Module 6: Personality Flashcards
personality
the traits or characteristics of a person that are consistent across time and situations
- distinguishes individuals from each other
personality as traits
refers to a consistent pattern of behavior, feelings, and thoughts that a person would usually display in relevant circumstances
personality as identity
our perceived roles in life, aggregate role and life experiences, narratives, values, and motives
four approaches of studying personality and culture
- Cheung (2011)
- psychological anthropology
- etic/cross-cultural approach
- emic/culturally indigenous perspective
- combined emic-etic approach
psychological anthropology
introduces the concept of national character
- each culture has a modal personality type that is shared by most people within that culture
- personality is seen as culturally specific and influenced by the unique circumstances of each culture
- emphasis is more on learning processes and cultural practices than on biological factors
- personality develops early in childhood based on the cultural characteristics of the society
etics/cross-cultural approach
views personality as an etic or universal phenomenon, independent of culture
- personality is seen as something that occurs similarly in every culture and is measurable, allowing for comparisons across cultures
- looks for both universal personality traits and culture-specific variations
- many instruments adopted from the English language creating risk for ethnocentrism
- comparing and looking for similarities between cultures, many important details are skipped, possibly creating a blind spot
emic/culturally indigenous perspective
states that personality and culture are not separate, but influence and shape each other
- personality traits are specific to a particular culture and arise within that cultural context
- rejects universal theories of personality
- methods are often not rigorous enough
- must be considered whether the new instrument actually adds something to already existing instruments (incremental validity)
combined emic-etic approach
recognizes both universal (etic) and culture-specific (emic) aspects of personality
- suggests that universal and indigenous perspectives don’t have to be mutually exclusive, but rather can be complementary
- makes it possible to study both the common and unique elements of personality across cultures
five-factor model (the big five)
- openness to experience
- conscientiousness
- extraversion
- agreeableness
- neuroticism
factor analysis
identifies a small number of underlying variables from a large number of observed variables
five-factor theory
we are born with biological, basic tendencies from which characteristic adaptations arise, such as attitudes, skills, relationships, or assumed roles
- influenced by culture
evolutionary theory
personality structure is seen as a universal understanding of human interest through natural selection and adaptation to the environment
Rotter (1954, 1966)
conducted cross-cultural research and thus encountered the locus of control
locus of control
describes how much control a person thinks they have over their behavior and relationships in the environment
internal locus of control
would mean that you attribute everything as a consequence of your own behavior
external locus of control
attributes everything independently of yourself and primarily places the blame on something happening outside of you
study of the Ashanti personality
an example of the emic approach in personality research
Jahoda (1954)
studied children who were given the name of the day they were born, which would refer to the soul of that day
- Monday is calm/peaceful and Wednesday is aggressive and moody
- causes an over-representation in crime (more crime due to ‘Wednesdays’)
- reflection of stereotypes/internalized expectations (self-fulfilling prophecy)
Ubuntu philosophy
a person is a person only through the relationships they have with others
Japanese amae relationship style
- Doi (1973)
refers to a form of passive dependence that comes from the relationship between a mother and child
- in adult relationships, amae is manifested by a silent expectation of care and support from others, without explicit request
Chinese personality assessment inventory (CPAI)
combines both an emic and etic approach
- has an emic approach in that it was developed specifically for Chinese culture
- has an etic approach because the personality traits discovered in Chinese culture were then tested in other cultures
Cheung et al. (1996)
examined how Chinese people describe themselves using Chinese books, proverbs, and interviews, and derived 4 factors:
- social potency
- dependence
- leniency
- interpersonal connectedness
Lin and Church (2004)
found that the factor of interpersonal connectedness is also found in Chinese and European Americans, indicating that this dimension is not exclusively Chinese
South African personality inventory
also developed using a combined emic-etic approach
- goal of the SAPI project was to develop an indigenous theoretical model of personality
- wanted to develop a personality test that is not biased toward particular languages or ethnic groups in South Africa
- this personality test would therefore comply with labor laws in South Africa
