Affective/Neutral

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In more affective cultures it is appropriate for people to display emotions openly, and it is unnecessary for people to hide their emotions. A person from a more affective culture is likely to ignore less obvious displays for emotion them, because they appear unimportant.
This often causes conflict when a person from an affective culture encounters someone who is more accustomed to a neutral culture, because neutral cultures assume that it is wrong to show one's emotions openly. People from neutral cultures do have emotions, they are just displayed very subtly. People from neutral cultures often think that people from affective cultures are to easily excited and overly emotional, because they display their emotions more obviously. A person who displays their emotions to much will not be very highly respected.

I think mainstream Australian culture is probably more neutral than affective, but I think it's a very moderate example of a neutral culture.
One of my friends, whose family are from a Mediterranean country is always getting Caucasians telling her that she is too agressive, because she is used displaying emotions more loudly than most Caucasians are.

Do you think that your culture is more neutral or more affective? Have you ever expeienced a culture that was the oppsite?
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Specific/Diffuse (part 2)

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Specific/diffuse is hard to understand, so I'm putting together an example. Tab said about Broken Hill,

It's hard to get in (to the native culture) but once ur in, ur in for good, and it's a complete acceptance.

So I'm going to use my constructed idea of Broken Hill (having never actually been there) as an example.

Frederick, who is from my constructed idea of Newcastle moves to my constructed idea of Broken Hill. At first he finds that the people in Broken Hill won't talk to him very much. They don't seem very welcoming. However, over time, some of the locals do begin to open up.
My constructed idea of Broken Hill has a very diffuse culture. It appears to Derrick that the locals are pretty stand-offish, and they are pretty cautious about making friends. They want to find out a reasonable amount about a person before they're willing to open up. Compared to people from more specific cultures, they don't have many friends. However, their friends will be very close. They'll just have one group of friends. They will play tennis, go to the pub, do road trips with the same group of friends, whereas in a more specific culture there will be a different group of friends for each social activity.

Hope that helps to explain it better.
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Specific/Diffuse

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A person who is part of a more specific culture has a large public sphere and a small private sphere. They will easily accept somebody into their public sphere, but will not easily allow anybody into their private sphere.
Each area or activity in which two people interact is understood to be completely seperate. A person's life is divided into many components, of which only one can be entered at a time.
Specific cultures consider everything to be made up of specific elements. They analyse each element seperately, and then recomposite them. It is understood that the whole is the sum of it's parts.
In a more specific culture, interaction between people is highly Purpose-Driven™. Facts, standards and contracts are highly valued.

A person who is part of a more diffuse will tend to have a large private sphere and a small public sphere. Strangers aren't easily admitted into either sphere. However, once a member of a diffuse culture does accept someone, they will give them access to every part of their life. Your friend is your friend in eevry area of life. Your boss is your boss in every area of life.
A more diffuse culture will see something as a whole, and see all the different elements as interdependant. The relationships between different elements are regarded as more important than the seperate elements.
Style, manners, trust and understanding are very important in diffuse cultures.

Do you think that your culture is more diffuse or more specific? Have you ever expeienced a culture that was the oppsite?
Please tell me if I've explained this dimension adequately, because it's probably the most confusing out of the seven dimensions.
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Individualism/Communitarianism

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In a more individualistic culture, each person is understood to be born alone. They tend to see themselves as individuals rather than as members of a community. One's own satisfaction is seen as most important, so people make decisions based on the impilcations for them and their immediate family. The standard of living is understood to be highly dependent on opportunities for individual freedom and self advancement, like in the American dream. A community is evaluated based on how well it serves the interests of it's individual members.

In a culture that has a more communitarian tendency, a person is understood to be born into community - the family, the neighbourhood, the tribe, the country, et cetera. The community is regarded as being more important the individual. Every individual is responsible for looking after the whole community's interests. In this way, it is expected that the needs of every individual will be met.
The quality of life for each person is seen as being dependant on how much well they take care of their fellow human beings, even if at the cost of their own freedom. A member of a communitarian culture assumes that if they take care of others, then when they are in trouble someone else will atke care of them. A person is judged according to how well they serve the community.
It seems to me that the early church was very communitarian:

All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
Acts 2:44-47

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.
Acts 4:32

There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.
Acts 4:34-35

Do you think that your culture is more communitarian or more individualistic? Have you ever expeienced a culture that was the oppsite?

I think that Western culture slowly is becoming more communitarian, as a reaction against extreme individualism. But I think that the Western institutions (eg. the church, the mass media, the education system) are trying to maintain our individualism.
What do you think?
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Universalism/Particularism

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In a more universalistic culture, most people will presume that rules and values are more important than their own needs or those of their friends and family. In universalistic cultures, the rules apply equally to everyone. If there are any exceptions, then the rules will become useless.

For example, in a country that has a prodominantly universalistic culture, if a police officer catches her father speeding, he will have to pay a fine, even though the officer is his daughter.

The more universalistic cultures don't think that their friends and family are unimportant, it's just that the law is regarded as being more important.

However, in a more particularistic culture, human relationships are considered to be more important than rules. Also, if a person is in a difficult situation the law can be overlooked. The emphasis is on the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law.

There are rules and laws in particularistic cultures, but their purpose is to demonstrate how people should treat each other.

Do you think that your culture is more universalistic or more particularistic? Have you ever expeienced a culture that was the oppsite?
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Seven dimensions of culture

This semester I have been doing a unit called 'Me, Them and Us', which focuses on multiculturalism and cross-cultural communication. It's based on Fons Trompenaars' Riding the Waves of Culture. I've decided to write a series of posts about Trompenaars' seven dimensions of culture, as a revision of the course material.

The essential differences between cultures are in the solutions they choose for certain problems: problems in relationships with other people, problems caused by time and problems relating to the environment. Trompenaars has identified seven dimensions, based on the different solutions used to deal with these universal problems:

Universalism/Particularism
Individualism/Communitarianism
Specific/Diffuse (part one) (part two)
Affective/Neutral
Achievment/Acscription
Sequential/Synchronic
Internal control/External control
Reconciliation