The main content of American culture is the emphasize on individuals' value, the pursue of democracy and freedom, the promotion of deploitation(開拓, 經(jīng)營) and competition and the need of realistic and practicality. Its core is individualism: self first, personal need first, pursue of individual benefit and enjoyment, emphasize on achieving individual value by self-strive and self-design. This type of intentionally build up of personality and pursue customized individualism has its pros and cons, it gives incentives to people and make them exert on their potential and wisdom and as a result accelerate the development of the entire race and nation; on the other hand it is difficult to keep good relationship among people if everyone is egocentric thus make the entire society lack of unity.
egocentric: .自我中心的, 利己主義的

    American citizens emphasize on achievements and respect heroes. They have great sense in their hearts to praise success and heroes. Personal achievements are one of those with the highest value in Americans mind. Americans have very strong senses of success. Success is the pursuit of most Americans, it is their attractive future and the incentives for moving forward. They believe that one's personal value is equivalent to his achievements in his career. Some high achievers in their career such as entrepreneurs, scientists, artists and all kinds of super starts became modern heroes. The process and result of how they strived have become the frame of reference of social culture value and the real life text book for parents to educate their children.  
incentive: Serving to induce or motivate:

    American society has great movements within itself. These movements are shown in two aspects: movements amongst locations and movements inside the society. The United States are relatively more open and have more freedom. Developed transport and the tradition of adventure and sporty makes a lot of American migrate from countryside to cities, from downtown to uptown; and from north to the southern sunny land, from one city to another. Unlike European countries, the social classes in America is not so stable. Further more, with the advocation of public education, movements upwards along the social ladder have become possible. Many people living in the states, no matter whether they are Native American or immigrants from overseas, have the same dream of changing their social class and make their lifetime dream come true through their own efforts. This is what they often called "American dream".
advocation：(=advocacy)擁護(hù)；支持

    美國文化的主要內(nèi)容是強(qiáng)調(diào)個(gè)人價(jià)值，追求民主自由，崇尚開拓和競爭，講求理性和實(shí)用，其核心是個(gè)人中心主義：個(gè)人至上、私欲至上、追求個(gè)人利益和個(gè)人享受，強(qiáng)調(diào)通過個(gè)人奮斗、個(gè)人自我設(shè)計(jì)，追求個(gè)人價(jià)值的最終實(shí)現(xiàn)。這種刻意塑造自我，追求個(gè)性化的個(gè)人主義有其積極的一面，也有消極的一面。它調(diào)動(dòng)了個(gè)人的積極性，使許多人的智慧和潛力得以充分發(fā)揮，從而促進(jìn)整個(gè)民族與國家的振興和發(fā)展。然而，人人以我為中心，人際關(guān)系就難以融洽，整個(gè)社會(huì)也會(huì)缺乏凝聚力。

    美國公眾注重成就，仰慕英雄，有深厚的成就崇拜和英雄崇拜的心理積淀。個(gè)人成就是所有美國人價(jià)值觀中評(píng)價(jià)最高的價(jià)值之一。美國人有很強(qiáng)的成就(或成功)意識(shí)。成功是所有美國人的追求，是誘人的前景，前進(jìn)的動(dòng)力。他們堅(jiān)信，一個(gè)人的價(jià)值就等于他在事業(yè)上的成就。一些事業(yè)有成的企業(yè)家、科學(xué)家、藝術(shù)家和各類明星，成了新時(shí)代的英雄。他們個(gè)人奮斗的過程和結(jié)果，成了社會(huì)文化價(jià)值取向的參照系，父母教育子女的活教材。

    美國是流動(dòng)性很大的社會(huì)。這種流動(dòng)體現(xiàn)在兩個(gè)方面：地域性流動(dòng)和社會(huì)性流動(dòng)。美國相對(duì)的開放自由、發(fā)達(dá)的交通和冒險(xiǎn)好動(dòng)的傳統(tǒng)使許多美國人從鄉(xiāng)村流到城市，又從市中心流向郊區(qū)；從北方流到南方陽光地帶，從一個(gè)城市流到另一個(gè)城市。美國社會(huì)階級(jí)不像歐洲國家那樣固定，加上公共教育的普及，使沿著社會(huì)階梯向上流動(dòng)成為可能。許多生活在美國的人，無論是土生土長的美國人，還是漂洋過海來到美國的外國移民，都有一個(gè)夢，即通過自己的努力，改變自己的社會(huì)地位，實(shí)現(xiàn)自己的人生夢想，這就是人們常津津樂道的“美國夢”。