Social Class and Personality Traits

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Questions and Answers

What is a factor that can influence personality within a culture?

Social class (correct)

Historical era

Occupation

Geographical location

What is a characteristic that higher-status parents tend to emphasize?

Obedience to authority

Self-direction and nonconformity (correct)

Competition with others

Loyalty to family

What is a cultural universal that is discussed in the content?

Economic system

Type of government

Beliefs about the personality characteristics of men and women (correct)

Language spoken

What might people who grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s be more anxious about?

Job security Signup and view all the answers

What is a possible interpretation of cultural variability in the presence or absence of emotional words?

Cultures differ in the presence or absence of actual experiences of these emotions Signup and view all the answers

What is another type of within-culture variation discussed in the content?

Historical era Signup and view all the answers

According to the concept of evoked culture, what affects the aspects of human potentials that get evoked?

Features of the social or physical environment Signup and view all the answers

What is transmitted from one person's mind to another in the concept of transmitted culture?

Ideas, values, attitudes, and beliefs Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is an example of evoked aggression?

Responding with violence to public insults Signup and view all the answers

Children growing up in stable homes with predictable parental investment tend to adopt which mating strategy?

Long-term and monogamous Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary way that moral values are transmitted in a culture?

Through direct teaching from parents and teachers Signup and view all the answers

How do cultural differences in self-concept affect behavior?

They influence how we present ourselves to others and our everyday behavior Signup and view all the answers

What is the role of the environment in shaping human traits, according to the concept of evoked culture?

It determines the expression of human traits Signup and view all the answers

What is the key assumption of the concept of evoked culture?

That all humans have the same potentials or capabilities Signup and view all the answers

What is the process of adapting to the ways of life in one's new culture called?

Acculturation Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of interdependence?

Personal internal motives Signup and view all the answers

What is self-enhancement, according to the content?

The tendency to describe oneself using positive or socially valued attributes Signup and view all the answers

What do most studies reveal about national personality stereotypes?

They rarely correspond to average levels of actual assessed personality Signup and view all the answers

According to Markus and Kitayama, what are the two fundamental cultural tasks?

Interdependence and independence Signup and view all the answers

What is an example of a within-culture variation?

Differences in socioeconomic classes Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of independence, according to the content?

Unique abilities and personal internal motives Signup and view all the answers

How are different self-concepts transmitted, according to the content?

Through parents and teachers to children Signup and view all the answers

What are the three key goals of cultural personality psychology?

To discover the principles underlying cultural diversity, to discover how human psychology shapes culture, and to discover how cultural understandings shape our psychology Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary focus of evoked culture?

The impact of environmental conditions on cultural variations Signup and view all the answers

What is required to explain cultural variations, according to the concept of evoked culture?

Both a universal underlying mechanism and environmental differences in the degree to which the underlying mechanism is activated Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary advantage of sharing under high-variance conditions?

It allows for reciprocal benefits and cooperation Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a major approach to explaining and exploring personality across cultures?

Evolutionary psychology Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary focus of cultural personality psychology?

The exploration of cultural differences in personality Signup and view all the answers

What is the term for the cultural differences created by differing environmental conditions activating a predictable set of responses?

Evoked culture Signup and view all the answers

What is the term for the phenomenon where within-group similarities and between-group differences occur?

Cultural variations Signup and view all the answers

What is the main argument against the idea that language is necessary for people to experience emotions?

The fact that people from different cultures experience emotions in the same way. Signup and view all the answers

What is the Whorfian hypothesis of linguistic relativity?

The idea that language creates thought and experience. Signup and view all the answers

What did Darwin's interactions with peoples on five continents reveal about emotional expression?

The same state of mind is expressed throughout the world with remarkable uniformity. Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following emotions is NOT considered a universal emotion across cultures?

Openness Signup and view all the answers

What is the main implication of the Whorfian hypothesis of linguistic relativity?

The ideas that people can think and the emotions they feel are constrained by language. Signup and view all the answers

What can be inferred about the Tahitian woman's emotional state in Pinker's example?

