1 Psychology 307: Cultural Psychology Lecture 12

2 Personality, Group Processes, Relationships, Interpersonal Attraction, and Love 2. How does culture influence: (a) ingroup-outgroup relations and (b) conformity to social norms? 1. Do trait theories adequately describe personality in non-Western cultures? (continued)

3 By the end of today’s class, you should be able to: 1. describe indigenous personality dimensions identified in the Philippines. 2. summarize the findings of research using emic measures to assess the validity of the five factor model in other cultures.

4 3. describe how individualism-collectivism (IC) influences day-to-day interactions and attitudes toward ingroup and outgroup members. 4. discuss the relationship between IC and conformity.

5 ●In contrast to McCrae and Terracciano (2005), other researchers have administered indigenously developed measures to participants in other cultures:  Church et al. (1997): Developed an indigenous measure of personality in the Philippines. Do trait theories adequately describe personality in non- Western cultures? (continued)

6 The researchers: (b) reduced the list of trait adjectives by eliminating synonyms, physical descriptors, temporary states, and unfamiliar terms. (a) identified 6,900 trait adjectives in the Filipino language dictionary.

7 (c) administered the reduced list to participants using self-report questionnaires. (d) factor analyzed participants’ responses in order to identify groups of highly inter-correlated items.

8 They found 7 groups of inter-correlated items or dimensions underlying the trait adjectives. They labeled the dimensions: Gregariousness, Self- assurance, Concern for others vs. egotism, Conscientiousness, Intellect, Temperamentalness, and Negative valence The first 5 of these dimensions are highly correlated with E, N, A, C, and O, respectively:

9 Filipino Dimension ENACO Gregariousness.66** **-.37**.10** Self-Assurance.31**-.58**.13**.24**.36** Concern for others vs. Egotism **.81**.56**.10** Conscientiousness-.35**-.20**.59**.77**-.01 Intellect **.30**.32**.56** Correlations between Church et al.’s (1997) Filipino Dimensions of Personality and the Big 5 **p <.01

10 Temperamentalness: Reflects emotional reactivity. E.g., hot-headed and irritable vs. calm and understanding. Negative valence: Reflects social deviance. E.g., crazy and sadistic vs. normal and loving. However, the latter 2 dimensions are not correlated with the FFM dimensions. These may be “indigenous Philippine dimensions”:

11 ●Research using indigenous measures derived from other languages (e.g., Chinese, Spanish, Greek) suggests that there may be more than 5 dimensions underlying personality in other non-English speaking countries.

12 How does culture influence ingroup-outgroup relations? ● Ingroup: A group of people with whom one shares a sense of belonging or a feeling of common identity (i.e., “us”). ● Outgroup: A group of people with whom one perceives dissimilarity or a lack of familiarity (i.e., “them”).

13 ● Theorists believe that individualism leads people to develop relatively low levels of commitment towards ingroups and to view the ingroup-outgroup distinction as fluid. ● In contrast, collectivism leads people to develop relatively high levels of commitment towards ingroups and to view the ingroup-outgroup distinction as stable. ● Evidence that indicates that cultures promote distinct ingroup-outgroup relations:

14 ● Example: Wheeler, Reis, and Bond (1989)  Recruited participants from the U.S. and China.  Had participants complete the Rochester Interaction Record (RIR).  The RIR requires that participants record details related to social interactions of 10 minutes or more. (a) Day-to-day interactions:

15 Sample Copy of a Rochester Interaction Record

16  Found that: (i) Chinese (mean = 3.43) had fewer social interactions per day than Americans (mean = 6.98). (ii) Chinese (mean = 29.2%) had a higher proportion of “group” interactions than Americans (mean = 16.7%). (iii) Chinese (e.g., mean same sex = 14.8) had fewer interaction partners than the Americans (e.g., mean same sex = 22.4).

17 (v) Chinese were more likely to describe their interactions as task-focused, whereas Americans were more likely to describe their interactions as recreational (e.g., “pastime”). (vi) Chinese reported higher levels of self- and other- disclosure in their interactions than Americans. (iv) the interactions of the Chinese (mean = 61 min) were of longer duration than the interactions of the Americans (mean = 53).

18 ● Example: Triandis, McCusker, and Hui (1990)  Recruited participants from the U.S. and China.  Had participants rate their “social distance” from 20 stimuli (e.g., their father, their closest friend).  Had participants indicate how appropriate they believed subordinate, superordinate, and dissociative behaviours are when interacting with each stimulus: (b) Attitudes towards ingroup and outgroup members:

19 Relationship Between Subordinate Behaviour and Social Distance * PRC = People’s Republic of China *

20 Relationship Between Superordinate Behaviour and Social Distance * PRC = People’s Republic of China

21 * PRC = People’s Republic of China Relationship Between Dissociative Behaviour and Social Distance

22 How does culture influence conformity to social norms? ● For several decades, researchers have been interested in identifying the factors that lead people to conform to social norms. ● The most influential research examining these factors was conducted by Asch (1951):

23 Asch’s Line Judgment Task

24  Across several studies using this task, Asch found that American participants agreed with the group’s incorrect response (i.e., conformed) in 37% of trials.

25  Subsequent research demonstrated that conformity was greatest when: (a) the group was relatively large. (b) the group provided a unanimous incorrect response. (c) the participant admired, liked, or felt a sense cohesiveness or similarity among group members.

26 ● Bond and Smith (1996) conducted a meta-analysis of studies examining IC and conformity: ● Theorists believe that individualism promotes a resistance to conformity, whereas collectivism promotes a tendency toward conformity.

27  133 experiments were included in the meta-analysis: 97 were conducted in the U.S., 1 was conducted in Canada, the remaining were conducted outside of North America (e.g., Brazil, Fiji, Ghana, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Zimbabwe).

28  Examined: (b) changes in conformity across time in the U.S. (a) differences in conformity across individualistic cultures and collectivistic cultures.

29  Found: (b) a negative relation between date of publication and conformity in the U.S. studies. (a) a negative relation between individualism and conformity.

30 Personality, Group Processes, Relationships, Interpersonal Attraction, and Love 2. How does culture influence: (a) ingroup-outgroup relations and (b) conformity to social norms? 1. Do trait theories adequately describe personality in non-Western cultures? (continued)