Cultural Patterns

A cultural pattern is a category or dimension of the human experience that is common to all cultures but that differs in its expression or manifestation from one culture to another. A simple example would be the concept of personal identity; it exists in all cultures, but it takes different forms in different cultures with regard to any number of variables. These variables include the importance of the self, the relation of the self to the group (usually expressed as degrees of individualism and collectivism), the degree of face that attaches to the self (saving face, losing face), and accepted forms of self-expression. Taken together, a group of cultural patterns comprises what is usually referred to as a mind-set or a worldview.

Cultural patterns make up ...