Thirteen Cultural Values of Americans

Vocabulary flashcards detailing key cultural terms, values, and definitions extracted from the lecture transcript on American cultural norms.

Personal Control Over the Environment

The belief that individuals should have control over whatever in their environment might potentially affect them, rather than accepting fate or bad luck.

Fatalistic

A term of criticism in the American context implying that a person is superstitious, lazy, and unwilling to take initiative to bring about improvement.

Change

An indisputably good condition in the American mind that is strongly linked to development, improvement, progress, and growth.

Time and Its Control

The practice of placing utmost importance on schedules, punctuality, and goal achievement over developing deep interpersonal relations.

Equality / Egalitarianism

The cherished value asserting that all people are created equal and have an equal opportunity to succeed in life regardless of intelligence, physical condition, or economic status.

Individualism

The belief that each person is completely unique, precious, and distinct from any group, possessing full freedom of personal opinion.

Privacy

The ultimate result of individualism, viewed in the U.S. as a positive and necessary condition for human well-being.

Self-Help Control

The value where a person takes credit only for what they have accomplished by themselves through sacrifice and hard work.

Free Enterprise

An economic system based on competition, designed under the belief that it brings out the best in people and leads to rapid societal progress.

Future Orientation

The value of directing energy toward realizing a better future and setting short-term goals, while devaluing the past and treating the present as preparatory.

Action / Work Orientation

The belief that action is superior to inaction, leading to planned active days, limited relaxation, and defining one's identity through work.

Informality

A casual cultural style demonstrated through unpretentious greetings like 'Hi', casual dress, and addressing bosses by their first names.

Directness, Openness and Honesty

The preference for delivering straight, explicit evaluations—including negative feedback—without using face-saving intermediaries.

Practicality and Efficiency

An orientation toward rational, objective assessment and trial-and-error problem-solving over theoretical, philosophical, or aesthetic concerns.

Materialism / Acquisitiveness

The value placed on acquiring, maintaining, and protecting material possessions, viewed by Americans as the natural reward for hard work.