Finding out how cultural traditions influence your thinking is valuable. Asking questions about culture and society enables us to see the programming of our minds, which gives us the power to change harmful values and beliefs. We have a list of culture interview questions that reveal the programming influencing your thinking.
Perhaps you’re wondering how the cultural narrative can influence your values and thinking. The mind’s landscape is filled with programming from several sources. These different sources compete with one another to control how we think and make choices.
If we can learn to see this programming, we can reduce the harmful prejudice and bias in our thinking. To explore this phenomenon, we recommend completing the culture assessment questionnaire pdf.
Questions about Culture and Traditions
Culture is an extraordinary and mysterious concept. It covers everything from the food we eat, how we talk, the rituals we perform, and even the clothes we wear. There’s a lot to learn and explore when it comes to cultural practices and traditions. As someone fascinated by various cultures and their unique traditions, here are some popular questions often asked.
What Is Culture?
There isn’t a single answer to this question that could capture the entirety of what constitutes culture. However, culture can be viewed as the characteristic features of a group of individuals. It encompasses their attitudes, beliefs, art, and social behaviors passed down from generation to generation.
Why Is Culture Important?
Culture plays a massive role in the identity and existence of a group of individuals. It provides a sense of belonging for everyone who identifies with it. Culture helps individuals define their values, beliefs, attitudes, and how they relate to others and the environment. It also shapes and reflects societal practices in the economy, politics, social relationships, and more.
What Are Some Examples Of Cultural Traditions?
Cultural practices and traditions vary greatly depending on the people or group. Here are some examples of cultural traditions worldwide:
1. Holi—A Hindu festival of vibrant colors and traditions
2. Dia de Los Muertos — A Mexican celebration honoring the lives of departed loved ones.
3. Ramadan — An annual Muslim holiday for spiritual reflection, charity, and prayers.
4. Chinese New Year — Celebrating the Lunar New Year, the biggest festival in China
5. Thanksgiving is an American holiday where families come together and feast.
Why Is It Important To Understand Other Cultures And Traditions?
Understanding and appreciating other cultures and traditions are crucial in creating a more inclusive and open-minded world. They help reduce ethnic and racial discrimination, assist businesses in developing international expansion, strengthen diplomatic ties, improve communication, and understand world events. It starts with asking questions about our culture and traditions.
Our cultures and traditions shape our beliefs, values, and practices and contribute to our identity as individuals and communities. However, with the rapid globalization and modernization of the world, many of these cultural practices and traditions face questions and challenges. How can we determine how these elements affect our thinking?
One way to do this is to use open-ended questions to probe our programming. However, this leaves a lot of room for people to provide filtered and distorted answers. So, another way to find an approach to this exercise is with a “forced answer” set of culture interview questions. This forces you to choose between two statements. (1) When we are forced to choose between contrasting ideas, it gives us a more accurate summation of our values and beliefs.
Our culture assessment questionnaire pdf starts with general open-ended questions to help you start thinking about your beliefs; the second part is a forced answer questionnaire. This helps you identify conflicts in your thinking and any harmful biases or prejudices.
The deeper you dig, the more valuable the information. Guess what? Asking questions about culture and society can be unpleasant because it forces you to confront harmful values and beliefs. Nevertheless, there are several benefits to taking the time to complete this questionnaire.
– Gain a better understanding of your own cultural identity
– Identify any biases or blind spots towards other cultures so you can remove them
– Improve your ability to navigate and interact with people from diverse backgrounds
– Foster a more inclusive and respectful environment in your personal and professional life
“Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster.” — Geert Hofstede
General Culture Interview Questions
We start with some general questions about culture and tradition to get you thinking about how they affect your values and beliefs (2):
1) What religious beliefs shape your values?
This category would include beliefs about the existence of God, the afterlife, heaven, and hell.
2) What do you believe which may be considered a cultural stereotype?
A cultural stereotype is a belief about people in a social group. Examples of cultural stereotypes would be that everyone of a specific race is inferior or that people of a lower socioeconomic group are inferior.
3) What beliefs or lifestyles do you find unacceptable?
Unacceptable beliefs could be as broad as everyone who does not believe in the same God or as narrow, such as people who like a particular type of food or entertainment. You may discover more when you read the differences between progressive and traditional values below.
4) Do you align with progressive values and ideals?
Progressive values include human rights for all socioeconomic groups: the right to universal healthcare, shelter, food, and water. It supports living wages, economic and social justice, equality and equity, and non-regressive taxation. It opposes the use of religious ideologies as a basis for law. It opposes the military-industrial complex and the preferable treatment of corporations and religion concerning taxation. Progressives seek to abolish capital punishment and the government’s infringement on women’s reproductive rights or discrimination based on sexual preference. It promotes action on climate change.
5) Do you align with traditional religion and sectarian values and ideals?
Sectarian ideals promote religious superiority. Traditional values promote patriarchy; the man is the head of a male/female household with the lawful subjugation of women, the regulation of the clothes they wear, what they can do, and where they can go.
Questions about culture and society that deal with the dark side of fundamentalist religious values can be hard to answer. If you hold these beliefs and values, you justify them but may not want to face them. Putting them in writing exposes the harmful programming you harbor.
It promotes the idea of “an eye for an eye” and capital punishment. It promotes the inclusion of Judao Christan values as law. It denies women the right of bodily autonomy to make decisions about pregnancy. Today, traditional values focus on retaining the right to firearms and banning books that promote progressive thinking and a truthful representation of history.
Forced Answer Questions About Culture and Society
Get the cultural narrative questionnaire pdf free mindscape tool to help you become a better person. It contains questions that reveal the positive and negative thinking scripts that run your values.
