Geert Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions and Domestic Violence

This week in PSY 764B Media and Social Psychology, we are looking at domestic violence and the beauty myth (two separate subjects). One of my cohorts mentioned "status quo for the culture" in regards to domestic violence. I started thinking about what constitutes a culture and why would some countries consider domestic violence as status quo.

Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions uses the following indices to examine countries’ cultures. I wondered if these can be indicators of the rate of domestic violence in a country when compared to another.

Power Distance Index (PDI) The extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (and families) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally


Individualism (IDV) As opposed to collectivism, the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. The individualist occurs when the ties between individuals are unrestricted and everyone is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family.


Collectivist occur when people from birth and throughout life are integrated into strong groups, often with extended families including uncles, aunts and grandparents. Loyalty is unquestioned.


Masculinity (MAS) As opposed to femininity refers to the distribution of roles between the genders. Assertive is “masculine” - modest and caring is “feminine”


Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) A society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. This indicates to what extent a culture’s members feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations.


Long-Term Orientation (LTO) As opposed to short-term orientation. Values associated with Long Term Orientation are thrift and perseverance. Values associated with Short Term Orientation are respect for tradition, social obligations and sensitive to honor of individuals.

Note: I did not include LTO in the data below.



A Look at Two Countries

I looked at two countries, Switzerland and Malaysia just to compare two very different countries as to their cultural dimensions and levels of reported domestic violence.



Switzerland

• PDI – 34 (low)


• IDI – 68 (high)


• MAS – 70 (high)


• UAI – 52 (high)

These indices tell us that Switzerland:

• Expects that power and control of the society is to be more equally distributed among all the members of the society


• Has an independent population


• The implication is strong gender differentiation in which the male population is competitive and assertive relative to the female population. This fosters greater assertiveness in the female population


• Has a higher tolerance of divergent points of view
  

*Domestic Violence ranking = 34 out of 50 countries

Malaysia

• PDI – 102 (high)


• IDI – 20 (low)


• MAS – 42 (low)


• UAI – 30 (low)

These indices tell us that Malaysia:

• Expects that power and control of the society is to be more unequally distributed among all the members of the society


• Has a dependent population. The bonds are strong among groups. This is a collectivist culture.


• There is less assertiveness in women.


• Has a lower tolerance of divergent points of view

*Domestic Violence ranking = 6 out of 50 countries

Obviously I could have picked out any two opposing countries’ domestic violence rankings but actually started out just selecting the two countries as they are almost polar opposites of cultural dimensions and then looked at the domestic violence rankings. A more realistic study of course would have looked at all 50 countries, but I thought this was an interesting exercise.

And to go a step further, it would really be interesting to see what part the access to media (or lack of) by women in the countries with high domestic violence is. And if media saturation is affecting the indices in general over time.





Reference

itim International: http://www.geert-hofstede.com/

*Economic and Social Data Rankings: http://www.kisc.meiji.ac.jp/cgi-isc/cgiwrap/~kenjisuz/table.cgi?LG=e&TP=va73-11&RG=0&FL=