Culture Flashcards
What are cultural variations in personality?
-Within-group similarities and between-group differences of any sort
-Physical
-Psychological
-Behavioural
-Attitudinal
What are the 3 goals of cultural personality psychology?
- Discover principles underlying cultural diversity
- Discover how human psychology shapes culture
- Discover how cultural understandings shape psychology
What are the 3 aspects of cultural differences in personality?
-Evoked Culture
-Transmitted Culture
-Do Cultures Have Distinctive Personality Profiles?
What is Evoked Culture?
-A way of considering culture that concentrates on phenomena that are triggered by different environmental conditions
How do we explain evoked culture?
- A universal underlying mechanism (all humans)
- Environmental differences in activation of underlying mechanisms (degree of expression based on environment)
What are the 2 different types of evoked culture?
-Evoked co-operation
-Evoked mating strategy
What is Evoked Cooperation?
-Food sharing
-Cultures differ in degree to which groups share food
-External environmental conditions
-Variance in the food supply
–high variance = more sharing
–high food supply = more sharing
–egalitarianism and food sharing
What are the Evoked Mating Strategies in China & Sweden?
-In China, marriages are lasting, divorces are rare, and parents invest heavily in children—high value on chastity, virginity
-In Sweden, divorce is more common, more children are born to single mothers, fewer investing fathers—low value on chastity, virginity
What is the Evoked Short-term sexual strategy (evoked mating strategy)?
-Harsh, rejecting, inconsistent child-rearing practices, erratically provided resources, and marital discord
-Children learn that they cannot rely on a single mate
-Sensitivity of personality and mating strategies to early experience
-May explain cultural differences in the value placed on chastity or virginity in a potential mate
What is Evoked Aggression in cultures of honour?
-Insults are viewed as highly offensive public challenges
-Must be met with direct confrontation and physical aggression
-The assumption is that all humans have the capacity to develop high sensitivity to public insults and the capacity to respond with violence
-These capacities are evoked only in certain cultures
–lie dormant in others (non-herding economies)
What are some examples of Conformity?
-Prevalence of disease-causing pathogens causes cultural pressure to conform
-“behavioural immune system” that functions to prevent contact with disease-causing agents
-When the threat of pathogen infection becomes especially salient, people become more introverted
What is Authoritarianism?
-a personality trait involving submission and blind allegiance to authority
What is Transmitted Culture?
-Representations (ideas, values, beliefs, attitudes) that exist originally in at least one person’s mind
-Are transmitted to other minds through observation or interaction with the original person
-Cultural Differences in Moral Values: e.g consider the question “It is immoral for adults to disobey their parents”
What are the two fundamental “cultural tasks”?
- Communion or interdependence: concerns how you are affiliated with, attached to, or engaged in the large group of which you are a member
- Agency or independence: how you differentiate yourself from the larger group
How do cultures differ?
-Cultures appear to differ in how they balance the two tasks:
-Non-Western, Asian cultures focused more on interdependence (collectivism)
-Western cultures focused more on independence (individualism)
What are the characteristics of Western Cultures?
-Independent view of self-concept
-defining oneself in terms of one’s own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions
-explain events in an analytic way
-uniqueness encouraged
-private self-consciousness
What are the characteristics of Eastern Cultures?
-Interdependent view of self-concept
-defining oneself in terms of one’s relationship to other people
-explain events in a holistic way
-interdependence and connectedness encouraged
-public self consciousness
What is Self-enhancement and is it present in individualistic and collectivistic cultures?
-tendency to describe and present oneself using positive or socially valued attributes
-Individualistic: Stand out and express themselves as “better” than others
-Collectivistic: More likely to gain status and self-esteem by trying to conform to the norms of the group and be good group members
What is Acculturation?
-The process of adopting the ways of life and beliefs common in that culture.
What is Metapersonal self-construal?
-The representation of the self within a much broader context (the global community, humankind, the planet, or the cosmos)
-Those high in metapersonal self-construal: may see themselves not simply as a sibling or a parent; rather as a member of the human race
What are Cultural Universals and things that may impact personality?
-Social class may have an effect on personality
-Historical era may have an effect on personality
-Cultural Universals: this approach to culture and personality attempt to identify features of personality that appear to be universal, or present in most or all cultures
What are some beliefs about personality characteristics about men and women?
-Worldwide, people tend to regard men as having personalities that are more: active, loud, adventurous, obnoxious, aggressive, opinionated, arrogant, course, and conceited
-Women are regarded as having personalities that are more: affectionate, modest, nervous, appreciative, patient, changeable, charming, and fearful
Are the expressions of emotions universal?
-Apparent cultural universals describe experience and expression of specific emotional states, such as fear, anger, happiness, sadness, disgust, and surprise
-People worldwide can recognize and describe these emotions when presented photographs of others expressing them, even if photographs are of people from other cultures
Which emotion is the most universally known and what is the Whorfian hypotheis?
-Disgust appears to be an emotion universally experienced by all humans, regardless of culture
-Whorfian hypothesis of linguistic relativity: contends that language creates thought and experience
What is Personality Evaluation?
-Dimensions used for personality evaluation show some cultural universality
-Strong evidence suggests two key dimensions (dominance and warmth) are used for describing and evaluating personality traits of others
Is the five-factor model of personality universal traits?
-Evidence that structure of personality traits, as represented by five- factor model of personality, may be universal for four of five traits:
-surgency, agreeableness, emotional stability, and conscientiousness
