Culture & Resilience

Shaping who we are

Culture is a system of behaviors and activities that are passed down and evolve from each collective generation and individual. The way an individual responds to trauma is influenced by their cultural upbringing as well as their own personal beliefs, norms and values.

Reference

Southwick, S. M., Litz, B. T., Charney, D., & Friedman, M. J. (2011). Resilience and mental health: Challenges across the lifespan (pp.176-177). Cambridge University Press.

Individualism

"I think therefore I am"

Collectivism

"I am because we are"

Andrea Monroe

Honoring Your Tears

I identify with an American culture. This tends to be dominated by individualistic values in comparison to collectivism values (Southwick et al., 2011). I feel this has both positive and negative attributes when it comes to grieving and loss. When I have experienced profound loss, although many people felt "close" to me, it also felt very much that grieving was considered to be a "private" event. The strongest support was those in my immediate family. A small circle of support can feel separating and distancing in the coping process. However, this did allow me to find outlets that supported my individual preferences. I am a private person and feel very uncomfortable when I cry in front of people-not having a lot of close interactions was helpful in that sense.

I have found coalition that supports grieving students. The information was very culturally sensitive and informative. The advice was that when you are in doubt about how you should interact with a grieving friend, just be available, be present and keep an open mind.

Reference

Southwick, S. M., Litz, B. T., Charney, D., & Friedman, M. J. (2011). Resilience and mental health: Challenges across the lifespan. Cambridge University Press.

Kim Huynh

Resilience refers to the ability to adapt well and recovering quickly, and particiularly in times of stress. The stress might imply a broad problem that affects relationships, family, health, or even workplace and financial problems to name a few. It is vital to develop resilience as it helps one cope adaptively and recover after changes, setbacks, failures, or challenges, setbacks, failures, or challenges (Southwick et al., 2011). As expected, culture plays a significant role in people's lives, and resilience bears all aspects of culture. The process must always account for this active force, as culture is interrelated with all human factors, and more explicit in-group values, meaning, and faith (Southwick et al., 2011). Latino population exhibits a high resilience of collectivism, loyalty and family attachment, and warm interpersonal relationships. Their values are difference from those of the larger North American society, where individualism, competition, and lack of respect are dominant, hence their high ability to deal with stress and trauma. Latino culture demonstrates remarkable resilience, largely exerted by family traditionalism and social responsibility. There are close and positive relationships and family ties, and the culture demands more family bonding rather than American orientation (Scozzaro, 2020). Latino people consider connectedness and unity as the main style of life to promote positivity and unity. In 1988, Ronald Regan, the then president of the United States signed the recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month into law (Scozzaro, 2020). This approved the month of September 15 to October 15 as the official month of celebrating Hispanic culture and promoting connectivity and togetherness (Scozzaro, 2020). The event has grown to attract and involve a wide swath of individuals lightly connected to the Latino cultural hallmarks, indicating how significant it has become. In the article by Scozzaro (2020), the authors quote one of the audiences who lierates that the big thing about this fiesta is that it presents an opportunity for families and friends to get together ina style that is not applicable in any other setting.

References

Scozzaro, C. (2020, July 29). Celebrating Hispanic Americans, Mexican Culture Sept. 15-Oct. 15. Idaho Senior Independent. https://www.idahoseniorindependent.com/celebrating-hispanic-americans/

Southwick, S.M., Pietrzak, R.H., & White, G. (2011). Interventions to enhance resilience and resilience-related constructs in adults. Resilience and Mental Health: Challenges Across the Lifespan, 289-306.

Margarita Zaytseva

I come from Russian culture, and although I have lived here for 13 years now, I practice collectivism as my coping mechanism. I encountered US culture, where people are to themselves and can be very stoic. In my culture, collective coping is the choice to deal with stress and trauma. In this article, the study was conducted to test a hypothesis in which stress-evoking situational contexts (health/illness; job/career), have a more obvious influence on three types of coping: collective coping (together with others), engagement coping (self activity) or avoidance coping. The results yielded the collective coping as means to stay resilient and sane during hard times. Here in US we have big Russian families that live together and support each other in any adverse event. I also like this image that showing togetherness and the concept "I am because we are."

