Thriving in American Culture?

Thrive

Please take out your reading and answer the following questions:

1.  What 2 sections did you find most interesting or applicable to your life? In other words, what 2 sections do you want to remember as you get older? (look over your reading and circle two)

Community    Workplace    Social Life    Financial Life      Home         Self

2.  Please answer the following 3 questions from the first section that you circled:

a)What suggestions from this section do find insightful/valuable?  How might you incorporate these suggestions into your life in the future?

3.  Please answer the following 3 questions from the second section that you answered:

a)What suggestions from this section do find insightful/valuable?  How might you incorporate these suggestions into your life in the future?

For more on Thrive:

Here is the Thrive website. 

Here is a review of the book.  

You can read an excerpt here and also take a happiness test- it will measure your satisfaction and make recommendations. 

Here is link to an interview with the author.

American Values

Examine the values that Americans hold:

My previous post on Amer-I-can Values

In 1970, sociologist Robin Williams published his examination of American cultural values.  In 1985, L. Robert Kohl published a similar examination of values written for refugees like the Lost Boys so that they could adjust to American culture.  Below is a chart that merges the two values lists.

American Values                        vs.        Other Cultures’ Values

Personal control/responsibility                Fate/destiny

Change seen as natural/positive/Progress                Stability/tradition

Time and its control                                  Human Interaction

Equality/fairness                                       Hierarchy/rank/status

Individualism/independence/freedom                      Group welfare/dependence

Self-Help/initiative                                    Birthright/inheritance

Competition                                               Cooperation

Future orientation                                     Past orientation

Action/work                                               “Being”

Informality                                                 Formality

Directness/openness/Honesty                    Indirectness/ritual/”face”

Practicality/efficiency                                Idealism/theory

Materialism/Acquisitiveness                      Spiritualism/detachment

Achievement/Success                                 Acceptance/Status Quo

Morality/judgement                                   Consequentialism/situational ethics

What cultural values from the Kohl reading might conflict with that you wrote about above? (use the list of values)

Comparing Values

In your notes packet, answer these:

Compare the values of Thrive to American Values and those from the movie.

Identify values that are contradictory to U.S. values from the film God Grew Tired of Us.

US Value        How does it contradict with the Lost Boys?

Look at the list of values that Americans hold.  Identify American values that might complement each other.  These are called value clusters.  List them here:

Value Cluster: ­­­­­­­­­­­

Now look for American values that might contradict the other American values.  These are called value contradictions.  List them here:

Value Contradiction: