Impact of Culture on Various Aspects of Social Life
The cultural background of a given person significantly shapes their style of communication in various ways. According to (Baldwin et al., 2006) culture defines social interactions in terms of acceptable behaviors, values, and habits when communicating with others. For example, culture sets certain parameters that define acceptable and effective communication. (Shrank, W. H., Kutner, J. S., Richardson, T., Mularski, R. A., Fischer, S., & Kagawa‐Singer, M., 2005) argue that culture determines the art of communication regarding the various modes of delivery such as verbal interactions, songs, poems, narratives, signs, and symbols applied. Culture defines the distance to be maintained with various correspondents in a conversation, the acceptable language, and sensitivity of the addressed issues among other aspects of human communication. Culture also shapes an individual’s self-identity by providing shared features that one identifies with such as a language, customs, moral values, beliefs, and norms. An individual identifies with a certain group due to shared interests and cultural values that hold them together. Culture also shapes human sexuality by influencing the way individuals experience and express themselves as sexual beings (Aggleton & Parker 2002). suggests that culture defines human sexuality by demarcating acceptable different gender relationships, and ways of expressing sexual emotions on different occasions and to different persons. Culture can also influence an individual’s beliefs about sexual morality and identity according to the shared moral values governing sexual relationships in a given society. Human spirituality is greatly influenced by held cultural beliefs that tend to explain our abnormal experiences and events happening in the surrounding natural world. For example, humans perceive natural occurrences in life that are beyond human control such as natural disasters and death from a spiritual perspective relating them to supernatural controlling beings. Culture also provides rituals and moral values that an individual associated with as an expression of their spiritual and religious consciousness. Therefore, culture shapes human beliefs, moral values, and behaviors that define a person as a spiritual being.
Culture Shapes an Individual’s Communication
Medical and patient care practices were widely practiced in ancient Egypt with great success. This paper compares and contrasts the ancient Egyptian to the modern American patient care practices on matters regarding culture integration into the system. It also evaluates the impact of culture on various social aspects of human life. A widely practiced culture in a society defines parameters of human interactions thereby shaping an individual’s communication, self-identity, sexuality, and spirituality. Culture refers to a set of beliefs, customs, behavior, moral values, objects, language, and communication systems among other social aspects shared in common by a particular group of people in a given place and time.
Application of Cultural Features in Nursing Care
Cultural beliefs and practices significantly affect an individual’s physiological and psychological well-being. The integration of cultural practices in patient care can be traced back to the ancient Egyptian patient care system. Spiritualism was greatly entrenched in the entire patient care system (Nunn, 2002). For instance, the cause of human sickness was associated with the wrath of gods or demonic powers. The Egyptian culture required the care providers to maintain a high level of physical and spiritual purity before and after attending to a sick person to avoid the spread of the disease to others. Although care providers applied natural herbal treatment interventions to relieve pain and cure the disease the entire process was dominated by spells and incarnation (Nunn, 2002). Egyptian culture also defined practices that would alleviate or worsen given health conditions and recorded them in hieroglyphic medical texts as a way of preserving and passing the knowledge to future generations (Baldwin et al., 2006). Egyptian caregivers required a great understanding of the accepted cultural practices undertaken when providing care to patients.
Summary
Culture refers to the way of life of a given group of people manifested in the form of shared values, beliefs, customs, behavior, practices, and knowledge among other aspects of social life. Culture significantly influences human interactions in the day to day social life activities. Culture shapes an individual’s communication by defining the relationship that exists between communicating parties. It defines the appropriate language used, the sensitivity of issues discussed, and the appropriate delivery method. Culture also shapes an individual’s self-identity through shared cultural features such as language, moral values, beliefs, and customs that one identifies with. Culture can influence an individual’s sexuality by defining acceptable ways to experience and express sexual emotions and interests. Cultural beliefs and practices greatly influence an individual’s spirituality through the explanations offered regarding various abnormal events and experiences perceived from a spiritual perspective such as natural disasters. The contemporary American and ancient Egyptian patient care systems share similarities in the integration of culture in the patient management process with slight differences. The two patient care systems apply both therapeutic and spiritual interventions in the management of the health conditions. However, ancient Egyptian therapeutic management involves the use of natural herbs while contemporary American use synthetic drugs. In ancient Egypt, spiritual support offered to patients involved casting spells and incarnations while in contemporary American society it involves engaging social support groups.
