Chapter 4 CULTURE: DEFINING MORAL BEHAVIOR

Intended Learning Outcomes: At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to:

1. Articulate what culture means; and

2. Describe facets of personal behavior to culture.

4.1 What is Culture?

• from the word “culltus” which means to cultivate
• the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious,
or social group
• the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes
an institution or organization
• It is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people,
encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.

4.2 Classification of Culture

• Material Culture
➢ refers to the physical objects or artifacts things that human beings
created by altering the natural environment.

➢ These are concrete and tangible things that man creates and uses.
• Examples of these are dwelling units, tools, weapons, clothing, stone tools,
houses, medicines, cooking utensils, and other tools and machines.

• Non-Material Culture
➢ consists of words people use, the habits they follow, the ideas,
customs, behavior, of any society profess and to which they strive to
conform.

➢ Laws, techniques, lifestyle, and knowledge are included too.

➢ This covers all those creations of man which are used to explain, guide
his actions and give meaning to man's behavior.

Kinds of Non-Material Culture

➢ Norms – refers to the standards, guides, or prescriptions about how one

should act or behave in society. These tell us what appropriate or
inappropriate behavior in a given situation is.

Three Types of Norms:

1. Folkways - these are the customary, repetitive and habitual behavior

patterns of people. These are considered as the traditional and old
ways but are not strictly enforced (e.g., eating three times a day,
good manners, kissing the hands of parents, taking a bath every day,
etc.).
 2. Mores - refers to the strong ideas of right and wrong which require
certain actions and forbid others. It has a stronger moral component
than folkways. They are compulsive and strictly enforced, and are
usually are accompanied by lighter sanction. Example is having only
one wife, for Christians.

3. Laws - refers to the written and formalized social norms enacted by

the people who are vested with political power and enforced through
the machinery of the state by a person or organization whose role or
function are so defined.

➢ Language – refers to a system of symbols that have specific and

arbitrary meaning in a given society. It is the symbolic communication or
language that sets human beings apart from other species. With the use
of language, we can go beyond just transmitting simple feelings and
emotions in the here and how. Through language, we are able to
transmit our learning to others. As a result, each new generation does
not have to discover fire or invent the wheel but can build upon what has
been passed on by the previous generations. Having language is
perhaps the greatest advantage of human beings.

4.3 Characteristics of Culture

1. Culture is learned - culture is not instinctive or innate; it is not part of biological

virtue of his membership in groups. As a social being every individual is born
into cultural group which imposes the same to the individual members.

2. Culture is transmitted from one generation to the next - Man is an heir to a

social tradition. It represents our social legacy as contrasted with our organic
heredity. No one is born with culture or equipped with something that guides
him to develop culture. Culture is developed through time and spaces by the
chain of generations out of their experiences of trial and errors.

3. Culture is socially shared - human beings living in organized groups shared

culture and keep relatively uniform by social pressure.

4. Culture represents the ideaI form of behavior - The group habits that
comprise the culture are viewed as ideal patterns of behavior. The members of
the group are expected to conform to them; they are group expectations.

5. Culture is gratifying - Culture satisfies human needs, both biological and

moral. The fulfillment of biological needs is provided by culture with a
recognized pattern. We do need to discover our own ways to make ourselves
warm, to satisfy our hunger and thirst to fulfill out sexual desires and to get
some rest. Our culture provides us with the pattern: that control these basic
functions from infancy onward.
6. Culture is adaptive - the culture of any society represents an adaptation or
adjustment in the various conditions of life, including physical, social and
supernatural environment. The change may occur as a result of discoveries,
invention and cultural borrowing. This acceptance of change depends on the
exposure of its members to new ideas and ways through diffusion.

