Relationship Between Culture And Psychological Processes Essay

Relationship Between Culture And Psychological Processes - Essay Example Different cultures have different personalities, and this also differs between males and females (Mead). People of different cultures have personalities that connect them with their culture. Some communities share the same personalities between men and women while others have different personalities among the genders. According to Mead, culture is extremely powerful and determines the fate of a person. Ruth Benedict was also a successful anthropologist who was also an instructor on anthropological studies (Benedict, 3). Both Ruth and Mead studied culture and its relation to human personality, and human sexuality. She studied different cultures and how they mould the personality of individuals, and also tried to recognize the association between psychosomatic processes, and cultural processes (Meyerowitz, 1063). These two are interrelated as they influence the emotions and cognition of human beings. Culture and personality brought about a large group of people including anthropologist s and psychologists. They, however, had different views on the same topic of culture and psychological processes. While Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead were anthropologists, Sigmund Freud was a psychoanalyst but they all joined hands in exploring culture and human personalities. Mead and Benedict shared their views that culture is responsible for individual development and emotions of cultures. Freud tried to explain that psychoanalytic theory could be used in the study of culture. It focused on child and toilet training and their influence on the development of children. Human personality is plastic according to Sigmund Freud and can be changed in any environment including culture. If somebody relocated, to another are which practice different cultural activities, he, or she will adapt be forced to that environment. Their personality will change, as well. Individual behaviors are much controlled by their minds; they are not only controlled by culture. Psychology plays a crucial rol e in the way an individual acts and thinks and, therefore, it is extremely vital in the studying of culture and human personalities. Both Mead and Benedict worked tirelessly in order to prove that the biological aspect of individuals did not determine the culture (Benedict, 16). This differed with Freud’s theory which explained that, both biological and psychological aspects played a role in cultural development. Race and ethnicity, according to their research do not determine the culture too. They, therefore, chose to study the relationships of the native groups because they argued that the native groups had not been exposed to modernity incredibly much. They further explained that civilization had been brought about by the contribution of many races and could not be attributed to only one race. It takes different personalities in order to build an economy, social system and also political systems. These different personalities are from different cultural organizations. Each element of culture has its own history and some cultural traits are shared among different communities (Meyerowitz, 1065). Cultural traits are not limited by boundaries and can spread to a large area. Sigmund Freud found out that personality and culture could be explained through the use of the psychoanalytical hypothesis. This included use of examinations and interviews (Meyerowitz, 1064). The views of Margaret mead and Ruth Benedict on culture and human sexuality are related to those of Sigmund Freud in such that they believe that personality changes according to the area of residence and situations. Personality traits are largely based on the surrounding environment and can be acquired by anyone. Every human being s unique in nature, and they perceive things in different ways. This