Analysis of the Impacts of Cultural Changes through Interpretation of Hofstede's Cultural Dimension Theory

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective of this experiment is to gain better insight on how the changes in cultural settings directly influence changes in social values. Methods/Materials In this project, we have made a 20-dimensional coordinate plane in which each question in our survey correlates to one dimension. Based on the score of the participants, they are assigned to a point on the 20-dimensional coordinate plane. On this plane there are two points for every person, one indicating their values and beliefs before transitioning a different cultural setting and the other point signifying their current views. Results For participants of an Eastern upbringing, 64.29% showed a leaning towards individualism after the transitioning to a Western cultural setting. The rest of 35.71% showed an opposite change: from individualism to collectivism. For participants of a Western upbringing, 100% of them showed a leaning towards collectivism from their original individualism after transferring to our Buddhist school. Regardless of the directions of their change, all participants indicated a change in their values after a change in their cultural settings. 35.71% of international students indicated a big change in their morals and 50% of local students showed a medium change in their values. Conclusions/Discussion We expected the international students to show a change from collectivism to individualism after coming to study in the US for a several years. In our survey, the higher the number answered the more collective the attitude indicates. Similarly, the smaller a number is, the more individualism an attitude indicates. Therefore, a negative net change shows a change from collectivism to individualism and a positive net change shows a change from individualism to collectivism. In our survey, the majority of the international group showed the expected change but a few showed the opposite. They most likely received a Western education and lived in a westernized environment in their original countries. As for the local group, everyone showed an expected change from Western individualism to Eastern collectivism because the local students came from public schools which teach very different values from this Buddhist school.

Competition history

• CSEF 2016 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry S0406

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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