The manner in which people think about themselves, the self-concept, influences social behavior. Culture shapes social behavior. Culture is defined as the total lifestyle of people from a particular social grouping, including all the ideas, symbols, preferences, and material objects that they share. Researchers culture can shape their perceptions. Ideology is defined as a set of beliefs and values held by the members of a social group, which explains its culture both to itself and to other groups.
Ideology guides society the way self-concept guides an individual s behavior.
Societies containing diverse subcultures contain multiple ideologies. Individualism and collectivism concern how individuals relate to their groups. Individualism is a philosophy of life stressing the priority of individual needs over group needs, a preference for loosely knit social relationships, and a desire to be relatively autonomous of others influence. Collectivism is a philosophy of life stressing the priority of group needs over individual needs, a preference for tightly knit social relationships, and a willingness to submit to the influence of one s group. Researchers from individualist cultures tend to focus more on the individual, whereas researchers from collectivist cultures tend to place more emphasis on the group.