Ethics
Page 2 of 6
Module

USMKCC-COL-F-050
 7. Culture is integrative - The parts of a given culture tend to form a consistent
integrated whole. In the words of William Graham Summer, the parts are
subject to strain of consistency with each other. However, perfect integration is
never achieved the obvious reason that historical events constantly exert a
disturbing influence. Now it is sufficient merely to know the traits of people. Two
cultures could have identical inventories of extremely different traits.

4.4 Modes of Acquiring Culture

1. Imitation. This takes place during the process of socialization. As the child
grows, he imitates the things around him: the language and behavior of the
people around him, both the desirables and the undesirable. This process
continues even until the adult life of the individual.

2. Indoctrination. This takes the form of formal teaching or training which may
take place anywhere the individual finds himself interacting with his fellow
humans. This formal teaching takes into account the cultural components of
the society where the learning individual lives.

3. Conditioning. Through the social norms prevailing in one's social and cultural
milieu, the individual acquires a certain pattern of beliefs, values, behavior, and
actions through the process of conditioning. This process is further reinforced
by system of reward punishments found in the cultural system

4.5 Importance to the Individual

1. Culture distinguishes man from animal. It is the culture that makes the
human animal a man. It regulates his conduct and prepares him for a group
life. Without culture he would have been forced to find his own way which
would have meant a loss of energy.

2. Culture provides solution for complicated situations. Culture provides

man a set of behavior for difficult situations. In the absence of culture man
would have been baffled even at the simplest situations. Culture not only
defines but also determines what we eat and drinks, when to sleep, when to
laugh, etc.

3. Culture provides traditional interpretation to certain situations. Through

culture man gets traditional interpretations for many situations according to
which he determines his behavior. For example, if a cat crosses his way, he
postpones the journey.

4. Culture shapes personality. No child can develop human qualities in the

absence of cultural environment. Culture prepares man for group life. It is
culture that provides opportunities for the development of personality and sets
limits on its growth.

4.6 Cultural Concepts

Ethics
Page 3 of 6
Module

USMKCC-COL-F-050
 1. Adaptive techniques - these are social adjustments which have been made,
planned and applied by men to lessen and minimize the problem brought about
the technological change.

2. Counterculture - a subculture that has values and norms that sharply

contradict
the dominant values and norms of the larger society.

3. Cultural universal - this refers to the common cultural elements that are found
within all known societies. They are norms, laws, language, beliefs, and values.

4. Cultural Lag - it is the inability of a given society to adapt immediately to

another culture as a result of the disparity in the rate of change between the
material and non-material elements of culture.

5. Cultural Relativism - it is the opposite of ethnocentrism. The concept refers to

the notion that each culture should be evaluated from the standpoint of its own
standard rather than from the standpoint of different culture. In other words,
norms, values, and beliefs should be judged only from the viewpoint of that
culture.

6. Cultural shock - it is the experience of disorientation and lustration that occurs

when individuals find them among those who do not share their fundamental
premises.

7. Cultural traits - refers to the simplest and smallest functional units or elements
of culture, either material or non-material elements. Example, saying po or opo,
serenading, sending love letters or text, wearing of headgears among the
Muslim women, and other countless single acts.

8. Cultural complex - refers to the combination of two or more related culture

traits, such as serenading and sending love message. Culture pattern refers to
the complex that is grouped together. Example is the family patterns which
comprise
courtship, dating, marriage, and child rearing.

9. Ethnocentrism - it is a feeling that one's particular way of life is superior and

right and that all other cultures are inferior and often wrong. This kind of feeling
is inclined to judge other cultures in terms of the values and norms of one's own
culture. In this sense, ethnocentrism involves erroneous concept of customary
conventional ways of one's own culture for what is superior and right.

10. Xenocentrism- means the preference for foreign. The exact opposite of
Ethnocentrism. It is the belief that something imported is superior,
supplemented
by the so-called colonial mentality.

11. Subculture - a group or category within a society who shares in the general
culture but who maintain distinctive ways of thinking, acting, and feeling. This
kind of
group is usually found in a big and complex society.
12. Temporocentrism - It is the belief that one's own time is more important than
that

Ethics
Page 4 of 6
Module

USMKCC-COL-F-050
 of past or future.