She is probably experiencing grief. Signup and view all the answers

What is a key argument made by maximalists regarding sex differences?

Sex differences are comparable in magnitude to other effects in psychology. Signup and view all the answers

What is the ability to control inappropriate responses or behaviors?

Inhibitory control Signup and view all the answers

What is the exception to the conclusion that men and women are essentially the same on most measures of cognitive ability?

Spatial rotation ability Signup and view all the answers

What is a characteristic of sex differences that minimalists argue is small in magnitude?

Magnitude of effect in psychology Signup and view all the answers

What sex difference is observed in perceptual sensitivity?

Girls have higher perceptual sensitivity Signup and view all the answers

What is the main point of contention between minimalists and maximalists?

The significance of sex differences in psychology Signup and view all the answers

What does the dimension of masculinity contain?

items reflecting assertiveness, boldness, and instrumentality Signup and view all the answers

What is the ideal conception according to the gender schemata?

to be gender-aschematic Signup and view all the answers

What are the three components of gender stereotypes?

cognitive, affective, and behavioral Signup and view all the answers

What does instrumentality involve?

working with objects, getting tasks completed, and showing independence Signup and view all the answers

What is expressiveness?

the ease with which one can express emotions, such as crying and showing empathy Signup and view all the answers

What do androgynous individuals possess?

both masculine and feminine characteristics Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following personality traits shows a sex difference in favor of boys?

Surgency Signup and view all the answers

What is the main reason why boys tend to get into more disciplinary difficulties in school in the early years?

High surgency and low inhibitory control Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following facets of extraversion do men score slightly higher on?

Activity level Signup and view all the answers

What is the proclivity to cooperate with others, giving others the benefit of the doubt?

Trust Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following values do men place a greater importance on?

Power Signup and view all the answers

What is the difference in Agreeableness between men and women, according to a study of 50 cultures?

d = -0.32 Signup and view all the answers

What is the largest sex difference observed in the five-factor model of personality?

Emotional Stability Signup and view all the answers

In which facet of Conscientiousness do women score slightly higher than men?

Order Signup and view all the answers

What is the dimension of personality where men are more physically aggressive than women?

Agreeableness Signup and view all the answers

What is the term that refers to the level of global regard that one has for the self as a person?

Global self-esteem Signup and view all the answers

In which two facets of Openness to Experience do women score higher than men?

Fantasy and Ideas Signup and view all the answers

What is the main difference observed between men and women in the experience of emotions?

Women experience both positive and negative emotions more frequently and intensely than men Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary difference between the self-esteem of males and females during adolescence?

Males have slightly higher self-esteem than females, but the gap widens as they approach adolescence. Signup and view all the answers

What is the characteristic that women tend to score higher in, according to the content?

Emotional Investment Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary distinction between people and things in the context of vocational interests?

People are more interested in empathizing, while things are more interested in systemizing. Signup and view all the answers

What is the trend in the self-esteem gap between males and females in adulthood?

The gap narrows and eventually becomes insignificant during adulthood. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary criticism of the single scale of masculinity and femininity?

It does not capture the important individual differences, as someone can be both masculine and feminine. Signup and view all the answers

What is the age range during which the self-esteem gap between males and females is the smallest?

7-10 years old Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Lower-class parents tend to emphasize obedience to authority, while higher-status parents tend to emphasize self-direction and nonconformity to authority.
Social class within a culture can have an effect on personality.

Cultural Universals

Beliefs about the personality characteristics of men and women may reflect actual differences in personality.
Cultural universals include the expression of emotion and the five-factor model of personality traits.
The five-factor model includes openness, which appears to be somewhat variable across cultures.

Culture and Personality

Cultural personality psychology seeks to discover the principles underlying cultural diversity, how human psychology shapes culture, and how cultural understandings shape our psychology.
Within-group similarities and between-group differences can be physical, psychological, behavioral, or attitudinal, and are called cultural variations.

Three Major Approaches to Culture

The three major approaches to culture are evoked culture, transmitted culture, and cultural universals.
Evoked culture refers to cultural differences created by differing environmental conditions activating a predictable set of responses.
Transmitted culture consists of ideas, values, attitudes, and beliefs that are transmitted from one person's mind to another through interaction.

