Culture affecting Personality

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Culture affecting Personality Katherine
Aumer-Ryan Psy 260
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Culture and YOU
WHAT IS YOUR CULTURE?
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Culture and Psychology
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Culture and Psychology

• Two different fields
• Cross-Cultural Psychology studies how culture
  influences psychological variables by comparing
  cultures.
• Cultural Psychology studies how culture
  influences psychological variables, by studying
  individual cultures in their own terms.

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• Two different fields, emerged from controversy
• The unresolved controversy Is it ever
  appropriate (philosophically speaking) or is it
  even scientifically possible to make cultural
  comparisons?
• For example, the term amae is central for
  understanding personality structure in Japanese
  culturethe term, literally translated, means
  sweet.
• In a family context the word implies indulgence
  and dependence, of the sort that may exist
  between a parent and child this benevolent
  dependence is expected to continue into adult
  relationships, so that people treat each other
  thoughtfully and considerately, while
  appreciating how they depend on each other (Doi,
  1973 Tseng, 2003).
• It is difficult even to translate amae into
  English, much less to fully comprehend it.
• Does this concept have meaning outside the
  Japanese context?

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• Cross-cultural universals versus specificity
• Anthropologists have written about this
  controversy for many years psychologists only
  recently became interested in whether
  psychological constructs are universal or if they
  are specific to our culture only.
• Both fields include plenty of proponents for each
  side of the debate, and it is one of those
  eternal issues that will probably never be
  entirely settled.

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• Studying psychological variables across cultures
  has afforded new opportunities to psychologists
  it has provided an opportunity to document
• Possible limits on generalizabilityit affords
  the opportunity to examine the degree to which
  psychological constructs and their measures
  generalize (are universal).

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• Studying psychological variables across cultures
  has afforded new opportunities to psychologists
  it has provided an opportunity to document

• Cross-cultural conflictit allows researchers to
  understand different cultural attitudes, values,
  and behavioral styles that may frequently cause
  misunderstandings.
• As can be seen in current events in the Middle
  East, the consequences of misunderstanding
  another cultures history attitudes, values, and
  behavioral styles can range from trivial to
  serious.

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• Studying psychological variables across cultures
  has afforded new opportunities to psychologists
  it has provided an opportunity to document
• Varieties of human experienceThis issue is
  phenomenological and stems from curiosity about
  the possible varieties of human experience and
  the degree to which being alive and aware is
  different across cultures the way you see and
  construe the world is, to a considerable degree,
  a product of your experience and cultural
  background.

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• Deconstructionismthe argument that cultures are
  so fundamentally different that they cannot be
  compared, because no independent or common frame
  of reference exists it is the heart of the
  Cross-Cultural/Cultural Psychology debate.
• Nothing in the world has any meaning or essence
  apart from the interpretations that observers
  invent or construct.
• Meaning is essentially arbitrary.
• There is no lens-free way to look at any culture,
  and each cultures view of reality is complete
  and cannot be judged from any other point of view.

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• The semiotic subjectan individual can be
  understood only in his or her own terms, based on
  his or her unique experience of the world.
• Deconstructionists argue that individuals are
  semiotic subjects.
• On categorization of individuals
• Allport and Kelly both argued against
  categorization of people.
• Allport advocated idiographic (individual)
  assessment no two people have the same
  experiences (or genetic makeup), so it is always
  a distortion to see them in common terms or even
  to categorize them as varying along common
  dimensions.
• Kelly claimed that no two people view the world
  through the same personal constructs, and
  therefore believed it makes little sense to
  classify people or compare them along common
  dimensions.
• At the extreme, the idiographic approach implies
  that one individual cannot be compared with
  another one culture cannot be compared with
  another.
• Downside focusing only on the uniqueness

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• Complexitysome cultures are more complicated
  than others.
• Triandis (1997, p. 444) wrote of the difference
  between modern, industrial, affluent cultures
  and the simpler cultures, such as the hunters
  and gatherers, or the residents of a monastery.
• Cultures might vary in terms of complexity
  however, any cultures level of complexity may
  not be readily visible to an outsider
• Cultures might vary in complexity, but this
  characteristic may be hard to identify.
• Tightnesscontrasts cultures that tolerate very
  little deviation from proper behavior (tight
  cultures) with those that allow fairly large
  deviations from cultural norms (loose cultures).
• Triandis hypothesizes that ethnically homogeneous
  and densely populated societies tend to be
  culturally tighter than societies that are more
  diverse or where people are more spread out.
• In order to strictly enforce norms people must be
  similar enough to agree on those norms.
• Strict norms of behavior are more necessary when
  people must live close together.

