Introduction

Introduction. The subject of my diploma work is cultural values. Our perception of foreign cultures is usually based not on their complex reality, but on the simplified image they project. The clearer and more sharply defined that image is, the more convinced we will be that we are intimately acquainted with it it is a mere outward confirmation of knowledge we already possess. All cultures have been designed to meet universal human needs for shelter - for love - for friendship.

While they have commonalties, they have great variety too! Values - universal feature of culture, how they might vary within and between cultures. One universal feature of culture is values. A value is something that is important to people - like honesty, harmony, respect for elders, or thinking of your family first. We can t see values directly, but we can see them reflected in people s ordinary, day to day behavior. What we value shapes what we do. If respect for elders is important to me, I might listen very patiently to grandmother s stories and not argue with her. In fact, I might turn to her for valuable and wise advice. If I value honesty, I will hope that my friends will tell me the truth and not what they think I want to hear. If harmony is more important to me, I prefer to say things that make people happy, even if those things are not exactly true. In the course of human interaction, evaluations are assigned to given types of behavior, attitudes, and kinds of social contact.

Taken together they form the belief and value system, the cultural premises and assumptions, and the foundation for law, order, and the world view of given cultural groups.

These systems embrace a number of assumptions about how the world is put together. Some values and norms, differentiate between good and evil, right and wrong. Some of these assumptions are made explicit in the beliefs and myths of the people.

Beliefs, value systems, and world view often combine with other features of social and cultural organization to provide shared cultural symbols. The actuality and novelty of a theme consist in the following points. Problems of the intercultural communications and cultural values are young. Scientists started to consider them rather recently. In Russia researches have begun only in the 80th years. In such a way, there is not enough literature and materials on the given questions. Therefore any new works and researches make the significant contribution to studying these problems.

Objects of research in my diploma work are behavioral samples and cultural clusters. 1. DEFINITIONS BELIEFS, VALUES It is useful at this juncture to make some distinctions between beliefs and values. BELIEFS Beliefs are generally taken to mean a mental acceptance or conviction in the truth or actuality of something. A belief links an object or event and the characteristics that distinguish it from others.

The degree to which we believe that an event or object possesses certain characteristics reflects the level of our subjective probability belief and, consequently, the depth or intensity of our belief. The more certain we are in a belief, the greater is the intensity of that belief. This is well attested to in the power of religious beliefs. There are three types of beliefs, all of which are of concern to us. They are experiential, informational, and inferential. Experiential beliefs come from direct personal experience, of course they are integrated at the intrapersonal level.

The second type involves information. This is transferred on the interpersonal level and shows great cultural variation. Here cultural beliefs are stated, transferred, learned, and practiced. Informational beliefs are connected with what are called authority belief, or credible information sources. If a group of people believes that exercising increases the individual s physical and mental well-being, these believers may also be willing to accept athletes as authority figures even though the testimonies of these idols range beyond their physical prowess.

Witness the selling success of Olympic champions and football stars in promoting breakfast food or panty hose. Inferential beliefs are those which go beyond direct observation and information. These concern rules of logic, argumentation, rhetoric, and even establishment of facts the scientific method. Although internal logic systems differ from one individual to another within a culture, they differ more from one culture to another.

The most dramatic difference in cultural variance in thinking lies between Western and Eastern cultures. The Western world has a logic system built upon Aristotelian principles, and it has evolved ways of thinking that embody these principles Eastern cultures, however, developed before and without the benefit of Athens or Aristotle. As a consequence, their logic systems are sometimes called non-Aristotelian, and they can often lead to quite different sets of beliefs.

VALUES Values bring affective force to beliefs. Some of these values are shared with others of our kind some are not. Thus, we all adhere to some of the beliefs and values generally accepted within our cultures we reject others. Values are related to what is seen to be good, proper, and positive, or the opposite. Values are learned and may be normative in nature. They change through time and are seldom shared in specifics by members of different generations, although certain themes will prevail.

For example, the positive attributions placed upon competitiveness, individualism, action, and other general principles that pervade the belief and value orientation of members of the North American culture of the United States remain. They include the constitutionally guaranteed and socially valued unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in individualistic, action-oriented, and competitive ways. These values have endured their expression varies from generation to generation.

A cultural value system represents what is expected or hoped for, required or forbidden. It is not a report of actual conduct but is the inductively based logically ordered set of criteria of evaluations by which conduct is judged and sanctions applied.