CULTURE
Study Unit 3
By C.Settley

Learning Outcomes
• Students should be able to;
• - define the concept culture
• - analyse the characteristics of culture in detail
• - explore the components of culture
• - explain material and non- material culture with specific reference
to norms, values and sanctions
• - explain the following concepts: subculture, counter culture,
cultural relativity, cultural shock, cultural lag, ethnocentrism,
xenocentrism, xenophobia
• - explain how different cultures are formed and how they expand
• - discuss transcultural nursing with regards to: defining the concept,
explain the transcultural skills a nurse need to acquire
• - explain the transcultural variations that need to be taken into
account when nursing patients

Culture Defined
• A constantly changing pattern of behaviour, characterised by
beliefs, morals, and norms of a particular social group.
• Is a way of life of a certain social group defined by
geographical boundaries (Du Toit & Van Staden p.18).

Characteristics of Culture
DuToit&VanStadenpage20
• Exclusive to humanity
• - Governed by constant change embedded to environmental
and biological conditions which is based on sensible creation.
• Learned / acquired behaviour
• - Is a learning process
• - Not genetically inherited
• - There is potential genetic exposition for the learning process
• - Transferred from parent to child (socialization)
• - Other groups become involved through the stages of
development
• - Acquisition/ learning process not always conscious or
unintentional on the part of the learner- incidental.

Characteristics of Culture
Continued
• Belongs to community/ group
• Shared by majority of the group
• Not unconditionally to all aspects
• Continual Interaction among members preserve cultural
practice (Steyn & Van Rensburg, 1985:32)
• Dynamic and cumulative
• - Culture changes all the time certain practices die and others
are learned from other cultural groups and incorporated in.
(diffusion)

Characteristics of Culture
Continued
Similarities in culture
• language,marriages,
health systems, religion,
economic system,
recreation
Differences in culture
• different ways of looking
at things
• different ways of
dressing
• different ways of
expressing
personality/goodness

Components of Culture
CULTURAL ELEMENTS
• Material Culture
• physical and
technological
• Eg. pencil, book
• Non-Material Culture
• Eg. values, beliefs,
philosophies,
conventions, and
ideologies.
• physical existence.
CULTURAL COMPLEXES
• Combination of cultural
elements
• Eg. HOSPITAL: beds,
wheelchair, catheter,
bedpan
• Eg. CAR: handbreak,
pedal, ignition, backseat,
tyre

Components of Culture
continued
CULTURAL PATTERNS
• Combinations of cultural
complexes
• Eg hospitals, clinics,
private practices =
HEALTH CARE

Material and non material
culture
• Material Culture
• - objects we feel represents how we feel about the world
• - relationship between people and things
• - food, clothing, cars, weapons, and buildings
• Example: One common form of material culture is jewelry that
indicates a person’s status as married. In American culture,
people wear a metal band on the ring finger of the left hand
to show that they are married. In smaller, non-industrialized
societies, everyone knows everyone else, so no such sign is
needed. In certain parts of India, women wear a necklace to
indicate that they are married. In Northern Europe, married
people wear wedding bands on the right hand.

Material and non material
culture
continued
• Non Material Culture
• - value is a culturally approved concept about what is right or
wrong, desirable or undesirable
• - values are a culture’s principles about how things should be
and differ greatly from society to society
• Example: In the United States today, many women value
thinness as a standard of beauty. In Ghana, however, most
people would consider American fashion models sickly and
undesirable. In that culture and others, robustness is valued
over skinniness as a marker of beauty.

Material and non material
culture
continued
• - beliefs are specific ideas that people feel to be true. Values
support beliefs.
• Example: Americans believe in freedom of speech, and they
believe they should be able to say whatever they want
without fear of reprisal from the government. Many
Americans value freedom as the right of all people and believe
that people should be left to pursue their lives the way they
want with minimal interference from the government.

Material and non material
culture
continued
• sanctions are rewards or punishments that a society sets up
to enforce the norms. Done to protect society from chaos.

Cultural Concepts
• Subculture. A cultural group within a larger culture, often having
beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture.
• Counter culture. A way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at
variance with the prevailing social norm.
• Cultural relativity. Is the view that moral or ethical systems, which
vary from culture to culture, are all equally valid and no one system
is really “better” than any other. This is based on the idea that there
is no ultimate standard of good or evil, so every judgment about
right and wrong is a product of society.
• Cultural shock. The feeling of disorientation experienced by someone
when they are suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of
life, or set of attitudes.

Cultural Concepts
continued
• Cultural lag. Refers to the notion that culture takes time to catch up
with technological innovations, and that social problems and
conflicts are caused by this lag. Subsequently, cultural lag does not
only apply to this idea only, but also relates to theory and
explanation. Please read Box 2.1, pg 34 in Du Toit & Van Staden.
• Ethnocentrism. Evaluation of other cultures according to
preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's
own culture.
• Xenocentrism. Is the preference for the products, styles, or ideas of
someone else's culture rather than of one's own.
• Xenophobia. Intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other
countries.

Methods of Cultural Formation
and Expansion
(DuToit&VanStadenpage35)
1) Culture formation through discovery
2) Culture formation through invention
3) Cultural diffusion
4) Speed
5) Selection
6) Accumulation
7) The corroboration process

Seehandouts
Furtherdefinitions
NursingDecisions
Majorconcepts
ApplicationtoNursing
HealthPracticesindifferentcultures
NursingProcessandroleofanurse

References
• Du Toit, D.A. & Van Staden S.J. (2009). Nursing Sociology. 4th
Edition. Pretoria: Van Schaik
• (Steyn & Van Rensburg, 1985:32).
• http://youtu.be/3iPQZSxNqxs