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• One of the most profound ways cultures may differ
  from each other is the way they view the
  relationship between the individual and society.
• Individualism versus Collectivismcompares the
  Western view of the individual with a viewpoint
  that may have its foundation in Buddhist
  philosophy.

• Collectivist Cultures
• The needs of the group are more important than
  the rights of the individual.
• Example the Japanese word for self, jibun,
  refers to ones portion of the shared life
  space.
• A Japanese proverb says, The nail that stands
  out gets pounded down.

• Individualist Cultures
• The needs of the individual are the most
  important consideration.
• Example the Western idea of self is as an
  independent agent.
• U.S. proverb says, The squeaky wheel gets the
  grease.

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Collectivist Individualist Research Findings

• Collectivist Cultures
• Japan, China, and India are the most frequently
  discussed examples.
• IBM survey found that natives of Taiwan, Peru,
  Pakistan, Columbia, and Venezuela were more
  collectivist (Hofstede, 1984).
• Within the United States, Hispanics, Asians, and
  African Americans are more collectivist
  (Triandis, 1994).
• In the U.S., women appear to be more collectivist
  than men.

• Individualist Cultures
• The U.S. is probably the best example.
• IBM survey found that natives of Australia,
  Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United
  States were more individualist (Hofstede, 1984).
• More autobiographies are written in individualist
  countries people in individualist cultures are
  less attentive to differences in status.

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Collectivist Individualist Research Findings

• Collectivist Cultures
• More histories of the group are written.
• Carefully observe social hierarchies.
• Prefer to ski in groups.
• Emotional experience appears to be more grounded
  in assessments of social worth, to reflect the
  nature of social reality rather than private,
  inner experience and, perhaps most importantly,
  to depend on relationships rather than the
  individual alone.
• Arranged marriages are common.
• Advertising reflects the value of cultural
  history and the influence of the group on
  decision making.

• Individualist Cultures
• More autobiographies are written in individualist
  countries people in individualist cultures are
  less attentive to differences in status.
• People prefer to bathe alone rather than in a
  group.
• People spend less time with more people.
• People report experiencing more self-focused
  emotions (e.g., anger).
• Individuals choose their mates, and marry for
  emotional reasons.
• Advertising reflects the value of individual
  choice, individual expression, and leaving your
  unique mark on the world.

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• This distinction between collectivism and
  individualism may have its historical basis in
  the perspective of Buddhism.
• The key idea of Buddhism is anatta, or
  non-self, the idea that the independent,
  singular self you sense inside your mind is
  merely an illusion the illusion of having a
  separate and independent self is harmful it
  leads to feelings of isolation (e.g., existential
  angst) and an excessive concern with me and
  that which is mine.
• The true nature of reality is that everything and
  everyone are interconnected now and across time.
• This viewpoint might seem to diminish the
  importance of the self, but in a way it enhances
  it you are an integral and interconnected part
  of the universe and it is part of you, just as
  the present moment is made of equal parts past
  and future you are immortal in the sense that
  you are part of something larger than yourself
  that will last forever.

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• If you can begin to grasp these ideas, your
  selfish thoughts and fears about the future will
  fall away you will then understand the idea of
  anicca, that nothing lasts forever and it is best
  to accept this fact instead of fighting it.
• The well-being of others is just as important as
  your own, because the boundaries between you and
  them are illusory.
• These are difficult ideas to grasp, especially
  for persons raised in Western cultures, and true
  understanding can be the work of a lifetime if
  you do achieve it, you are said to be
  enlightenedwhich is manifested by caring for
  others the same as for yourself, which leads to
  universal compassion according to Buddhism, this
  is the essence of wisdom and leads to a pleasant,
  selfless state called nirvana.