To use the questionnaire, you must pick the answer most closely aligns with your thinking. Don’t overthink the choice. Your first choice is the most honest and accurate representation of your worldview. Questions about culture and traditions will reveal your most closely held beliefs and values. Don’t be afraid to put them in writing.
1) Family values or genetics
a. My Family is comprised of those who hold the same religious beliefs that I do.
b. My family consists of descendants of the same ancestors or the same households.
2) Family composition
a. The family unit is comprised of a man and a woman.
b. The family unit can be any mix of genders, a man and woman, two men or two women.
3) Family Leadership
a. I believe a male needs to be the leader of the family hierarchy.
b. The man and woman are equal partners in a family unit.
4) Spiritual Certainty
a. I am absolutely sure my spiritual beliefs are correct.
b. If what I believe is wrong, I change my beliefs.
5) Basis of Law
a. Laws should be based on divinely inspired texts.
b. Laws should be based on sound reasoning, fairness, and equity, not religion.
6) Spiritual or Religious
a. I am spiritual but not religious. I don’t belong to any religion.
b. I have always been involved in my religion. It is part of my family’s heritage.
7) Effect of Religion
a. Religion is doing good for the world.
b. Religion is the source of many of the world’s problems.
8) Information Source Trust
a. I generally trust the advice given by my spiritual leaders.
b. I am generally skeptical of the advice given by spiritual leaders.
9) Fear of Loss of Choice
a. I fear the loss of religious choice.
b. the government should impose restrictions on the involvement of religion in society.
10) Skeptical or Trusting
a. I get most of my information from trusted spiritual leaders and social media.
b. I am skeptical about the information provided by religions or social media.
11) Religion and Violence
a. People have the right to defend their religious beliefs with violence if necessary.
b. Religious beliefs are not an excuse to commit violence.
12) What things are Evil
a. Practices like Meditation, Yoga, and Tai Chi are inherently dangerous and evil.
b. Practices like Meditation, Yoga, and Tai Chi are healthy for the mind, body, and soul.
13) Basis of Decision-Making
a. My decisions are based on scientifically verifiable evidence.
b. My decisions are based on my religious beliefs.
14) Mental Tools Vs. Religious Belief
a. I’m interested in learning spiritual tools like meditating or practicing yoga.
a. I want to be more devoted and committed to my religion.
15) The Comfort Zone
a. I enjoy reading and learning new things outside of my comfort zone.
b. I am content to study my religious texts.
16) Finding Value
a. I’m looking for things to help me get the most out of life.
b. My religious beliefs teach me what I need to know about life.
17) Teachers Vs. Tools
a. I seek spiritual teachers who can provide me with tools to explore my consciousness.
b. Religion provides me with spiritual leaders to help me understand my religion.
18) Comfort with Diversity
a. I enjoy being with people of different ethnic backgrounds and beliefs.
b. I’m more comfortable with people who look like me and have the same beliefs.
19) Spiritual Beliefs Vs. Religious Beliefs
a. I have spiritual beliefs but am not involved with organized religion.
b. My spiritual beliefs come from organized religion.
20) The Afterlife
a. I have some ideas about the afterlife, but they do not mirror those of religion.
b. My beliefs in the afterlife are a part of my religion.
21) Source of Religious Beliefs
a. My religious beliefs come from family, culture, or because I needed support.
b. I have spiritual beliefs but do not follow a religion.
22) Source of Morality
a. I believe you do not need to join a religion to live a moral life.
b. My religion helps me to live a moral life.
23) Openness to Change
a. I am reasonably sure of my spiritual beliefs but am willing to change them.
b. My beliefs are correct, and I will hold onto them regardless of the evidence.
Scoring The Culture Assessment Questionnaire pdf
Scoring the culture interview questions shows any conflicts in your thinking. Questions about culture and society show the social health of your thinking. On one end of this continuum is a worldview based on harmful bias and prejudice. On the other end is the freethinker. These questions are scored based on a weighted scale from plus 20 to negative 20. Positive scores are given to statements because of their positive effect on the individual and society. Negative scores are given to statements that have a harmful effect on the individual and society.
Someone who is a freethinker will score 300. The typical religious believer will score around -20, while the religious extremist will score -300. The PDF download shows the questions with their respective point values.
Defining Negative and Positive Statements
Positive statements have an inherently healthy effect on thinking and behavior. They promote inclusive ideals, caring, and sharing and have a positive impact on people and the planet.
Negative statements promote sectarianism, selfishness, and greed. Sectarian ideals promote the superiority of religious ideology, which is inherently selfish. This kind of thinking promotes greed and violence.
We believe the weight given to the questions about culture and traditions is accurate based on their correlation to people’s behaviors in our society. This test has been used for 20 years and revised to be as accurate as possible. The statements represent the contrast between opposing ideological positions. Feedback from users helps us calibrate the questions.
Here is a link where you can download and print the Culture Assessment Questionnaire pdf.
Summary — Questions about Culture and Society
In conclusion, culture and tradition are essential components of the human experience that provide us with a sense of identity, insight into the past, and diversity in the present. However, some traditions can contain harmful bias and prejudice. We see evidence of this in continuing racism and prejudice in alt-right ideologies.
On the other hand, we must take steps to preserve and promote positive cultural practices and traditions for the benefit of individuals, communities, and the human experience as a whole. We must learn to distinguish between positive cultural traditions and negative ones. By doing so, we can help create a more diverse, tolerant, and sustainable world.
To determine the positive and negative influences on one’s beliefs, one must ask hard questions. The culture assessment questionnaire pdf is a tool that helps us ask hard questions.
References
(1) How to design a questionnaire.
(2) Good Questions to Ask People, Unbranded News