American "ought" self believes in striving for perfection.  We associate failures as something we "are" vs something we have done.  I know there are cultures that take this to an even greater degree.  As a TESOL teacher, I think it is really important to understand the cultural inferences to success and failure and how my students think they "ought" to be.  This is especially true when coming to a new country with a new language. There are naturally going to be a lot of stumbling blocks on the road to success.  I never want my students to assign that to their worth.  I hope in my classroom to create a space where students keep trying and moving forward.  Understanding their cultural psychology and the expectations they have for themselves will help me in this.  

Another interesting topic was the "Stereotype Threat".  This is basically the idea that we will live up to the stereotypes associated with our culture.  This is especially true when we are reminded of those stereotypes.  Dr. Ivers talked about a study that was done regarding test performance.  He said that the same level of students performed differently when they had to indicate their race.  These types of studies have been repeatedly done and always yield the same results.  This has made me wonder how we can celebrate each other's culture in our classrooms without forcing stereotypes onto each other.  I think I need to ponder this a little more.  I remember a friend telling me once "If you tell a dog it's a cat enough times, pretty soon it's going to think it's a cat."  Words are powerful and I plan to always use my words in a way that will help my students aim high in their goals, regardless of where they come from.  

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