The major elements of culture are symbols, language, norms, values, and artifacts. Language makes effective social interaction possible and influences how people conceive of concepts and objects.

Material culture refers to the physical objects, resources, and spaces that people use to define their culture. These include homes, neighborhoods, cities, schools, churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, offices, factories and plants, tools, means of production, goods and products, stores, and so forth.

Symbolic culture, or nonmaterial culture, is the ability to learn and transmit behavioral traditions from one generation to the next by the invention of things that exist entirely in the symbolic realm. Symbolic culture is studied by archaeologists, social anthropologists and sociologists.

From the moment we’re born, popular culture surrounds us and influences us. It’s the beliefs and practices that groups of us have in common. You see pop culture play out in the movies and shows we watch, the art, comics, and books we read, the toys and video games we play with, and the clothes we wear.

Culture shapes people’s attitudes about others, and because they have these attitudes, it influences how we see ourselves, said sociology teacher Chris Salituro. Humans are made to be social beings who tend to form bonds more easily with people who are in the same groups, also known as ingroups to sociologists.

Our culture shapes the way we work and play, and it makes a difference in how we view ourselves and others. It affects our values—what we consider right and wrong. This is how the society we live in influences our choices. But our choices can also influence others and ultimately help shape our society.

When psychologists have given the same personality test to hundreds or thousands of people from different nations, they have indeed found that the average scores tend to come out differently across cultures. Several large international studies have now documented cross-cultural differences in average personality.