Share your work and review/discuss the work

Share your work and review/discuss the work of your peers. Post your research paper as an attachment in the discussion, so that others can review it. Review (two) of your classmate’s research papers (each should be the length of a main post). As you review each paper, you will need to go to Hofstede’s website and work to compare the information from of the interviewee (your classmate interviewed) to what Hofstede’s results indicated would be responses for a person from the interviewee’s country. 3. Assess, clarify and offer the following specific information in your discussion: Assess interviewee’s responses and Hofstede information. Did the responses line up with what Hofstede suggests? Explain specifically what did or did not align. For information that did not align, clarify what factors you believe might have influenced differences? Clarify other questions would you like to ask the interviewee or the interviewer that might help add to/make sense of your understanding of the results you discovered after completing this assessment. Offer critical take-home points from the research paper, directly related to the study of cultural psychology (include support From Heine). Identify what did you found most surprising, interesting or meaningful in the research paper. Be sure to integrate scholarly support throughout the post. Sources should be cited in-text, style with references at the end. No direct quotes allowed. You can refer to the Online Resources page to help you get started. This is the classmate research paper below Introduction I conducted my interview with my friend “John” who was born on July 19th, 1987, and was raised in Durres, Albania until the age of 10 years old, and immigrated to the United States in 1997. During his adolescent upbringing, he experienced a country in a bloody war known as the Yugoslav Wars. He described the wars as an attempted ethnic cleanse of his native Albanians by the Serbian National Army. During this chaotic time period, John’s family was directly involved in the war and suffered casualties involving his family. They ultimately fled to seek a new start in the United States of America. The concepts I have learned from this course and Heine’s Cultural Psychology will directly correlate with my 3-hour interview I had with John. Cultural Similarities and Differences Discussed When speaking to John, he explained that he grew up on a small family farm on the outskirts of Durres, Albania. He explained that unlike America, everyone in his family from as young as 5 years old was expected to work and provide income for the family, as most of Albania lives in poverty. From these economic challenges, many families in the area would help each other any way they could, and were very hospitable to one another. If you needed a ride to work, someone would pick you up from their town If you needed extra help to put up a new barn, town people would immediately help no questions asked (John, 2022). This type of close knit community John spoke about closely aligns with what is described as a collectivist culture, where the group necessities come first before an individual’s needs (Sage Journal, 2020). In an impoverished country like Albania, which has often been at war throughout its 1,000 year history, it is embedded in the culture to stick together to further achieve success. As explained earlier, John was raised during the Yugoslav Wars which. He was three years old when the war started. He was used to traveling in the dark of the night with his family to other family or friends’ households to avoid conflict with the opposing Serbian Army. John was used to violence and death since he can remember and stated during that time period of his life it was relatively normal to witness dead bodies in the street when they awoke to gunfire nearby (John, 2022). This normalcy was violence in John’s home country. Compared to the United States, this would be a Cultural Difference Cultural difference is the idea that how you are raised might affect your culture setting to certain variables like education, violence, and other important situations (Lynch, 2013). Heine explained in the readings that cultural differences such as violence can be tied to culture’s environmental or economic issues in that area (Heine, 2019). Acculturation Challenges and Helpful Behaviors Discussed When I was hearing about John’s traumatic upbringing and the culture created around him, I realized it was a great example of Dynamic Social Theory. This theory basically explains how local influence or social influence can shape one’s culture positively or negatively (Harton et al., 2007). In this situation, it seems Albania’s ongoing wars with other ethnicities in the now defunct Yugoslavia have shaped the citizens to be very close with one another, and to always be prepared for conflict. Compared to the United States, a good amount of people don’t even know their own neighbors. Albanians had to know who lived beside them to determine whether they were a threat from past conflicts. In August 1997, John and his family immigrated to the United States and settled in a small suburb outside of Buffalo, NY. From the start, it was difficult, as he had to learn a new language and overcome cultural barriers. For one, the new country he was in was not as hospitable as Albania. You couldn’t rely on neighbors and friends as a guarantee like back home. John explained with the vast difference of population between the two countries Albania has 2.8 million citizens and the United States is at 331 million citizens (Worldometer, 2022). Your reputation of being a trustworthy or noble person didn’t matter as much in America. If you have a bad reputation in a city, you can pick up and move to another state and basically start over. That is not obtainable in John’s small homeland. Another difference he quickly noticed is how calm and relaxed it was in America, which is due to Albania constantly being in wars which cause a high tension among the citizens (John, 2022). Without having to rely on people as much in America, citizens are more likely to be involved in an individualistic culture. Individualistic culture would be best described as having an independent view of yourself where your identity is more based on your personal strengths and social views (Heine. 