Chapter 4: What are the key ways that culture can influence the experience of stress?
Different cultural groups have different expectations for various aspects of life, and these different expectations can make a low-threat event to one cultural group be a high-threat event to another group. The text explains that culture strongly influences the experience of stress. Due to the fact that not everyone in America is treated the same, members of some cultural groups may experience more stress than others. For example, because many businesses are male dominated, it can be stressful for a female manager working around a group of all male managers.
Age often interacts with gender to differentially influence how much stress someone experiences. Together with age and gender cultural differences, some of the most critical differences in the experience of stress are due to race and ethnicity. According to the text, many minority groups experience high levels of stress because of their ethnicity, race, or religious beliefs.
Experiential 4
Monthly Budget:
Rent: $600
Food: $400
Diapers: $100
Gas: $100
Utilities/Electricity: $100
Medical Expenses: $200
Clothing: $20
At the end of the month, there would only be $113.33 left for childcare expenses, which would not be nearly enough to sustain a family of four children for a month. I looked through the local Harrisonburg paper and I checked the local Craigslist postings to see how difficult it would be to find childcare from 11-7. I discovered that it would be incredibly difficult to find childcare for these hours and for such low pay. It would be nearly impossible to find a sitter who would provide childcare for four children for only $113 a month.
I can’t imagine how difficult and stressful it would be for a mother of four to provide for her family with such a small monthly budget. It would be incredibly difficult to give your children a good life with such a small amount of money; the stress on the mother would be incredibly high in this situation.
