10. Personality and culture Flashcards
What is associated characteristics?
Characteristic associated with personality
How are personality traits, associated characteristics, and institutions connected?
They all influence each other
Premise: People will create institutions and social norms that tend to attract like-minded people to their area as well as shape those around them
How do the stereotypes of certain countries line up with reality?
Often stereotypes like “industrious german” actually line up with reality.
There is a substantial degree to which different nations agree on different characteristics that represent different countries
What is reference group effect?
Your self-ratings probably compared yourself against those that you knew and/or deemed relevant
When a woman has to rate her hight she compared herself to other women and not to the general population
Can people high on agreeableness only agree to things that are morally correct?
NO! Agreeable people can go along with “bad” politics if there is enough societal agreeableness
Why is there no correlation between perceived national character (stereotype) and self-reports
Because of reference groups - you don’t compare yourself to the general population but to the those that you deemed relevant
What does objective indicators with and what doesn’t it correlate with?
Objective indicators correlate with “percieved national character” and DID NOT correlate with self-ratings
What does Shweder suggest?
He suggest that personality, conceived of as real property of a human being is the notion invented by our culture, it does not exist in all cultures, therefore personality is not a real property of human beings
The majority of research in psychology is done on what kind of people?
Weird people
It is both done by and on western people
Why are WEIRD people actually weird?
if Americans/Danes etc are unlike the rest of the population of the world - if the research only replies to them then we have a problem
How does the result you find in non-developed countries differ from those in developed countries?
When you’re looking at populations that are less development you find results that are far less.
The population that we study makes this illusion seem like it is a big deal
If you look at other population you don’t see the same result
Non-western populations look more like other non-western populations then western look like other western - WHY?
The novel setting in western countries makes people shift more
How is conformity motivations (cultural differences within a nation) different for a college student than for non-college educated?
The conformity motivations are weaker among college-educated than non-educated Americans
Non-college educated acted more similar to that observed in east Asian examples
How might a thing like emotional suppression show cultural differences?
gender difference: men are more likely to suppress emotions
Cultural differences: EX: Japanese men suppress their feelings more when another male is present than do American men
What characterizes individualism (I)?
Priority to personal goals over goals of the social groups
What characterizes collectivism (C)?
Either no distinction or priority to collective goals over personal goals
Is independence related to collectivism or individualism?
Individualistic
Is interdependence related to collectivism or individualism?
Collectivistic
Whose needs matter the most in collectivist cultures?
The needs of the group are more important than the right of the individual
Whose needs matter the most in individualistic cultures?
the need of the individual is the most important consideration
How do the collectivist cultures see the environment and themselves?
They see the environment as more or less fixed (Stable norms, duties etc.) They see themselves as changeable -> ready to fit in
How do the individualist cultures see the environment and themselves?
They see themselves as more or less stable (stable attitudes, personality etc.) and the environment as changeable
What is the effect of failure and success to motivation in collectivistic and individualistic cultures?
Collectivist: Motivation increases following failure. They are more prone to the incremental view (You need to work harder to meet the task that you weren’t meeting)
Individualist: Motivation increases following success
they are more prone to entity theory ( You think ability is something that you have)
What kinds of arguments are most effective in collectivistic cultures?
Arguments that are influenced by social proof
