Personality Development Paper. Physical therapists and health care providers from other disciplines bring their own cultures (and, unfortunately, biases) to each clinical encounter.

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Personality Development Paper    

Running head: PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT PAPER

Personality Development Paper

Theresa Ruebottom

University of Phoenix

Personality Theories

Psych 504

Jorey Krawczyn

November 24, 2007


Personality Development Paper

Culture refers to the behavior, patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group of people that are passed on from generation to generation. It results from the interaction between people and their environment over many years. Culture also pertains to the language, values, and customs. “No matter how well intentioned people are, their life circumstances likely have given them some prejudices. If they don’t have prejudices toward people with different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, other kinds of people may bring out prejudices in them. For example, prejudices can be developed about people who have certain religious or political conventions, people who are unattractive or too attractive, people with a disability, and people in a nearby town (Santrock, 2007).”

Culture is one aspect of our experience that makes us similar to some people and different from others. People in all cultures tend to believe that what happens in their culture is always natural and correct. Cross-culture tends to emphasize on Individualistic or Collectivism. Such as the Western culture like the United States are described as individualism and the Eastern culture like China and Japan are described as collectivistic. Individualistic cultures have higher rates than collectivistic cultures of suicide, drug abuse, crime, teenage pregnancy, divorce, child abuse, and mental disorders. Regardless of their cultural background, people need a positive sense of both self and connectedness to others.

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Other cultural factors are rites of passage, which are ceremonies or rituals. For the rites of passage, it signals the adolescent’s transition to adulthood; others do not. Here are some examples of rites of passage: Congolese Kota boys painted their faces as part of a rite of passage to adulthood. The Apache Indians of the American Southwest celebrate a girl’s entrance into puberty with a four-day ritual that includes special dress, daylong activities and solemn spiritual ceremonies. Americans do not have formal rites of passage that mark the transition from adolescence to adulthood. For the United States school graduation is the ...

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