Reference

Kryukova, T., Gushchina, T., & Ekimchik, O. (2016). Culture, stress and coping: Sociology-cultural context influence on coping types among Russians. Unity, diversity and culture. Proceedings from the 22nd Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/iaccp_papers/161

Jane Jugao-Korean Culture/Asian Cultures

I would like to give an example of coping with death in my culture, South Korea, where I am from. I do agree with our textbook regarding Asian culture resiliency systems. Many Asian cultures have philosophies or moral values from Confucian. We also put religious values on Budhism (We learned from elementary school to high school, mandatory). When someone passes away, we celebrate the person's life and prepare a lot of food. We believe the dead person would eat it spiritually and blessed it. After honoring the death, we end up eating food together. We are not celebrating the day of the death, but also remember the person annually forever. This ritual pass from generation to generation. Here is a sample picture and article.

Reference

Noone, Y. (2018, April 18). Why do Buddhist honor our dead by feeding them? SBS. https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2018/04/12/why-do-buddhists-honour-our-dead-feeding-them

Hirut Gebrehanna

I identify myself as Ethiopian American. I grew up in Ethiopia, which is diverse and generally structured along ethnolinguistic lines. The country afro Asiatic speaking majority adhere to an amalgamation of traditions developed independently and through interaction with neighboring and far away civilizations, including other parts of North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, India, and Italy. By contrast, the nation's Nilotic communities and other ethnolinguistic minorities tend to practice customs more closely linked with South Sudan or the African Great Lakes region. The collectivist values are predominant in this part of the world compared to the American individualism cultural values. Since I moved the the United States 20 years ago, it took me a while to adjust to the cultural orientation of self only instead of prioritizing the entire group mentality. Through time and education, I find it helpful to practice both values side by side to raise my children and being effective in the community. As I mentioned in my previous post, I used different coping strategies to overcome difficult times. With the cultural competency programs and other life lessons. It improves my intercultural knowledge, improving the ability to work with people from different cultures.

Reference

Culture of Ethiopia. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/culture_of_ethiopia

Magnum Kandel

In American culture we are so diverse that it is very individualized in how we cope. I identify as an Irish Italian American. Within my household we cope with reminiscing and remembering our loved ones. We make sure to say their name and identify them. We are strong in family values of that their spirits are still with us. And when we have that moment where we feel their presence we take the time to let them be with us. In short terms we bring our faith into the healing process, as well as understand that our loved ones are still visiting us and looking over us Below I attached a picture of orbs, when we see this in our photos we know we have a visitor with us, and this is when we take a moment to enjoy our time again.

Reference

Some 'Orbs' Caught on Camera :) [Photograph]. Mystery Ghost Bus Tour.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g312583-d10200530-i235074220-Mystery_Ghost_Bus_Tour-Pretoria_Gauteng.html

Dee Dee Call

I was born and raised in NY. I identify with the American Culture which leans towards individualism over collectivism. I can see both individualism and collectivism in our culture during times of loss and grief. When my family spent time grieving the loss of Grandma this past November, we spent time remembering the fun times, good stories and family memories, together as a family helping each other heal individually.

After surviving the attacks of 9/11 at the World Trade Center, I noticed the people of NY stood strong together to support police, firefighters and port authority workers that ran to the scene as many of us were running away. Doctors and nurses at local hospitals worked for days to heal the wounded. Police and firefighters slept at Ground Zero to help find those who were lost. We all suffered a loss as individuals that day, but, we collectively came together to support each other.

As a culture, Americans may be individualistic, but when it really matters, we can come together as a society. The American flag is a symbol of resilience and history. It is a constant reminder of how far this country has come and in turn how we can strive to be better.