13. Popular culture - the culture that are popularized in the mass media
dominated
by the culture of the rich and well to do families.

14. Hidden transcript- also known as the weapon of the weak consists of gossips,
gestures, symbols, narratives and drama, shown by those who have no guts to
express their protest against certain social order.

15. Public transcript- These are words or praises offered by the subordinate to
their superior shown in the presence of their boss.

4.7 Filipino Culture and Values

1. Belief System - Generally, Filipinos are religious. They believe so much in

supernatural powers and view themselves as only a speck in this wide
universe. Because of this, they believe so much in prayers rather than hard
work in the realization of their dreams. Success is considered a blessing from
God, and a result of good luck and faith. He also value traits like perseverance,
patience, and endurance.

2. Value System – the Filipino values can be best seen from the aspects of
personal and social relationships. Personally, the Filipinos values more than
their honor and status than anything else. Due to our long experience of chain
of colonialism, most of the values that the Filipinos hold were influenced by
foreign cultures. Some of
these are:

➢ Hiya - a positive Filipino value that has helped our forefather surmount
difficulties. This value makes Filipino tries harder in anything he
undertakes so he will not fall short of expectations. It makes the Filipino
dedicates his life to developing his talents and skills. Anywhere around
the globe, the Filipino makes things happen because he is an excellent
performer.

➢ Utang na loob - it is a technique of reciprocity of debt of gratitude to

others within the family circle or primary group, sometimes unlimited in
nature, emotional rather than financial or rational. It is a sign of marginal
economy where no place is available for bargaining, formal agreements,
written contracts, specific rights, and responsibilities (Gorospe, 1966; p.
51).

➢ One's inability to repay utang na loob - will result in individual being

labeled as walang utang na loob or walang hiya.

➢ Pakikisama - this is closely related to utang na loob. It is the value of

belongingness and loyalty to the small group with sensitivity to the
feelings of others on the principle of give and take. Pakikisama is a folk
concept of good public relations and avoidance of conflict with the leader
or majority of the groups.
➢ Hiya - this controls to a large extent the behavior of the individual and
most likely, is generally dependent on what others will think, say, and

Ethics
Page 5 of 6
Module

USMKCC-COL-F-050
 do. Because of hiya, a Filipino cannot say NO even if it is against his will
to do
what is being requested.

➢ Bahala na - a common expression among Filipinos and this rest on the

fatalistic outlook and strong dependence on the spirits who will take care
of everything if they are really meant for a person.

➢ Individualism - a pattern of behavior which characterizes the Filipino as

self-centered. The desire to make a name for himself becomes the
primary motivation for success.

➢ Amor propio - it is the individual's highly emotional reaction to protect

his honor and dignity when they are threatened or questioned and to
retaliate. Common forms of amor propio are hele hele bago quiere, or
pakipot, which shows at the outset a person initially refusing and offer
even if he really wants very much to accept it.

➢ Bayanihan spirit - roughly translated as team spirit, where each

member is expected to contribute to a certain task no matter how small
it may be. Others volunteer their services in any way, which elevates
their standing
in the community.

➢ Ramay-damay - the value of clannishness and close-knit families, or

sympathy of help extended not only limited within the family but to
neighbors, distance relatives and even kababayan. It is more
emphasized in the phrase "hindi ka nag-iisa.”

4.8 How Culture Defines Moral Behavior

No one is born with the inherent ability to identify, explain, question and even
formulate what is morality. Culture plays an essential role as to establish what moral
behavior means or what morality means. It is culture that shapes the very nature of
man distinct from that of animals. Culture establishes the standards in society that
have not only safeguard the wellbeing of man and his fellow beings, but have paved
the way for human flourishing.

Ethics
Page 6 of 6
Module

USMKCC-COL-F-050