Human nature

& cultural
diversity

•Fall 2023
•Turana A. Aliyeva, MA, MSW, PhD
Human Diversity

• Obvious dimensions of human diversity:

- Height
- Weight
- Hair color
- Etc.

• For people’s self-concepts and social relationships, the two dimensions

that matter most, and that people first attune to, are:
- Race
- Gender
Outline

Self-
Diversity Values
awareness

Dealing Self-
with developme
conflicts nt
Dimensions of diversity

• Culture
• Race
• Gender identity
• Age
• Religious beliefs
• Sexual orientation
• Education
• Language
• Ethnicity, etc.
Culture
We all have
several layers of
culture
We all have the
natural ability to
move between
different cultures
 • Culture is about a set of shared
beliefs, values and behaviors
Culture • Culture is much more than what
country you come from and it is also
not just about music, food and body
language
• Culture is shaped by many factors
such as parents, media, education,
etc.
All of us are individuals with many
layers of culture, but we also fall into
national cultures
Cultures help us understand why we
do what we do as well start to
explain why we believe what we
believe
Culture awareness helps us make better
decisions
Italy vs Netherlands
Italy vs Netherlands
Cultural differences

• Expressiveness

• Punctuality

• Rule-breaking

• Personal Space
Time and cultural differences
Values

Relationships

Materialism

Fatalism
Gender, genes & culture

Gender—the characteristics people

associate with male and female.

What behaviors are universally

characteristic and expected of:
• Males?
• Females?
Female
Male
Where do
stereotypes • Do these stereotypes exist because they
about men are true?
& women
come from? • This is the “kernel of truth” argument

• At their heart these stereotypes are

somewhat true and based on reality
 The kernel of truth
The argument is just
saying that there’s a
kernel of seed of truth
truth
argument But the stereotype is
a great exaggeration
of that seed
 Evolutionary and cultural
perspectives explaining gender
differences

Do gender differences reflect

Gender natural selection?
differences
Are they culturally constructed—
a reflection of the roles that men
and women often play and the
situations in which they act?
Gender Social connections
differences
Dominance

Aggressiveness

Sexuality
Group work
Group work
 Women are far more likely to
describe themselves as having
empathy

Shown slides or told stories, girls

react with more empathy
Empathy

Given upsetting experiences in the

laboratory or in real life, women
more than men express empathy for
others enduring similar experiences
 One explanation for this male-
female empathy difference is
that women tend to outperform
men at reading others’ emotions
Empathy

Research on men’s and women’s

sensitivity to nonverbal cues
discerned that women are
generally superior at decoding
others’ emotional messages.
 Women are more skilled at
expressing emotions
nonverbally

This is especially so for

Empathy positive emotion

Men, however, were slightly

more successful in conveying
anger
 Imagine two people:

Social One is “adventurous, autocratic,

coarse, dominant, forceful,
Dominance independent, and strong”

The other is “affectionate,

dependent, dreamy, emotional,
submissive, and weak”
 Agression

By aggression,
psychologists mean
behavior intended to
hurt

Throughout the world,

hunting, fighting, and
warring are primarily
male activities

In surveys, men admit to

more aggression than do
women

All across the world and

at all ages, men much
Agression

• The gender difference fluctuates

with the context.

• Within less assaultive forms of

aggression— say, slapping a family
member, throwing something, or
verbally attacking someone—
women are no less aggressive than
men

• Women may be slightly more likely

to commit indirect aggressive acts,
such as spreading malicious gossip
 It’s true that in their physiological
and subjective responses to
sexual stimuli, women and men
are “more similar than different”
Yet the gender difference in sexual
attitudes carries over to behavior.
Sexuality
Males are more likely than
females to initiate sexual activity
 • Gender roles vary with
culture & time

• The changing male-

Culture female roles cross many
cultures
&
• Changes, across cultures
gender and over a remarkably
short time, signal that
evolution and biology do
not fix gender roles: Time
also bends the genders
 We needn’t think of evolution and culture
as competitors

Cultural norms subtly yet powerfully affect

our attitudes and behavior. But they don’t
do so independent of biology

Concluding Everything social and psychological is

ultimately biological. If others’ expectations
remarks influence us, that is part of our biological
programming
Moreover, what our biological heritage
initiates, culture may accentuate. If genes
and hormones predispose males to be
more physically aggressive than females,
culture may amplify that difference through
norms that expect males to be tough and
females to be the kinder, gentler sex.
Cont.

What are some of the consequences of gender

stereotypes for women, for men, and for non-
binary people? Can you give examples from real
life?
How are gender stereotypes linked to
discrimination, violence and hate speech?

What can be done to avoid gender stereotyping?

What can be done to avoid the negative
consequences of stereotyping?
Cultural
awareness &
self
awareness
Self- • Cultural lenses
• Self-awareness
awareness • Stereotypes and bias
 All of us wear a pair of lenses that colour how we
Self-awareness see the world.

These lenses get their colour from our culture,

which includes things such as our values

It’s important to also think about ourselves in any

cross-cultural situation, not just the other

Self-awareness will help us understand why and

how our lenses are coloured and also help us
move beyond our biases and stereotypes which
will help us make smarter observatins
 Sereotypes and biases reduce
complex, dynamic & diverse
situations down to simple
formulas that do not always help
Stereotype and

us make the best decisions.

Cognitive bias
 Cultural misunderstanding
Dealing with conflicts
Respect
Recognize
Reconcile
Conflict
Dealing with
conflict
Self-development

Making judgments Open, honest and

– being no good intention in
judgmental communication
REFERENCES
Required:
Myers, D.G. (2011). Exploring Social Psychology. (6th ed). McGraw-Hill Higher
Education. (Module 12 &13).

Recommended:
Penner, A.M., & Saperstein, A. (2008). How social status shapes race.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(50), 19628-19630.
QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS,
QUESTIONS