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What Are Cultural Dimensions of the Model?
The cultural dimensions of human behavior are one of the most important areas of study in the social sciences today. A framework devised by Geert Hofstede is a model for cross-cultural interaction, based upon his findings from research into human behavioral models. It explains the interrelated effects of culture on the cultural values of the individuals, and how those values affect behavior, using a matrix derived from statistical factor analysis.
While most research in the field of human behavior addresses the question of why people act the way they do, few studies have addressed the question of why they don’t, and rarely any attempt to find out why they would. What many researchers do, however, is to test the hypothesis that some people do behave in certain ways, but other people don’t. The goal of these studies is to discover a general pattern of behavior. If this general pattern is found to exist, it suggests a biological and evolutionary cause for the behavior. If no such general pattern is found, it can be a reflection of nothing more than personal differences between the people, or perhaps of a learning disorder.
Cultural behavior is the result of many complex interactions of an individual’s beliefs, values, and motivations with his environment. It is the interaction of that person with others, and the interactions with those others, that are the basis of the behavior patterns. When a person learns a cultural value, he may begin to adopt that value as his own, or at least become familiar with and support that value. A person who does not believe in that value may adopt it only as a “value-free” tradition, without regard to what others think.
In addition to learning values, individuals may also learn about cultural behaviors. These behaviors are learned patterns of behavior that have been internalized by the individual.
One of the most common forms of cultural behavior is conformity. People become accustomed to the social conventions that govern their interaction with each other, often through exposure over several generations. Consistency, the absence of which is considered unacceptable by some cultures, maybe acceptable in others.
Values and beliefs can also change over time. A person who is raised in a Catholic family may adopt a particular religion, but grow up to reject Catholic values. Similarly, people who grew up in different religious traditions may grow up to have different values and beliefs.
Individuals also change over time. For example, there are two different types of people: those who are stuck at one point in their lives (identifying with their personality type) and those who change (identifying with another. The former can go on to become two entirely different people, while the latter remains the same. This is another part of the cultural dimension of the model.
One final aspect of the cultural dimension of the model is that it explains the fact that children from different cultures tend to perform differently in math and reading. The children of parents who are from the same culture tend to read more than children from different cultures. A difference in reading and math skills can be attributed to cultural values.
Some of the most important aspects of cultural dimensions have to do with values, beliefs, and behaviors. A person who is from a certain religious tradition may grow up with a set of values that includes a particular set of beliefs and behaviors. That person may have a certain set of behaviors or may adopt a variety of behaviors. However, that person may also have different values and beliefs that can vary across cultures.
A cultural dimension helps us understand the reasons that people from different cultures behave in different ways. That understanding can help us learn ways to encourage individuals from different cultures to have healthy relationships and develop successful careers and professional careers. The model of cultural dimensions can also explain the reasons that some cultures tend to outperform others in academic achievement and in the United States. And it explains why some cultures are so different from other cultures in the United States and other countries in the world.
Cultural dimensions of the model offer a very simple explanation of what makes some cultures better than others. Our understanding of the model is not just limited to learning about what makes us different from other cultures; it is also an explanation of why we are different from one another. It has practical uses in helping to foster the development of relationships among students.
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