Culture and Personality: Chapter 11

• Culture encompasses customs, values, and behaviors of a nation, ethnic group, class, or time period.
• Culture shapes aspects of life and plays a key role in shaping personality.

Challenges of Understanding Culture

• Ethnocentrism involves favoring one's own culture, potentially leading to bias and racism due to limited exposure.
• Generalizations involve making assumptions based on broad observations, which can lead to misrepresentations of cultures.
• Cultures vary significantly, with differences seen between urban and reserve Indigenous cultures.
• Cultures evolve constantly, which makes them hard to rigidly define.
• Multiple Cultural Identities occurs when people belong to multiple cultures simultaneously, complicating understanding cultural influence.

Factors Influencing Personality Across Cultures

• Geography: Borders and locations shape cultural identity.
• Ethnicity: Cultural background, language, and traditions define ethnic groups.
• Socioeconomic Status (SES): Cultural norms vary based on social class, income, and education where owning a home in one's 20s is now considered an exception.
• Generation: People born in the same 15-20 year period share cultural traits influenced by technology and historical events.

Ethnocentrism and Its Effects

• Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's own culture is superior.
• It can lead to racism and skewed interpretations of other cultures.
• A person's worldview is shaped by their cultural upbringing.

How Culture Shapes Us

• Through Social Learning Theory children learn cultural norms through socialization and develop into mature members of society.
• Social norms are ingrained through parents and peers.
• Language shapes perceptions, highlights values, and transmits culture with language labeling and communicating cultural values.
• Cultural products like song lyrics, TV, ads, books convey messages about behavior and beliefs.
• Cultural products are vital for cultural transmission and help shape perceptions of what is important.

Mutual Constitution of Culture

• Culture shapes individuals, but individuals influence culture, demonstrating its dynamic nature.
• Governments, schools, libraries, and media shape culture.
• Cultural norms shift with changes in language usage, laws, and social practices.

Cultural Change

• Culture is constantly evolving due to reciprocal relationships between individuals and cultural systems.
• Changes in personal interests, work, and social systems lead to cultural shifts such as education and job environments.
• Generational changes in technology usage influence cultural practices.

Cultural Differences in Individualism and Collectivism

• Individualism is a cultural system prioritizing the needs of the self over those of others.
• Individualism is common in the U.S. and many Western cultures.
• Independent people focus on personal attributes, independence, and uniqueness.
• Emotional value is on high-activation emotions like excitement and joy.
• Collectivism is a cultural system prioritizing the needs of the group and society.
• Collectivism is common in Japan and many Eastern cultures.
• Collectivistic cultures emphasize group membership, harmony, and fitting in.
• Emotional value is on low-activation emotions like calmness and serenity.

Models of the Self in Different Cultures

• Independent Model of Self: The self is separate from others, stable, and consistent.
• Independent actions are guided by personal preferences and needs.
• Focus: Personal achievement, uniqueness, and high arousal emotions.
• Interdependent Model of Self: The self is connected to others, and actions are guided by social norms and roles.
• Focus: Group harmony, fitting in, and self-reflection.

Community and Culture

• Cultural ideas about what it means to be a person, along with social practices, situations, and institutions, define daily life and shape community culture.
• Individualism (e.g., U.S., Canada, Australia)
  • Focuses on positive aspects of self with higher individual self-esteem
  • Values uniqueness
  • Focuses on attaining success, for example, winning leads to positive outcomes

Cultural Differences in Individualism and Collectivism

• Collectivism (e.g., Japan, China, South Korea)
  • People depend more on others' approval.
  • Higher collective self-esteem based on group membership.
  • Less interest in self-enhancement and a focus on avoiding failure through identifying potential risks and preventing them.

Generational and Socioeconomic Trends

• Self-esteem and narcissism have increased from Baby Boomers to Gen X in Western cultures.
• Narcissism scores have risen in urban Chinese cities over time.
• Lower SES individuals tend to have lower self-esteem and narcissism scores, with higher emotional intelligence, greater compassion, and stronger experiences of love and awe.
• Collective Self-Esteem is the self-esteem of a group, tied to national identity and branding.
• Collective Self-Esteem is negatively correlated with difficulties in individual self-esteem.

Cultural Differences in the Big Five Personality Traits

• Reference group effect: People compare themselves to those around them, which skews self-reports.
  • Solution: Use perception of national character by asking individuals to describe a "typical" person from their culture
• Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI) lacks Openness to Experience but includes Interpersonal Relatedness.
• Language differences impact trait descriptions.
• Context matters:
  • Individualistic cultures see traits are more consistent over time
  • Collectivist cultures see personality depends on roles, duties, and social context

Extraversion

• Higher extraversion is linked to individualism and low power distance (egalitarian cultures).
• Generational Trends:
  • Extraversion is increasing across generations, particularly in urbanized settings where high scorers adapted better to maintain well-being during COVID-19.
• Geographic Trends:
  • Higher extraversion has been seen in Canada, U.S., Australia, Norway, Switzerland.
  • Lower extraversion in Taiwan, Malaysia
• Socioeconomic and Ethnic Trends:
  • Higher SES individuals tend to score higher on extraversion with more urbanized areas and reporting higher extraversion compared to rural areas.

Agreeableness

• Higher agreeableness is seen in collectivistic cultures due to greater empathy
• Generational Trends show a declining agreeableness in the U.S. over generations
• Geographic Trends:
  • Higher agreeableness in Greece, Jordan, Republic of Congo and Lower agreeableness in Japan, Ukraine
• Socioeconomic and Ethnic Trends:
  • Lower SES individuals in individualist nations tend to be more helpful and empathetic than wealthier individuals
  • Canadians and Americans rate themselves similarly, but outsiders see Canadians as more agreeable

Conscientiousness

• Generational Trends: Self-reported conscientiousness is lower among younger generations, but behavioral indicators suggest stability
• Geographic Trends show Higher conscientiousness in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe and Lower conscientiousness in Japan, Germany, and South Korea
• Socioeconomic and Ethnic Trends:
  • People from more southern latitudes score higher than those from northern latitudes
  • Event-time cultures (e.g., Japan, Germany, South Korea) emphasize spontaneity over rigid planning
  • Countries with higher conscientiousness tend to have more accurate clocks

Neuroticism

• Higher neuroticism linked to uncertainty avoidance (formal rules to reduce ambiguity)
• Generational Trends: Higher among more recent generations, possibly due to economic instability and mental health stressors
• Geographic Trends
  • Higher neuroticism can be found in Japan, Russia, France, Spain, Argentina, Belgium
  • Lower neuroticism can be found in Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Indonesia.
• Socioeconomic and Ethnic Trends:
  • Lower SES individuals report higher neuroticism and higher rates of mental health issues.
  • Countries with higher neuroticism have more psychiatric ward beds per capita.

Openness to Experience

• Generational Trends: Declining openness in younger generations, particularly due to a shift toward extrinsic values while Baby Boomers scored higher than Gen Z at the same age in the facet of new ideas
• Geographic Trends:
  • Higher openness in Chile, Belgium, Bangladesh
  • Lower openness in Japan, Ukraine
• Socioeconomic and Ethnic Trends:
  • Higher openness is associated with higher education levels
  • Temperate climates correlated with higher openness, possibly due to greater opportunities for outdoor experiences