Human behavior refers to how people act and connect, while on the other hand, culture is defined as customs and social behaviors of a particular community or people. Human behavior is categorized into four basic personality types: pessimistic, optimistic, trusting, and envious. An individual’s cultural construct is based on the mental processes determined by the information they learn from their environment. There is a relationship between culture, human behavior, and people’s psychology in a given society (Matsumoto & Juang, 2017). Each personality type is portrayed in all cultures. However, these personality types are portrayed at different levels across most populations globally, with envy being the most common. Human behavior is closely linked to culture and thus, there are some hurtful cultures that need to be phased out from the society.
Culture is defined by the general behavior portrayed by individuals within a given community. Human society is founded on the foundation of social cooperation and coordination. It means that a given community’s culture is a set of agreed behavior and values that help the individuals coexist. By sharing the values of a culture, people can live in harmony and develop their society. Additionally, the interaction between different views of the same culture enables self-correction of ill values within a society.
Shared conditions explain a couple of similarities in social structures across varying regions. On the contrary, it is shallow to say that culture is determined only by the environment alone. Each environment allows a couple of expected courses of action while limiting others. For instance, optimism is a widespread trait among all communities. However, highly optimistic communities show a high sense of trust, while those highly pessimistic cultures would portray distrust. Human behavior is generally predictable, and people from different cultures can show a great sense of similarity with a few biases created by varying cultural values.
The cultural values affect the mental and psychological attributes portrayed by an individual. A culture’s bias towards a given behavior can be beneficial as it will translate to positive behavior. Another benefit of culture to people is that it inspires creativity and drives innovation. According to Matsumoto and Juang (2017), culture impacts an individual’s perspective on life and can provide important insight into innovative solutions. For instance, a matriarchal culture will promote respect for the female gender. Furthermore, it is expected that individuals from such communities will have an easier time dealing with changing gender roles. However, wrong cultural values such as male chauvinism make it hard for people from such cultures to appreciate changing gender roles.
Culture has the potential of having negative impacts on the human way of life and behavior. Cultural integration may be considered complex in the face of prejudice or negative culture. An example of a study that can indicate how culture is hurtful to people is evaluating the female perspective towards female genital mutilation (FGM). A preliminary assumption of the results is that although most women will feel that the practice is wrong, such practices will still be promoted by women in the same communities. Furthermore, there are some women who go ahead to practice FGM even when the practice is outlawed in most countries. Therefore, a simple sample interview would portray that such cultures are harmful physically and mentally.
In conclusion, there is a close relationship between culture and human behavior. Culture has both positive impacts and also adverse effects on human life. Consequently, it is essential to preserve and grow positive cultures across the world and instill skills to help people adapt better to life. However, cultures that promote negative behavior and are hurtful should be rehabilitated. Therefore, studies should be undertaken to identify hurtful cultures and how they can be dealt with.
Reference
Matsumoto, D., & Juang, L. (2017). Culture and psychology (6th ed.). Cengage Learning.