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• The individualism-collectivism dimension has
  become a staple of cross-cultural psychology, but
  as research has accumulated, the picture of this
  difference between cultures has become more
  complicated.
• Some researchers have expressed concern that this
  distinction might sometimes be exaggerated even
  in cultures viewed as extreme on these
  dimensions, plenty of people have individual
  points of view that stand outside their own
  cultural norms.
• For example, Japan and China have a large number
  of individualists who are striving for personal
  accomplishment, and the United States includes
  many collectivists who are closely bound to and
  attentive to the needs of others (e.g.,
  sororities and fraternities, and other clubs).
• Some psychologists have suggested that these
  distinctions are complicated by the
  sociopolitical structure of each society.

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Cultural Assessment and Personality Assessment

• A fairly close analogy can be drawn between
  assessing a culture and assessing the personality
  of an individual.
• Triandiss three basic dimensions of cultural
  variation are also dimensions along which
  individuals differ.
• The complexity dimension is analogous to the
  personality trait of cognitive complexity.
• Cultural tightness resembles the traits of
  conscientiousness and intolerance for ambiguity .
• The collectivist versus individualist distinction
  is analogous to idiocentrism versus allocentrism,
  a dimension of personal values that focuses on
  whether one believes that the individual is more
  important than the group, or vice versa.
• It seems that complexity, tightness, and
  collectivity are traits of individuals as well as
  cultures.

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• Personality traits
• The personality lexicon varies English has about
  2,800 trait terms used in everyday speech,
  Chinese has about 557.
• Cross-cultural psychologists have tried to
  address the degree to which certain traits apply
  to different cultures researchers have done this
  in two ways.
• Attempts to characterize cultural differences by
  assessing the degree to which average levels of
  specific traits vary between cultures.
• Attempts to dive a bit more deeply into the
  cultures being compared by assessing the degree
  to which the traits that characterize people in
  one culture can meaningfully characterize people
  in another.

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• Personality traits
• An impressive program of research has shown that
  the Big Five traits of personality can be found
  in observers personality ratings in more than 50
  cultures (McCrae et al., 2005).
• Even so, there are many variations from one
  culture to the next presenting major problems for
  the exporting of psychological measures.
• One study concluded that measures of the Big Five
  could be effectively translated into Spanish, but
  that such translations also missed particular
  aspects of Spanish personality, such as humor,
  good nature, and unconventionality
  (Benet-Martínez John, 1998, 2000).
• Other researchers have argued that the Big Five
  do not emerge as consistently across cultures as
  is sometimes claimed, and that only three of
  these traitsconscientiousness, extraversion,
  and agreeablenessshould be considered truly
  universal (De Raad Peabody, 2005).

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• Personality traits
• These issues highlight the crux of the problem,
  two not-so-hidden assumptions made when
  translating and exporting psychological measures.
• They assume that the same traits are valid for
  describing people in different cultures.
• They assume that their comprehensive measure of
  personality (e.g., the Big 5) is comprehensive
  for the other culture (it will not miss something
  important).
• Psychologists are beginning to move beyond
  applying the same traits to different cultures.
• Recently, trait scales have been developed
  endogenously, from the inside, to see if
  personality trait constructs that emerge in one
  culture also emerge in another.
• This approach is much more difficult because the
  nature of the research seems to require
  psychologists who are native to each culture, and
  many areas of the world do not have the
  traditions or means to train and support
  home-grown psychologists.

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• Thinking
• One of the most intriguing and challenging
  questions facing cross-cultural psychology
  concerns the degree to which people from
  different cultures think differently.
• On one level, it seems safe to assume that
  because behavioral traits differ across cultures
  the thinking associated with behavior must be
  different too.
• On another level, it is difficult to specify the
  ways that thought processes in one culture may
  differ from those in another research attempting
  to do this is opening an exciting new frontier in
  psychology with important and controversial
  implications.

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• Thinkingresearch examples
• One line of research suggests that East Asians
  think more holistically than Americans,
  explaining events in context rather than in
  isolation, and seeking to integrate divergent
  points of view rather than set one against
  another (Nisbett et al., 2001) e.g., An American
  observer may look at a scene and see a specific
  object or person, whereas the Japanese observer
  is more likely to see (and remember) the larger
  context.
• A controversial area of cross-cultural research
  on thinking concerns the degree to which Asians,
  compared to Americans, characteristically
  formulate and express independent and original
  points of view various psychologists and
  educators have observed that Asian students seem
  drawn to fields that require rote study and
  memorization rather than independent thinking,
  and that they are less willing than European
  Americans to speak up in class discussion.

