Dominant American
Values Homework
Cultural values are
the behaviors and standards a society expects of its members. The following is a list of some of the Dominant American Values – beliefs that
are widely admired and held in modern American society. While there will always be exceptions, these
are valued by the majority Americans.
1. Achievement and
Success – In our competitive society, stress is placed on personal
achievement. This is measured in accomplishments, such as economic ones. Success lays emphasis on rewards. Success is involved with activity; failure is
often assigned to character defects.
Success is often equated with bigness and newness.
2. Activity and Work – Americans also
value busy-ness, speed, bustle, action.
The frontier idea of work for survival is still with us, as is the
Puritan ethic of work before play. Work
becomes an end in itself. A person’s
worth is measured by his performance.
3. Moral Orientation – Americans think in
terms of good and bad, right and wrong – not just in practical terms. Early
Puritan ideals of working hard, leading and orderly life, having a reputation
for integrity and fair dealing, avoiding reckless display, and carrying out
one’s purposes still holds weight.
4. Humanitarianism
– Much emphasis is placed on disinterested concern, helpfulness, personal
kindness, aid and comfort, spontaneous aid in mass disasters, as well as
impersonal philanthropy.
5. Efficiency and
Practicality – Germans refer to our “Fordismus” or belief in
standardization, mass production, and stream lined industrialism. We like innovation, modernity, expediency,
getting things done. We value technique
and discipline in science. We enjoy it when things work out well.
6. Progress –
Americans look forward more than backwards.
We resent the old-fashioned, the outmoded. We seek the best yet through
change. Progress is often identified with the Darwinian idea of survival of the
fittest and with the free private enterprise system.
7. Material Comfort
– Americans enjoy passive gratification – drink this, chew that, take a
vacation. We prefer happy endings in
movies. We enjoy consumption, and heroes
before 1920 were more from social, commercial, and cultural worlds of
production; but after 1920 the heroes came more from the leisure-time
activities of sports and entertainment. Yet, Americans also enjoy culture and
“work” at do-it-yourself hobbies and vacations.
8. Equality – Our
history has stressed the quality of opportunity, especially economic
opportunity. We feel guilt, shame, or
ego deflation when in-equalitarianism appears.
While discrimination exists, there is much lip service to formal rights,
legal rights. Equality is not a pure concept, but largely two-sided: social
rights and equality of opportunity.
9. Freedom –
American also seek freedom from some restraint, having confidence in the
individual. Freedom enters into free enterprise, progress, individual choice
and equality. It has not meant the
absence of social control.
10. External Conformity – Americans also
believe in adherence to group patterns, especially for success. Economic,
political, and social dependence and interdependence call for some
conformity. The thinking is: if all men
are equal, each has a right to judge the other and regulate conduct to accepted
standards.
11. Individual
Personality – We protect our individualism by laws and by the beliefs in
one’s own worth.
12. Science –
Americans have faith in science and its tools. Science is rational, functional,
and active. Science is morally neutral. It adds to our material comfort and
progress.
13. Nationalism-Patriotism
– Americans feel some sense of loyalty to their country, its national symbols
and its history. Foreigners observe how
we value our flag and our national anthem; how we believe that America is the
greatest country in the world.
14. Democracy –
Americans have grown to accept majority rule, representative institutions, and
to reject monarchies and aristocracies.
We accept law, equality and freedom (as long as we have a say in the
laws).
Homework: Select ONE of the
following activities to do and bring to class on ____________:
a. Clip ads from newspapers and magazines (print or online)
that represent at least 5 of the D.A.V.s – label with values they represent and
explain (in detail) how they represent those values. These must be current
advertisements.
b. Watch a domestically produced (made in the USA)
children’s cartoon. Tell the name of the
show, the time it aired and the channel it was on or when it was produced and how you accessed it. Write a one page analysis of the D.A.V.s
being transmitted or reinforced in that show (You must identify and discuss at
least 5 D.A.V.s.)
c. Watch one local news program. Keep track of how long each
story is and what it was about. Write a
one page analysis on how the D.A.V.s are reflected in the program i.e. the
order of presentation, the time given to each story, the use of graphics, the
use of on-the-spot reporting. Be sure to
tell the time it aired and the channel it was on. (You must identify and discuss at least 3
D.A.V.s.)
d. Some cultural observers claim that Walt Disney has
created our American Dream, our mythology.
Watch any Disney movie or show and write a one page analysis of the D.A.V.s
being transmitted or reinforced in that show.
Be sure to tell the name of the movie/show and the year it was produced.
(You must identify and discuss at least 5 D.A.V.s.)
e. The faces of heroes and heroines are often found on the
covers of popular national magazines.
Read any cover story from a national magazine (like Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Reader’s Digest, Entertainment
Weekly, Newsweek) and analyze (at least one page) the hero in terms of the
D.A.V.s. Which values do they seem to
have/represent? How do you know? Be sure to give the: title of the magazine
and article, author or the article, and publication date. (You must identify
and discuss at least 4 D.A.V.s.)
