2. Personality and Culture

Question 1

Define culture

Answer 1

• socially transmitted or socially constructed
• practices, competencies, ideas, schemas, symbols, values, norms, institutions, goals, artifacts, modiciations

Question 2

What cultural dimensions are outlined by Hofstede>

Answer 2

Power distance: degree of inequality between people
Uncertainty avoidance (truth): how people in a culture cope with the unpredictable and the ambiguous
Individualism and collectivism: relationship between individual and group
Masculinity / femininity (gender): care-oriented societies versus achievement oriented societies
Long-term orientation: society’s attitude toward time and traditions

Question 3

Critiques of Hofstede’s Dimensions of Cultural Differences

Answer 3

These are unidimensional - meaning that if you score high on individualism, you can’t also score high on collectivism.

Question 4

Are we aware of the impact of cultural forces upon us?

Answer 4

• Culture starts to impact us from birth: Socialization and early learning experiences
• Implicit / unconscious influences (e.g. attitudes, assumptions, role models)
• media influences and norms
• values and ethics
• research bias

Question 5

‘Me’ as an agent:

Answer 5

We act upon the world, and we have autonomy which relates to our intentionality

Question 6

The self vs organism

Answer 6

Organism = unsocialised animal
Whereas selfhood emerges through sociocultural engagement.

Sociocultural factors shape the self - there is no self in isolation.
Selves can be symbolically mediated - language is a tool which helps us to express ourselves and understand ourselves –> always tied to culture

Question 7

Outline the Mutual Constitution of Cultures and Selves

Answer 7

Humans make cultures but babies are being enculturated –> cyclical process

From small to big:
- Self: perception, cognition, emotion, motivation, action
- Daily situation and practices: home, school, workplace
- Institutions and products: language, education, politics, media, laws
- societal factors and pervasive ideas: ecological, economic and historic factors –> what is good, moral, the self?

Question 8

Independent schema of self vs interdependent self

Answer 8

Individualist societies give rise to independent schemas of self: where primary referent is the indivduals own thoughts, feelings and actions

Collectivist societies give rise to interdependent selves - where interaction with others produces a sense of self as connected to, or related to, or interdependent with others.

Question 9

Where do most of our theories come from?

Answer 9

Western cultures which are individualistic

Question 10

Evidence for the difference in Individualist and Collectivist cultures:

Answer 10

In trial 2, for people who had lost children, there was a significant decrease in purpose of life for those who had a construal of interdependence, but those who had a construal of independence were relatively unaffected.
i.e. the loss of a child will have more clinically drastic effects if you are more interdependent

Question 11

Comparing samples from US to a sample from Japan

Answer 11

A lack of relational harmony was more detrimental to the wellbeing of Japanese participants than US participants.

Question 12

Meta-analysis of collectivism and individualism: Oyserman et al 2002 found

Answer 12

Mixed evidence
- within single societies, there’s lots of variation
- some people have a more independent sense of self and others a more interdependent sense of self

Question 13

Reciprocal determinism: Bandura

Answer 13

3 main facets;
- behaviour: actions, facial expressions, words
- person: temperament, preference, intelligence, thoughts
- environment: context, culture, other people

i.e. a person’s behaviour, environment and personal characteristics are influencing eachother

Question 14

Culture and social learning: Bandura

Answer 14

We don’t need to be directly reinforced or punished to change how we behave - we learn through models which display various types of cultural patterns.

Question 15

Bandura is critical of which dichotomy?

Answer 15

The dichotomy of individualism and collectivism
- individualism does not equal self-efficacy

Question 16

What are the 3 types of agency?

Answer 16

i. Personal agency
ii. Proxy agency (influencing others to act on someone’s behalf)
iii. collective agency (group action)

Some societies may emphasize collective agency more than personal agency, but everyone regardless of society, everyone has personal agency.
Therefore, personal efficacy is relevant to all cultures, and group agency still requires personal effort.

Question 17

Model of Group Agency

Answer 17

Any type of group agency involves the individual, their intentions, and these 3 levels of agency (individual, proxy and collective) which interact with the environment to hopefully create the desired outcome.

Question 18

Bandura says that personal vs group identity is a misleading dichotomy:

Answer 18

A group operates through the behaviours of its members
Group agency is dependent on personal agency

Also through intracultural diversity: there are collectivist in individualist cultures, etc –> cultures and diverse and dynamic
The dichotomy is too simplistic

Question 19

What is said about intracultural and interpersonal diversity?

Answer 19

Societies are hierarchically organised: positions of power are more individualistic (e.g. men in patriarchal societies tend to have greater autonomy than women in both collect/indiv soceities)

US teens express both independent / interdependent self-construals

Question 20

What is an example of a test artefact:

Answer 20

The finding of a dichotomy of ‘individualism’ and ‘collectivism’ is a result of the way you are testing - if you only have 2 options, it doesn’t leave room for nuance.
Sometimes it depends on the context.