HUMAN MORALITY IS UNIVERSAL

Is there such thing as a universal moral code?

Different cultures and individuals have different standards of right and wrong. Moral standards also change overtime in the same culture. For example slavery was considered moral in the United States at one time but not anymore. There is no universal rule that defines right or wrong. Instead, morality is determined by the standards of a person’s own authorities and or culture. Morality is constantly changing. People's beliefs, values and ideas are constantly evolving. What was labeled as wrong 20 years ago like abortions is accepted today, and what is labeled as wrong today, will probably be accepted in the near future. Every culture and sub-culture have different social standards in what is accepted as 'good'. I do not believe that there is an overall moral code in which everyone follows universally, because we as individuals have different ideas in what we believe as moral correct, that is what makes us an independent species. moral codes are relative simply because Laws and what is considered socially acceptable differs so much based on religion or the lack there of. Growing up in a Christian home highly influenced my moral judgment. I feel morality in terms of moral codes is not universal but it’s evident that we are all moral beings. Lawrence Kohlberg believed and was able to demonstrate through studies that people progressed in their moral reasoning through a series of stages. Even though there is no such thing as a universal moral code Kohlberg was able to provide research that humans are generally moral beings.

FITTING IN

People differ in their personalities, attitudes, and values, and an understanding of our individual personality is profoundly important in many cultural atmospheres. How you are perceived and how you want to be perceived differs cross culturally in terms of fitting in. Many people including me have told a lie, acted a certain way or conformed to a group in order to fit in. The key word here is conform, there are several motivations to conform that drive individuals socially and culturally. Growing up I understood conformity; well at least I thought I did. The way I dressed, the shoes I wore and the way I talked was influenced by my cultural surroundings and my struggle to fit in. In the community I lived in growing up majority of my friends where of Jamaican decent and they spoke a dialect that was prominent and popular in our area. I would often speak the same as them in order to conform and not stick out. Time passed but I would still be concerned with conforming. In high school Jordan sneakers were very popular, of course with any popular fashion trend these shoes were highly overpriced but I had to have them. I would save my paycheques and every bit of money I could get in order to buy these shoes just because they were cool and everyone had them. With the use of cultural psychology I know now that a key goal in independent cultural contexts is to achieve belongingness with others, which makes perfect sense when I think about the issue of conformity. 

CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN SCHOOL

Cultural Diversity is an interesting topic not only because it possesses many challenges but because it possesses many enhancements to students development and assimilation into the growing cross cultural world. Students now more than ever will need to learn how to interact in a diverse environment. I was always surrounded by diversity, I went to a school in a neighborhood that had a population reflective of its diversity. Many students that attended my elementary school were from various ethnic group, I can go as far as saying none of us really seen color or differences in culture has an issue in our school population, truly! My best friend was Chinese. Going to his house every day and being around his family taught me many things about his culture and he also learned a lot from mine as well. Even in my high school diversity was rampant. A lot of students in stfx where not has exposed to diversity has I was which creates lots of problems when diversity is introduced. The lack of understanding culture or being able to relate to someone different from you leads to social problems. I've met several student who haven’t even talked to a person of a different ethnicity will they came here. Of course it’s not their fault do to geographical location. They always seem to ask me what I would consider stupid questions due to the lack of previous experience with people of diverse backgrounds or religions. It’s important to acknowledge how important cultural diversity is, it enhances the school experience and understanding of the perspectives of children from different backgrounds and helps to aid in functioning in a multicultural, multiethnic environment. 

NOT SO WINNING ATTITUDE

Steven J. Heine's cultural psychology chapter 7 really got me thinking about how i perceive and how these perceptions effect not only myself but others. This is my last year has a stfx student and athlete i define myself had both opposed to one for reasons i was unaware of until now. The concept of compensatory self enhancement comes to play when i choose how i define myself in the stfx community. I am not the best student, i don't get 80's so i tend to divert myself away from my academics by thinking about how good i am in football. Rewind to my first year at X on the football team, like every other freshmen i haven't yet solidified my spot. I was battling for my spot on the dressing roster with 6 other guys and till this day i can remember the comparisons we use top make of each other in order to boost our self esteem. I would disregard other players strengths and only talk about there weakness in order for me to feel better about my performance, i mean we all did it. Downward social comparison is the concept that is used in chapter 7 on motivation to describe my attitude. during downward comparison an individual tends to compare there performance with the performance of someone who is doing worse. i was always comparing myself to people who i felt was worse than me. training camp was not the only situation when downward social comparison came to play. During games when i played poorly i would often look for someone who was playing worse has an emotional scapegoat. Using these defensive tendency was a means of self evaluation that many of us participated in due to our individualistic cultural perceptive.