A learning model to consider the cultural & social influences on the development of the individual
For a long time I have worked with people who have been encountering new peoples in a range of different contexts. For a very long time, they were concerned with different cultures, ones they were not familiar with, that were alien to them. We’re in a not dissimilar situation when we start a new job, especially if we’re moving to a new sector — there’s lots to learn and frequently there’s a fairly short time scale before we start to feel extremely uncomfortable about our lack of, or perceived lack of understanding.
For most of us, this is not a life-threatening situation, but for those who would operate in different societies it can be. That makes understanding the culture, the society, the groups in a specific region and the individuals you deal with crucial — to successful operating, and on occasion to life.
From a psychological perspective this can be challenging to explain, the interlinks between religion, ritual, social norms, families, friends, experience, perceptions and behaviours are multi-fold and complex. They are individual. So, how do you explain this to someone who has never considered this before how and why it is important. Someone who doesn’t have the time to do a Psychology, International Relations, Anthropology, or Politics degree, but needs to understand the benefits of relationship over conflict. And the place of relationship in conflict.
With a group of eminently bright, and practical colleagues, we started to develop a model, which aims to make this thinking a little easier to understand to a new learner. I see this approach as a filter, that there’s an individual at the base of the filter, interacting with all it’s contents, certainly on the receiving end of it all and adapting, interpreting through their own eyes and then acting according to this. It is a very basic model, but I do believe it helps paint a picture of what contributes to making each person, group, society, similarly unique.
Consider an external perception of the UK. What do you think other nations people think about ‘us’? They may think football, Christian, royalist, stiff upper lip, unemotional, they may think we have a common language and that we’re a small island nation (I generalise wildly!). Now think about your own experience, if you were born and brought up in the UK. You may agree with some of the perceptions, but through your own experience you know it doesn’t quite work like that! You were born into the same country as I was, but your experience, friends, family, the rituals you follow (& the teams), the school you went to and the decisions you made about study, university / work will all have led you to a different place in life and experience. You may speak English, and a visitor may learn English, but the range of dialects and accents could make understanding challenging. A Geordie, a Scouser and a Glaswegian walk into a bar… (no offence intended, I have friends from all those places).
Each layer of the filter adds something to the individual, and in each case they can (& will) change something about the person — as will their decisions around each.
There are some broad-brush things you can learn about a country before you go, probably at a superficial level. In the model, I have tried to capture a flavour of things to consider, rather than an exhaustive list, hopefully you get the picture! When you start to engage, you learn what these things actually look like on the ground, in practice, if you like.
When you begin to speak to, question, and actively listen to people, they will tell you the particular groups they are members of, their friends and maybe where they work. You will, initially, like in any relationship, receive an overview of who they are and begin to understand differences within communities. It is important to understand that there are sub-cultures and geographical differences, peculiarities, and affiliations. You will start to recognise the in-groups and out-groups for this person, or region. This regional awareness can be crucial to recognising different behaviours and attitudes towards different groups, for example.
As the relationship improves and trust is developed, you may hear more about peculiarities of their own family, how rituals are interpreted and practices they hold. Think about the ‘generalisability’ of a Christmas Day in the UK, then think about the ‘family traditions’ that sit alongside this… Do you open presents on Christmas Eve, Christmas Morning or Afternoon; apple sauce or cranberry or both, Lancashire cheese with the Christmas cake? Our expectations and experience colour who & how we are and what we expect from others…
So, without this granular understanding of each individual, how can we educate and inform people operating overseas, or in different parts of the UK, or in a new sector, or a new organisation what to consider?
I believe that having a grasp of how complex people’s lived experience is and how it contributes to their thinking and actions, is a first step to understanding. Being aware of what can & does contribute to someone else’s lived experience and how this can impact behaviours is a reasonable first step in developing relationships. This understanding will support your understanding of behaviours you see and experience and help you manage this.
An important step in ‘other’ awareness is self-awareness; you need to know how your own culture, background, upbringing, education, in-&-out-groups, experience and interpretation of all that have made you the person you are. This is a step many people often forget, or label too difficult. It involves reflection, and it is challenging as we may find things about ourselves we don’t like, or really understand. How did I get to be a huge rugby fan?
Understanding who we align with, where we happily receive our information from, why we think in certain ways will help us be more open to others. We need to be able to take advice, and information, from a range of sources to be able to triangulate information — if we only read one paper, listen to one voice, trust a single source, we are likely to miss something and then our decision making is faulty. This bias is amplified when we are in unfamiliar situations, often the place when our decision making needs to be better. The ability to recognise one’s own boundaries, will help us understand others, and make us more open to listening to broader voices, when we realise we’re not the only person with an opinion
My model is a simple on, but I feel it could be used in education where it could serve as a rudimental introduction for discussion. Each section could be a module in itself, or a single session & discussion on each could benefit thinking, especially when learners have the opportunity to reflect on their own experience within the group.
How would you use it, what would you change (e.g. a colleague suggested it sat more as a pyramid with the individual at the top), what would you add, or remove, is it useful, or is it so high level it’s meaningless?
What’s your experience of new cultures? I would love to hear your stories!
