Psychological Aspects of Social Axioms: Understanding Global Belief Systems. International and Cultural Psychology Series.

Kwok Leung

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While value-based frameworks have offered revealing insights about culture, other conceptual tools need to be explored and deployed for a comprehensive understanding of both culture and individuals and how culture shapes individual processes and outcomes. To achieve this end, the authors and editors of "Psychological Aspects of Social Axioms" propose the construct of social axioms to augment values in interpreting culture and the behavior of individuals in their cultural contexts. Social axioms are defined as generalized beliefs about oneself, other people, the social environment, or the spiritual and physical world, and are central to a person's belief system. Their function is to enhance the survival and functioning of the person in his/her social and physical environment.The editors identify five axiom dimensions that form the construct: social cynicism, defined as a negative assessment of human nature and a mistrust of social institutions; social complexity, which is a belief that there are multiple ways of achieving a given outcome and that a given person's behavior may be inconsistent from situation to situation; reward for application, which is the expectation that effort, knowledge, careful planning and the investment of these and other resources will lead to positive results; religiosity, the belief of the existence of a supernatural being and the beneficial social functions of religious institutions and practices; and, fate control, the idea that life events are pre-determined by grand external forces, but that there are some ways for people to influence the impact of these forces.