ABSTRACT
Culture is to society what memory is to individuals (C. Kluckhohn, 1954). It consists of what “has worked” in the experience of a group of people so it was worth transmitting to peers and descendants. Another definition of culture was provided by anthropologist Redfield (1954): “Culture is shared understandings made manifest in act and artifact” (p. 1). In short, it is shared behavior and shared human-made aspects of the society. Thus, it includes “practices” (the way things are done here) and “values” (the way things should be done). These older definitions of culture focus on what is outside the person (e.g., do people drive to the right or left). The more recent definitions also stress what is inside the person (e.g., is the self independent or interdependent of in-groups). Almost every aspect of psychological functioning is influenced, to some extent, by culture. Thus, it is best to view culture and psychology as making each other up (Cole, 1996; Shweder, 1990).
