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. However, lately, psychologists have paid increased attention to issues of motivation and affect.