Cultural Influences on Personality PDF

TH2014 Cultural Influences on Personality Culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, and norms of a specific group of people. Culture, therefore, influ...

TH2014 Cultural Influences on Personality Culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, and norms of a specific group of people. Culture, therefore, influences the manner we learn, live, and behave (Radwan, n.d.). How does Culture Affects Personality? (Radwan, n.d.) Let’s suppose that as the result of the experiences a child passed through, he developed the desire to become superior to others. If the culture didn’t put certain restrictions on that child, he might have dressed differently or refrained from doing the activities that other people in his community do. But because the culture forces most people to be bound by certain rules then that child will develop different personality traits that would allow him to appear superior to others and that are at the same time accepted by his culture. In such a case, that child might become obsessed with cleanliness or even become a perfectionist to differentiate himself from others in an acceptable way. Alfred Adler, a physician, psychotherapist, and the founder of Adlerian psychology, once said that some of those who have repressed aggression drive become surgeons or policemen because these jobs allow them to channel their drives in a way that is acceptable to the culture. Dimensions of Culture (Tuleia, 2019) The word culture is used frequently in organizational behavior. Culture is the learned and shared way of thinking and acting among a group of people or society. A framework offered by Hofstede offers one such approach for understanding how values differences across national culture can influence human behavior at work. Geert Hofstede is an Irish psychologist who, inspired by the anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn (1962), conducted a large study during the 1970s to investigate the cultural differences between the employees of a multinational company with subsidiaries in several countries (Hofstede 2001). The values that distinguished countries from each other could be grouped statistically into four (4) clusters. These four (4) groups became the Hofstede dimensions of national culture (see Figure 1 on page 2). 1. Power Distance (PDI) 2. Individualism versus Collectivism (IDV) 3. Masculinity versus Femininity (MAS) 4. Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) 5. Long-Term Orientation (LTO) The fifth dimension was added in 1991 based on research by Michael Bond who conducted an additional international study among students with a survey instrument that was developed together with Chinese employees and managers. However, as any generalized study, the results may or may not apply to specific individuals or events. Although Hofstede’s results are categorized by country, often there is more than one cultural group within that country. In these cases, there may be a significant deviation from the study’s result. For example, in Canada, where there is a majority English-speaking population throughout most of the country but a majority French-speaking population in the province of Quebec, there are moderate cultural differences. 02 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 1 of 4  TH2014 Figure 1. Geert Hofstede’s Five Dimensions of National Culture Source: https://relivingmbadays.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/cultural-01.jpg?crop Power Distance This is the willingness of culture to accept status and power differences among its members. In cultures with low power distance, people are likely to expect that power is distributed rather equally and are furthermore likely to accept that power is distributed to less powerful individuals. As opposed to this, people in high power distance cultures will likely both expect and accept inequality and steep hierarchies. Uncertainty Avoidance This is referring to a lack of tolerance for ambiguity and a need for formal rules and policies. This dimension measures the extent to which people feel threatened by ambiguous situations. These uncertainties and ambiguities may be handled by an introduction of formal rules or policies, or by a general acceptance of ambiguity in the organizational life. Masculinity vs. Femininity A culture tends to stereotype masculine or feminine traits. These values concern the extent of masculine work-related goals and assertiveness (earning, advancement, title, respect et.), as opposed to more personal and humanistic goals (friendly working climate, cooperation, nurturance, etc.). Individualism vs. Collectivism In individualistic cultures, people are expected to portray themselves as individuals, who seek to accomplish individual goals and needs. In collectivistic cultures, people have a greater emphasis on the welfare of the entire group to which the individual belongs, where individual wants, needs, and dreams are often set aside for the common good. 02 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 2 of 4  TH2014 Long vs. Short-Term Orientation Long-term orientation is the fifth dimension, which was added after the original four (4) dimensions. This was identified by Michael Bond. Geert Hofstede added this to his framework and labeled it as long vs. short- term orientation. The consequences for work-related values and behavior springing from this dimension are rather hard to describe, but some characteristics are described below. Long-term orientation: o Acceptance of that business results may take time to achieve o The employee wishes a long relationship with the company Short-term orientation: o Results and achievements are set and can be reached within timeframe o The employee will potentially change the employer very often Emotion Model (Costa, Favaretto, and Musse, 2019) The OCC (Ortony, Clore, & Collins, 1988) model has established itself as the standard model for emotion synthesis. A large number of studies employed the OCC model to generate emotion for their embodied characters. According to Revelle and Scherer (2009), “a helpful analogy is to consider that personality is to emotion, as the climate is to weather. That is, what one expects is personality, and what one observes at any particular moment is motion.” The model proposed by Ortony, et al. (1990), specifies a set of 22 emotion categories and consists of five (5) processes that define the complete system that individuals follow from the initial categorization of an event to the resulting behavior of the character. These are the following: 1. Classifying the event, action, or object encountered 2. Quantifying the intensity of affected emotions 3. Interaction of the newly generated emotion with existing emotions 4. Mapping the emotional state to emotional expression 5. Expressing the emotional state Emotion Specification Joy (pleased about) a desirable event Distress (displeased about) an undesirable event Happy-for (pleased about) an event presumed to be undesirable for someone else Pity (displeased about) an event presumed to be undesirable for someone else Gloating (pleased about) an event presumed to be undesirable for someone else Resentment (displeased about) an event presumed to be desirable for someone else Hope (pleased about) the prospect of a desirable event Fear (displeased about) the prospect of an undesirable event Satisfaction (pleased about) the confirmation of the prospect of a desirable event Fears-confirmed (displeased about) the confirmation of the prospect of an undesirable event 02 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 3 of 4  TH2014 Emotion Specification Relief (pleased about) the disconfirmation of the prospect of a desirable event Disappointment (displeased about) the disconfirmation of the prospect of a desirable event Pride (approving of) one’s praiseworthy action Shame (disapproving of) one’s blameworthy action Admiration (approving of) someone else’s praiseworthy action Reproach (disapproving of) someone else’s blameworthy action Gratification (approving of) one’s blameworthy action and (being pleased about related desirable event) Remorse (disapproving of) one’s blameworthy action and (being displeased about) the related desirable event Gratitude (approving of) someone else’s praiseworthy action and (being pleased about) the related desirable event Anger (disapproving of) someone else’s blameworthy action and (being displeased about) the undesirable event Love (liking) an appealing object Hate (disliking) an unappealing object Table 1. Emotions Specification based on the OCC Model References: Favaretto, R. M., Musse, S. S., & Costa, A. B. (2019). Emotion, Personality and Cultural Aspects in Crowds. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing Radwan, M. F. (n.d.). How Culture Affects Personality. https://www.2knowmyself.com/how_culture_affects_personality Tuleja, E., (October 8, 2019). Understanding the 5 Dimensions of Culture. In University of Notre Dame. https://www.notredameonline.com/resources/intercultural-management/exploring-the-five- dimensions-of-culture/ 02 Handout 1 *Property of STI  [email protected] Page 4 of 4