Development and cultural influence

Culture and Economic Growth

Culture has an effect on economic growth in both direct and indirect ways. There are many forms of culture, which can be divided into the personal culture and social culture. I wanted to explore societal culture because of its enormous impact on economic growth.

Main Characteristics of Social Culture

According to Kremer, M. (2010), social culture has four main characteristics: duty characteristics, emotional inclination in relationships, participation in relationships, and the foundation for prestige and control. These four main characteristics of the societal culture or cultures are important since they inform one of the reasons why people behave the way they do. On the obligation characteristic, the societal culture obligations are particular and based on relationships. Two, emotional orientation characteristic highlights that the societal culture embraces strong expression of feelings among people hence the members of the public can, for instance, express dislike or like towards a product in the market. Three, the involvement in relationships characteristic of societal culture explains that people prefer to avoid confrontation with others and have their life as private as possible. Finally, on the forth characteristic, status is ascribed based on gender, family and social position among others.

Influence of Societal Culture

The societal cultures shape many behaviors of an individual such as agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness (Sullivan, L. E. (Ed.). 2009). I, therefore, identify with the societal cultures and the influence it has on the above-mentioned traits since the people within a specific setting normally have similar behavioral traits.

References

Kitayama, S., Markus, H. R., & Kurokawa, M. (2000). Culture, emotion, and well-being: Good feelings in Japan andthe United States. Cognition & Emotion, 14(1), 93-124.

Kremer, M. (2010). How welfare states care: Culture, gender, and parenting in Europe (p. 300). Amsterdam University Press.

Sullivan, L. E. (Ed.). (2009). The SAGE glossary of the social and behavioral sciences. Sage.