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• Valuesthe most controversial area of
  cross-cultural research
• The search for universal values finding
  universal values would have two implications.
• We might infer that a value held in all cultures
  is in some sense a real value that goes beyond
  cultural judgment, a value which we can be
  confident should be valued.
• If we could find a set of common values, we might
  be able to use these to settle disputes between
  cultures by developing compromises based on the
  areas of universal agreement.
• Ten values have been identified as candidates
  (Schwartz Sagiv, 1995)
• Power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation,
  self-direction, understanding, benevolence,
  tradition, conformity, and security.
• These values can be organized in terms of two
  dimensions
• Openness to change versus conservatism
• Self-transcendence versus self-enhancement

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The Question of OriginWhere do cross-cultural
differences come from?

• The deconstructionist dodge
• The deconstructionist cultural psychologists seem
  particularly prone to avoid the question of
  origin.
• According to them, a cultures distinctive view
  of reality is arbitrary and it cannot depend on
  anything that preceded the culture itself (which
  does not exactly answer the question).
• The Ecological Approach
• Comparative cross-cultural psychologists have
  tried to provide serious answers to the origin
  question, although their answers must be
  classified as speculative.

Ecology
Culture
Socialization (enculturation)
Personality
Behavior
Triandis (1994)
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• Ethnocentrismany observation of another culture
  almost certainly will be colored by the
  observers cultural background, no matter how
  hard he or she tries to avoid it. An objective
  view is impossible. Cross-cultural psychologists
  are mindful of ethnocentrism and they attempt to
  minimize the degree to which it impacts their
  work.
• Exaggeration of cultural differencescross-cultura
  l findings exaggerate cultural differences, and
  they minimize individual differences within a
  culture. There are at least three reasons for
  this exaggeration
• Cross-cultural psychologys purpose is to find
  differences this overarching purpose to their
  work may increase their tendency to find
  differences and interpret them as important.
• Many studies of cultural differences use
  significance tests rather than examining effect
  sizes as was true for social psychology during
  the person-situation debate, this can lead to
  fundamental misunderstandings about the data.
• The potential for outgroup homogeneity biasthis
  is a cognitive error that occurs when looking at
  another group compared to your group. Ones own
  group naturally seems to contain individuals who
  differ widely from each other but members of
  groups to which one does not belong seem to be
  all the same. Like ethnocentrism,
  cross-cultural work attempts to avoid this bias
  as much as possible.

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• Cultures and values
• Unless one is careful, cross-cultural psychology
  can sometimes lead to cultural relativismthe
  conclusion that all cultural views of reality are
  equally valid, and that it is presumptuous and
  ethnocentric to judge any of them as good or bad.
• Relativism sounds fine until one thinks about
  countries in which there is genocide and other
  human rights violationsperhaps there are some
  universal human rights and values.
• Subcultures and multiculturalism
• Groupings of any kind can be problematic
  sometimes comparison groups are overgeneralized,
  oversimplified, or even meaningless.
• Conditions which has led to discussions about how
  to group cultures
• Social group, ethnicity, geographic boundaries
• Within a culture as large as the U.S. there are
  many subcultures and many individuals are
  multicultural individuals belong to more than
  one culture.
• By some estimates, about half the worlds
  population is bilingual.
• Bicultural identity integration (BII) has been
  introduced to consider the degree to which an
  individual has integrated multiple cultural
  identities to gain the maximum benefit from each,
  as opposed to experiencing conflict and even
  stress from existing in two separate cultures.

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Despite cross-cultural psychologys traditional
emphasis on differences between cultures, the
pendulum is beginning to swing the other way,
with an increasing number of psychologists
emphasizing the degree to which people all over
the world are psychologically similar.
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Allik McCrae (2004) -When reading a journal
article know this --Initial theory and
hypothesis --method --results --conclusion
Allik McCrae (2004) --Initial theory and
hypothesis cultures can affect personality, but
is it the geography, genes, or society that does
it? --Method have 36 countries take the
NEO-PI-R --Results high (extraversion and
openness) lower (agreeableness) --Conclusion
personality seems to be driven by genes?
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