Evoked Culture

Evoked culture requires a universal underlying mechanism and environmental differences in the degree to which the mechanism is activated.
Examples of evoked culture include cooperation and sharing under high-variance conditions, early experience and mating strategies, and honors, insults, and evoked aggression.
Cultural differences in conformity can be explained by evoked culture.

Transmitted Culture

Transmitted culture includes moral values, self-concepts, and other cultural differences that are passed from one generation to the next.
Research shows that self-concepts differ substantially from culture to culture, with some cultures emphasizing interdependence and others emphasizing independence.
Acculturation is the process of adapting to the ways of life in one's new culture.

Cultural Differences in Self-Enhancement

Self-enhancement is the tendency to describe and present oneself using positive or socially valued attributes.
Tendencies toward self-enhancement tend to be stable over time.

Do Cultures Have Distinctive Personality Profiles?

Most studies reveal that stereotypes about national personality rarely correspond to average levels of actual assessed personality.

Personality Variations Within Culture

Within-culture variations can arise from several sources, including differences in socioeconomic class, historical era, and local evoked or transmitted culture.
Whether a language has a word for a particular emotion or not does not affect whether people experience the emotion in the same way.

Emotions and Language

The view that language is not necessary for people to experience emotions may be contrasted with the Whorfian hypothesis of linguistic relativity, which contends that language creates thought and experience.
Darwin's research suggests that emotions such as grief, contempt, disgust, fear, and jealousy are expressed uniformly across cultures.
Certain emotions, such as anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise, are universal across cultures.

The Science and Politics of Studying Sex and Gender

Debate exists over whether sex differences are real and significant, or exaggerated and minimal.
Two perspectives: minimalists (sex differences are small and inconsequential) and maximalists (sex differences are significant and comparable to other effects in psychology).

History of the Study of Sex Differences

Men and women are essentially the same on most measures of cognitive ability, except for spatial rotation ability.
Spatial rotation ability refers to the ability to track a moving object, such as throwing a spear or football.

Minimalists and Maximalists

Minimalists argue that sex differences are small and have little practical importance in everyday life.
Maximalists argue that sex differences are significant and should not be trivialized.

Sex Differences in Personality Temperament in Children

Inhibitory control (ability to control inappropriate responses) favors girls.
Perceptual sensitivity (ability to detect subtle stimuli) favors girls.
Surgency (approach behavior, high activity, and impulsivity) favors boys.
No significant sex differences in negative affectivity (anger, difficulty, distress, and sadness).

Five-Factor Model of Personality

Extraversion: women score slightly higher on gregariousness, men score slightly higher on activity level.
Agreeableness: women score higher on trust, tender-mindedness, and modesty; women smile more often than men.
Conscientiousness: women score slightly higher on order.
Emotional Stability: women score lower than men.
Intellect-Openness to Experience: essentially no sex differences, but women score higher on fantasy and ideas.

Basic Emotions: Frequency and Intensity

Women experience both positive and negative emotions more frequently and intensely than men.

Other Dimensions of Personality

Self-esteem: males score slightly higher than females, but the gap closes in adulthood.
Sexuality, Emotional Investment, and Mating: men have more difficulty being friends with the opposite sex; women score higher in emotional investment.
People-Things Dimension: women prefer teaching and helping professions, men prefer construction and engineering.

Masculinity, Femininity, Androgyny, and Sex Roles

Androgyny refers to the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics.
Instrumentality (assertiveness, boldness, dominance) and Expressiveness (nurturance, expression of emotions, empathy) are key dimensions.
Gender Schemata: the ideal is to be gender-aschematic, not using gender in processing social information.

Gender Stereotypes

Cognitive component: forming social categories based on gender.
Affective component: feeling hostile or warm towards someone based on gender.
Behavioral component: behaving in a certain way based on gender stereotypes.

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Description

This quiz explores the relationship between social class and personality, including how cultural norms influence individual traits and behaviors. Learn about cultural universals and their impact on personal characteristics.