Culture and Personality Chapter 17 Culture and Personality

Introduction Several reasons personality psychologists believe it is useful to explore personality across cultures: Discover whether concepts of personality that are prevalent in one culture are also applicable in other cultures Discover whether cultures differ in the levels of particular personality traits Discover whether the factor structure of personality traits varies across cultures Discover whether certain features of personality are universal 2

Cultural Violations: An Illustration Consider: 1. One of your family members eats beef regularly. 2. A young married woman goes alone to the movie without informing her husband. When she returns home, her husband beats her. 3. A poor man goes to the hospital after being seriously hurt in an accident. The hospital refuses to treat him because he cannot afford to pay. Some aspects of personality are highly variable across cultures Other aspects are universal—features are shared by people everywhere Overall: How are cultures different? How are cultures the same? Brahman Hindu vs. American 3

What is Cultural Personality Psychology? Culture Within-group similarities and between-group differences can be of any sort: physical psychological behavioral attitudinal Cultural differences also are termed ___________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ The “what” and “why” for such differences are not answered 4

What is Cultural Personality Psychology? Cultural personality psychology has three goals: Discover principles underlying cultural diversity Discover how human psychology shapes culture Discover how cultural understandings shape psychology 5

Three Major Approaches to Culture Evoked Culture Transmitted Culture Cultural Universals 6

Evoked Culture Evoked culture refers to a way of considering culture that concentrates on phenomena that are triggered in different ways by different environmental conditions Stated differently: ____________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Two ingredients are needed to explain evoked culture _____________________________________________________ (what “we” all have) _____________________________________________________ of underlying mechanisms 7

Evoked Culture Evoked Cooperation (Food Sharing) Cultural differences in degree to which groups share food depend, in part, on external environmental conditions, notably the variance in the food supply ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ I will share my meat with an unlucky hunter today because next week I might be unlucky and hopefully he/she will share with me Gathered food is a lower-variance food source = not shared as much (based more on effort and skill) 8

Evoked Culture Early Experience and Evoked Mating Strategies Harsh, rejecting, and inconsistent child-rearing practices, erratically provided resources, and marital discord foster a personality of impulsivity and a mating strategy marked by early reproduction ________________________________________ Sensitive, supportive, and responsive child rearing, combined with reliable resources and spousal harmony, foster a personality of conscientiousness and a mating strategy of ______________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ 9

Evoked Culture In China, marriages are lasting, divorces are rare, and parents invest heavily in children—high value on chastity, virginity In Sweden, divorce is more common, more children are born outside of marriage, fewer investing fathers—low value on chastity, virginity Mating strategies might be differentially evoked in different cultures, resulting in enduring cultural differences in mating strategies 10

Transmitted Culture Transmitted culture – _____________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ e.g., it is wrong to eat beef (originated in the mind of one person, who then transmitted it to others) _____________________________________________________ 11

Transmitted Culture Cultural Differences in Moral Values Culturally variable views of morality are apparently transmitted to children early in life – _________________ Many moral values are specific to particular cultures and are likely to be examples of transmitted culture Appear to be passed from one generation to the next, ___________________________ but through the teachings of parents and teachers or observations of the behavior of others within culture 12

Transmitted Culture Cultural Differences in Self-Concept According to Markus and Kitayama, each person has two fundamental “cultural tasks” that have to be confronted Interdependence (collectivism) – ____________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Independence (individualism) – _____________________ ________________________________________________________ 13

Transmitted Culture Cultures appear to differ in how they balance these two tasks Non-Western, Asian cultures focused more on interdependence “Where do we want to eat tonight?” “The nail that stands out gets pounded” ____________ – focus on relationships, context, and the links between the focal object and the filed as a whole Western cultures focused more on independence “Where do you (I) want to eat tonight?” “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” ____________ – object detached from its context, attributes of objects or people assigned to categories, and reliance on rules about the categories to explain behavior Many critics – there is more overlap than is implied 14

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Transmitted Culture Cultural Differences in Self-Enhancement _____________________________________________________ Research indicates that North Americans, relative to Asians, maintain positive evaluation of self i.e., Asians are more self-critical 16

Transmitted Culture Two explanations offered for cultural differences in self-enhancement: Asians are engaging in ________________________________ (i.e., difference is not real) Deep in their hearts, perhaps, they truly evaluate themselves positively, but to express these views publicly would damage their reputation Cultural differences are accurate and reflect participants’ different self-concepts Due to profound cultural differences in values, Asians truly evaluate themselves more negatively than North Americans 17

Cultural Universals This approach to culture and personality attempts to identify features of personality that appear to be universal, or present in most or all cultures 18

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Cultural Universals Beliefs About the Personality Characteristics of Men and Women Worldwide, people tend to regard men as having personalities that are more active, loud, adventurous, obnoxious, aggressive, opinionated, arrogant, course, and conceited Women in contrast, are regarded as having personalities that are more affectionate, modest, nervous, appreciative, patient, changeable, charming, and fearful ___________________________________________________ 20

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Cultural Universals __________________________ Apparent cultural universals describe experience and expression of specific emotional states, such as fear, anger, happiness, sadness, disgust, and surprise People worldwide can recognize and describe these emotions when presented photographs of others expressing them, even if photographs are of people from other cultures 22

Cultural Universals “Cultures surely differ in how often their members express, talk about, and act on various emotions. But that says nothing about what their people feel. The evidence suggests that the emotions of all normal members of our species are played on the same keyboard” (Pinker, 1977, p. 365) “The same state of mind is expressed throughout the world with remarkable uniformity; and this fact is in itself interesting as evidence of the close similarity in bodily structure and mental disposition of all the races of mankind” (Darwin, 1872/1965, pp. 15, 17) *_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 23

Summary and Evaluation Several reasons psychologists find it useful to explore personality across cultures: Discover whether concepts of personality that are prevalent in one culture also are applicable in other cultures Discover whether cultures differ in levels of particular personality traits Discover whether factor structure of personality traits varies across cultures Discover whether certain features of personality are universal Three key approaches to the interface of culture and personality: Evoked culture, transmitted culture, cultural universals 24