CULTURE AND ITS TO ROLE IN MORAL BEHAVIOR

CULTURE
• Reflects the moral values and ethical norms governing how people should behave and
interact with others
• Refers to the outlook, attitude, values, goals, and practices shared by a group,
organization, or society
• Vary over time periods between countries and geographic regions, and among groups and
organizations
MORAL BEHAVIOR
Action or actions that produce good outcomes for the individuals as members of a
community, or society. It can be applied to the whole global society. Schuman defines moral
behavior as “Act intended to produce kind and /or fair outcomes
To act according to ones moral values and standards. Children demonstrate prosocial and
moral behavior when they share, help, co-operate, communicate, sympathize or in otherwise they
demonstrate ability to care about others.
There are different sources that might influence the way a person behaves morally, these include
our family, the community we belong, the religion we practice, our school, and even the virtual
world we see- the social media. These factors may, in one way or another, affect our behaviour
as a moral person.

THE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE A PERSONS MORAL BEHAVIOR

 Family – the basic unit in a society. It includes one’s biological or

adoptive family of orientation. The same provides us with our basic
needs to survive and develop as a significant member of the society.
 School – it may include formal or non- formal educational system that
provides a child with his learning needs.

 Church – the institution that determines what is specifically considered as right or

wrong. It is composed of believers in the same faith.
  Mass media – those agencies that are purposive of entertaining,
informing and educating through various channels like the radio,
television, printed materials etc.

CULTURAL NORMS

• Are the shared, sanctioned, and integrated systems of beliefs and practices that are passed
down through generations and characterize a cultural group

NORMS

• Cultivate reliable guidelines for daily living and contribute to the health and well-being
of a culture

• They act as prescriptions for correct and moral behavior, lend meaning and coherence to
life, and provide a means of achieving a sense of integrity, safety, and belonging

• These normative beliefs, together with related cultural values and rituals, impose a sense
of order and control on aspects of life that might otherwise appear chaotic or
unpredictable

• This is where culture intersects with ethics. Since interpretations of what is moral are
influenced by cultural norms, the possibility exists that what is ethical to one group will
not be considered so by someone living in a different culture

Example:

The French and Americans have different views on whistle-blowing. Compared to the
French, American companies consider it to be a natural part of business. So natural, in fact, that
they set up anonymous hotlines. The French, on the other hand, tend to view whistle-blowing as
undermining solidarity among coworkers. French, on the other hand, tend to view whistle-
blowing as undermining solidarity among coworkers.
CULTURAL BEHAVIOR

Cultures vary substantially in both moral judgements and moral behaviors. Cultural
variations in morality within the societies can vary much as cultural variations in morality
between societies. Cultural factors contributing to this variation includes religion, social ecology
(weather, crop conditions, population density, pathogen prevalence, residential mobility), and
regulatory social institutions such as kinship structures and economic markets.

This variability raises questions for normative theories of morality, but also holds
promise for future descriptive work on moral thought and behavior.

Examples of within societal cultural differences on morality, to shoe that these can be as
substantial and important as cross-societal differences. Whether between or within nations and
societies, cultures vary substantially in their promotion and transmission of a multitude of moral
judgements and behaviors.

Cultural behavior is behavior exhibited by humans (and,

some would argue, by other species as well, though to a much
lesser degree) that is extrasomatic or extragenetic—in other words,
learned.

Example:

This is certainly a complex feat of engineering, but it is not

cultural. This behavior is instinctive, built into the ants' behavior
mechanisms. They cannot alter their plans or think of better ways
to join leaves. They cannot teach or be taught to do so. However, there are examples of animals
that can learn behaviors, such as dogs and cats.
 • A dog doesn't know instinctively not to urinate or
defecate indoors, but it can be taught not to do so.

• Dogs are capable of learning specific behaviors.

• A dog's acquisition of a behavior satisfies one of the

requirements of culture, but it also fulfills another.

• If you were to take a dog that has learned not to eliminate indoors to a different house, it
would still know not to urinate there.

• This is because the dog has made a generalization. It knows not to urinate or defecate in
any house, not just the one in which it was taught.

Cultural behavior must involve the use of artifacts.

Example in the animal world is the termite stick.

It is not genetically programmed. Not all chimps do it, as would

happen if it were built into the chimps’ genes. It involves several
complex generalizations and ides, involving understanding the termites’ behavior and how to
exploit it and conceiving of a tool with which to do so. It is taught by mother chimps to their
offspring and it involves the use of an artifact: the stick itself

Belief.

Belief are criteria of abstract thought that does not necessarily evoke actions. It may
instigate or forces certain quest in the environment that coheres onto the behavior in a certain
manner.