Cultural Background Summary

Personal Cultural Background A person’s identity is unique and has a foundation of various sources. These sources may be different for every person, ranging from a person’s upbringing to a person’s religion. This paper will define cultural background and examine the multiple sources that make up my own personal cultural background that helped mold my individual identity. Furthermore, the paper will speculate on the extent to which my current identity has been molded by assimilation, acculturation, or climate of pluralism. People are unique because no one identity is the same. Every person has his or her own unique identity, which are created by a person’s cultural background, or personal experiences. Cultural background is a primary source of identity. Self-definition, expression, and sense of group belonging are aspects of a person that derives partly from his or her cultural background. An individual’s cultural background, or personal experiences, influences the individual’s behavior, attitude, values, and way of thinking. Although numerous people can experience same situations, the individuals’ perceptions of the events are what make the experiences different from one another. For example, two students take the same test and they both fail; however, one student decides to start studying harder and the other student drops out of school. Both students had two experiences that were the same (e.g. the test and failing), however, the students had two different outcomes (e.g. studying harder and dropping out of school). Next, the paper will examine the multiple sources of my cultural background. My personal cultural background that makes up my identity consists of multiple sources. These sources have influenced me to live the type of lifestyle I live; to behave the way I behave; and to perceive the world the way I do. Several environments have contributed to my cultural background. These environments consists of my family and upbringing, school, church, past