Iconic image of 9/11 flag raising (cnn.com)

Daniale Delkettie

Being Alaskan Native, I have always had a deep spiritual connection with nature, though I wasn't raised in a traditional Alaskan Native culture. My grandfather attended pow wows and was very active in his spirituality, which I wish I had more exposure to. Even though I wasn't raised in the culture, I can really relate to the section on American-Indian/Alaska Native resiliency systems (Southwick et al., 2011), I have found my spiritual and life balance through mantras and visual aids such as the chakra balance below. I have found that if I take several minutes visualizing this starting from the bottom up...I silently go through each Chakra, "I am confident, I create the life I want, I am organized to accomplish my dreams, I am loved and I am loving, I can express my words and thoughts clearly and freely, I am calm and can solve my problems today, and I am at peace." I go through it at least 2 times, not letting my mind wander, really focusing on my breath to create balance before a busy day, or I do this to end the day and stop my brain from overthinking everything I did or doubt myself.

Reference

Southwick, S. M., Litz, B. T., Charney, D., & Friedman, M. J. (2011). Resilience and mental health: Challenges across the lifespan. Cambridge University Press.

Leah Foster

I identify with an American culture. I think that days of remembrance are very often used to deal with loss and grief. One thing that I have participated in is the American Cancer Society's Walk for Life event. You spend all day and night walking, typically around a track to raise money. There are candles with loved ones names who have had cancer lining the track, when it gets dark the candles are lit and it serves as a memorial for those lives.

Reference https://secure3.convio.net/tacs/images/content/pagebuilder/rfl_media_campaign_luminaria.png

Abuliezi Renaguli

A study from China shows that the high-quality relationship of parents in the family improved individuals’ ability to cope with and adapt to pressures , which had positive effects on the formation and development of psychological resilience.

Some studies also found that social support from social service organizations, relatives or friends, and parents’ employers are very effective facilitators of resilience when individuals face adversities in our research on college students with low socioeconomic status. Such kind of support, either material or psychological, gives them strength and persistence to conquer the disadvantage .

However, Community and NGO support is important for individual resilience in western, people get support directly from the external environment. Differently, a handful of Chinese studies suggest that Chinese are more likely to get social support from their family system, parents’ colleagues, and schools that provide government or public funding. This indicates that collectivism has determined the external interaction to a certain extent in China. Recently, community, government, and NGOs are becoming significant facilitators when adversities happen in one’s life, e.g. disasters or accidents . However Social support such as NGOs is still new for a lot of people, therefore, it is necessary to promote this type of social support in China that more people can benefit from it.

References

Cross, R. (2003). International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Personnel (local staff), 1(754,274), 754,274.

LI T R, H. Y. B. (2012). Psychological Structure and Psychometric Validity of the Confucian Coping. Journal of Educational Science of Hunan Normal University, 11(3), 11-18.

Xi, J. Z. (2006). A Study of Resilience in Children: From the Viewpoint of Social Cognition. Doctor degree Dissertation, East China Normal University.

Haruna Tanaka

Let me share a part of funeral in Japan as a coping skill. Japanese funeral is deeply related to Buddhism (Kobayashi,S.1974,p.69), and we, Japanese potentially believe life after death. Therefore we do "Angel Makeup" on the person who passed away as a farewell gift. Sometimes it is done by nurses.

Through the time of Angel Makeup, nurses and families are talked about the deceased, and try to overcome their feelings (Shimamori, S.2019, p.101). Angel Makeup is not only a process of funeral, but also a chance to cope with their grief.

References

Kobayashi, S.(1974). Japanese and funeral;Retrieved May 23rd, 2021, from https://kwansei.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=13917&item_no=1&attribute_id=22&file_no=1

Shimamori, S. (2019). An Analysis of a Mature Nurse’s Narrative Relating to Death; Retrieved May 23rd, 2021, from

https://ohka.repo.nii.ac.jp/index.php?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=160&item_no=1&attribute_id=22&file_no=1&page_id=13&block_id=21

Overall Summary/ Synthesis

Every cultures contain important factor of resilience. Whether you have culture of indivisualism or collectivism, your culture must have the wisdom to be tough against troubles.

Especially, the wisdom will help you when you lost someone you love and you're in grief. As some of us mentions in this page, each culture has own process of funeral. The funeral will help you become calm down and go back to your own life. So we can say that funeral is the wisdom to say "good bye " to someone you love.

Haruna Tanaka

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