Culture Behavior and Personality

Question 1

Cross-cultural Psychology:

Answer 1

Research that compares different cultures (typically in terms of Western constructs and methods)

Question 2

Cultural Psychology:

Answer 2

a label for a practical, empirical,
and philosophical project designed to reassess the uniformitarian principle of psychic unity and aimed at the development of a credible theory of psychological pluralism. It is a summons to reconsider the methods and procedures for studying mental states and psychological processes across languages and cultures (Shweder, 1997).

Question 3

Cultural and Cross-Cultural Psychology:

Answer 3

They overlap, but are pretty much completely different

projects.

Question 4

Culture and Psychology

Answer 4

People from different cultures differ in their psychological processes; psychological processes are shaped by experiences
Yet, psychological processes are not fully determined by experiences
Both “anti anti-universalist and anti anti-relativist.”

Question 5

What is Culture? (1/2)

Answer 5

it indicates a particular kind of information. Specifically,
any kind of information that is acquired from other members of one’s species through social learning that is capable of affecting an individual’s behaviors. That is, any kind of idea, belief, technology, habit or practice that is acquired through learning from others.

Question 6

What is Culture? (2/2)

Answer 6

indicates a particular groups of individuals.
Cultures are people existing within some kind of shared context. This presents some challenges: 1) boundaries are not always clear-cut. The fluid (and sometimes overlapping)
nature of cultural boundaries troubles researchers’ abilities to identify and define culture and differences. 2) Cultures change over time. And, 3) There is much variability among individuals within a culture.

Question 7

Enculturation:

Answer 7

the process of socialization through which an
individual acquires his or her native culture. This begins and maybe mostly fundamentally happens early in life, but it is an ongoing process

Question 8

Acculturation:

Answer 8

the process of partially or fully acquiring a new

cultural outlook

Question 9

The Importance of Cross-Cultural

Differences

Answer 9

Differences can cause misunderstandings
The generalizability of theory and research
Varieties of human experience

Question 10

The generalizability of theory and research

Answer 10

• Evidence that culture affects the way that personality is expressed and emotion is experienced (remember the WEIRD database)

Question 11

Varieties of human experience

Answer 11

Culture influences construals of the world and self

Culture is a lens through which the world, including other people, is seen

Question 12

The Characteristics of Culture

Answer 12

How can one culture be compared to another?
• Behavior, experience of emotions, thoughts, sense of connection
with the world, meanings of the self
• Look for differences and similarities

Question 13

Two Ways Culture can be studied

Answer 13

emically and etically

Question 14

Emically

Answer 14

in the terms, constructs, and

meanings that are specific to a particular culture

Question 15

Etically

Answer 15

in some set of standardized,

presumably universal, terms and constructs applied to all cultures and people.

Question 16

The Characteristics of Cultures: General

Differences Between Cultures

Answer 16

• Early ideas: tough vs. easy, stressfulness, emphasis on
need for achievement vs. affiliation
• Complexity
• Tightness-looseness: tolerance of deviation from proper
behavior

Question 17

Some General Differences Between Cultures

Answer 17

Collectivism-individualism; ego-centric/socio-centric;
independent/interdependent: view of relationship between the individual and society
• The meaning of personality might differ
• Predictors of satisfaction with life

Question 18

Collectivism-individualism; ego-centric/socio-centric;

independent/interdependent: view of relationship between the individual and society

Answer 18

Importance of needs and rights of the group vs. the individual
• Clarity of boundary between the individual and the group: permeable versus impermeable self-boundaries, and permeable and impermeable ingroup/outgroup
boundaries

Question 19

The meaning of personality might differ

Answer 19

personality is more meaningful in individualistic cultures, and but this doesn’t mean
that it has no meaning in collectivist cultures (personality can predict behavior and is consistent across situations)
• Individualists tend to favor abstract traits, consistency, and autonomy; versus social roles and relationships, adaptability and interdependence
• In fact, the concept and meaning of self might differ (e.g., Buddhism)

Question 20

Predictors of satisfaction with life

Answer 20

harmony of relationships with others vs. relationship to self; self-esteem vs. self-improvement

Question 21

Collectivism-individualism

Answer 21

Other more or less consistent differences
•Preference for doing activities in groups vs. alone (extends to child-rearing practices)
•Experience of emotions
-Fundamental motivations
Beyond individualist/collectivist
- Vertical
•Self-compassion
Important to note that some individuals in collectivist cultures are individualistic and vice versa

Question 22

Experience of emotions

Answer 22

other-focused (sympathy) vs. self-focused (anger); importance of love in marriages (arranged marriages are more common in collectivist cultures); dependence on social worth and relationships vs. the self

Question 23

Fundamental motivations

Answer 23

collectivist cultures focus more on avoiding loss of respect because respect by others can be easily lost and is difficult to regain; individualist cultures focus more on achievement of pleasure or reward; leads to self-enhancement in individualist cultures

Question 24

Vertical

Answer 24

assume individuals are importantly different) versus Horizontal (viewing individuals as essentially equal) (Also known as Ranked)

Question 25

Self-compassion

Answer 25

“holding painful emotions in mindful awareness while feelings of care and kindness are extended to the self”

Question 26

Harry Triandis’s three dimensions

Answer 26

CAN BE APPLIED TO INDIVIDUALS
-Cultural complexity:
• Cultural tightness:
• Collectivist vs. individualist:

Question 27

Cultural Complexity

Answer 27

Cognitive complexity

Question 28

Cultural Tightness

Answer 28

conscientiousness and intolerance for ambiguity

Question 29

Collectivist vs. Individualist

Answer 29

a dimension of personal values that focuses on whether one believes that the group is more important than the individual (allocentrism), or vice versa (ideocentrism)

Question 30

Cultural Assessment and Personality

Assessment (1/2)

Answer 30

Comparing the same traits across cultures
• Canadians have the highest self-esteem and Japanese have the lowest
• Means on extraversion scales vary cross-culturally

Question 31

Cultural Assessment and Personality

Assessment (2/2)

Answer 31

Different traits for different cultures?
• Is the meaning the same? • The Big Five are found in observer ratings in 50+ cultures • Many variations have also been found (the big 6—honesty/humility,
or the big 7)
• Only conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness should be considered universal (but this not universally accepted)
• Difficulties of translations (and why translate? Why not determine emic dimensions?)