2019). This individualism in America John experienced was far different then your identity being aligned with the town, family, or ethnicity you were a part of. Hofstede Dimensions When looking at the Hofstede Dimension model for both countries (see figure 1), the results align with what I researched, and the information John gave me during the interview (Hofstede Insights, 2021). Individualism for the United States is at a 91 while Albania it is at a 20 rating. The 71 percent difference really supports John’s opinion on Albanians operating with a collectivist culture compared to America’s individualistic culture. Albania also scored very high in masculinity with a 80 rating with America not far behind with a 62 rating. I believe the masculinity rating is very high in Albania due to the ongoing wars, centuries old code of laws like Kanun, and country wide poverty. Men in Albania have to constantly find a way to provide for their family and, at the same time, have to be ready for impending violence or bloodshed that could happen at a moment’s notice. These old traditions that Albanians still follow correlate with Albania’s 70 rating in uncertainty avoidance. With ongoing conflict, Albanians believe they need traditional rules or codes of behavior to keep the country running correctly and to avoid future uncertainties. The Indulgence trait was also highly different with Albania scoring a 15 rating and America a 68 rating. The low indulgence rating is common in poor countries like Albania, because everyone is working and trying to feed their families leaving little time for leisure or overindulgence. America being the richest country in the world based on International Monetary Fund data at $18.6 trillion leaves citizens with extra time to relax, seek hobbies, and overall enjoy their time outside of work (Rodriguez, 2022). Figure 1: Adaptation to Move to Interviewee’s Country of Origin When John started school he noted that the Albanian and American school systems were very similar and there was no learning curve besides a language barrier that he experienced. His family was thrilled with the healthcare they received in America. Coming from a communist country in the late 1990’s, healthcare was based on your family’s financial value. If you were a wealthy family you had no issue being evaluated by a doctor, whereas if you were poor and were suffering from an illness, you would often die as a result because seeing a doctor was a rarity. Being far younger than his brothers who immigrated in their mid 20’s, he had little issue with the acculturation that he was experiencing (John, 2022). Acculturation is the learning of a new culture when you migrate or move to a new country (Heine. 2019). John’s brothers had a very difficult time adjusting to America, resulting in his one brother “Tom” being arrested and deported several years later for a violent crime he committed in the tradition of Kanun. In Albania there is a practice that has been around since the 15th century, and still continues today, known as Kanun, or blood feud. Kanun is the practice where someone could be killed or seriously harmed for stealing one’s honor or damaging their reputation (Gueroult, 2014). Basically, how John explained Kanun is that, for example, if your son for instance was killed in an accident or on purpose, the person who caused this death would have his son or daughter murdered as a result to more or less even out the loss of family members. This act of revenge would restore the honor of the family that originally lost a loved one. John explained Kanun became so out of hand in Albania that families would put their family members in hiding or flee the country if Kanun or an act of revenge was to take place. John would not go into details what exactly his brother Tom did to get arrested and deported, but stated his brother was following the Albanian code of law of Kanun. John states the cultural difference between the two countries was too overwhelming for some family members that a few family members moved back to Albania after the wars, because they disagreed with many of America’s traditions, views and policies (John, 2022). Summary Conclusion With all the information provided to me about Tom’s upbringing in Albania, it made me ask the , would I be able to adapt to living in Albania if I moved there? My answer would be yes without a doubt I believe I could adapt. The most difficult challenge would be the language barrier, especially in school, if I moved there. I grew up with a hard working traditional Polish family and prefer a collectivist culture where we work as a group for a goal opposed to Individualism. I am also envious of the hospitality of the community around you and there being repercussions to one’s actions. Tom told me that in his town, besides war and Kanun, in times of peace there was no random crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, and other violent crimes. In Albania, he stated it is very organized in terms of crime. If someone is terrorizing the community, they would be made a quick example to warn future criminals of the punishment that came with their violent deeds. Furthermore, because of these punishments, crime is very low or nonexistent in his homeland. There are obviously rewards of being American that I take for granted and it would be an adjustment to live there, but from what I got from my interview I think I would be able to blend in with the culture and embrace it. Tom’s advice to living in Albania is to be close and open to your neighbors and expect a call for help as you are expected to help them as they would help you. He also jokingly stated to get used to drinking 10 cups of coffee today, as Albanians are known for heavy coffee consumption (John, 2022). Data shows Albania has over 18,000 coffee shops in a country of 2.8 million equating for 18% of all businesses (Aubry, 2022). Overall, the highlights of conducting this interview in person was seeing the emotion and hearing it first-hand what it was like growing up in a different country, especially one in an ongoing war. You could see in certain subjects; Tom would change the subject or give little information on it when he felt uncomfortable. He also on three occasions kept reiterating that it was not a war but an “ethnic cleanse” especially the Kosovo War, which he was directly involved in at the young age of ten years old. Tom also harbored strong negative opinions for Serbians who were the opposition forces in the Yugoslav wars, opinions that I could not put into my paper (John, 2022). Opinions I could not understand having such a hate for a certain ethnicity but have heard these opinions before. My grandfather served in the Korean War and until he passed away, had a strong hatred for North Koreans. When I asked the risky of why he had such a strong opinion of hatred towards a certain group of people, he just like my grandpa almost verbatim, that he watched a lot of close friends and families get killed by these people and couldn’t forgive these actions. I could never understand that pain that goes into being in that type of situation where loved ones are dying all around you, and I think unless you are in that situation you never will. Like my grandfather who served in Korea, Tom is a very outgoing man who is happily married with three kids, a great job, and a house. You would never assume he went through this or was from Albania as he has lost his accent from 25 years ago. I learned about myself in this paper about how lucky I really am and everyone else who was born in this great country. Even though we have our own problems in this country, we have the opportunities to change our living circumstances and better ourselves and family for a better life. References The expanded view of individualism and collectivism … – sage journals. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1470595820913077 Ask dr. Lynch: The impact of culture on academic performance. Ask Dr. Lynch: Culture and Academic Performance | Education World. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2022, SCIENCE HEALTH SCIENCE NURSING PSY 3055

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