Test 3 Flashcards
What is culture?
Culture is the psychological aspect of groups.
The psychological features that build up a culture include shared:
Languages, Modes of thinking, Values, Norms, Ethnicity
-Usually typological approaches are taken to culture
How do cultures differ?
Etics vs. Emics
Emics in cultures differ
Notions of how cultures may differ: easier vs. tougher Achievement vs. Affiliation Tightness vs. Looseness Head vs. Heart Individualism vs. Collectivism
What is acculturation?
acculturation is changing cultures (American to Canadian)
Why study culture?
Studying culture increases
International understanding,
External validity,
and Understanding whole persons (goal of personality psychology)
Discuss international Understanding
- understanding can decrease misunderstandings
- misunderstandings can cause embarrassment or crimes
Examples
- “x” in a check box means no in India but yes to the item in North America
- unattended children means something different in other cultures
- World leaders being insensitive to other cultures
- Vandalism is terrible crime in other countries
What does Canada warn about traveling to America?
- Don’t incriminate self with Marijuana
- Don’t drive hitchhikers over state boundaries
What does America warn about traveling to Canada?
-Canadians don’t respect red lights as much
Discuss external validity as it pertains to studying culture
-psychologists care about personality of not just westerners but people
-80% of participants in studies are WEIRD
Western
Educated
Industrialized
Rich
Democratic
which represents only 12% of people
-getting better and more diverse by engaging in cross-cultural research, but slowly
What does WEIRD mean?
Western
Educated
Industrialized
Rich
Democratic
-12% of people represent 80% of participants in psychology studies which is a problem of external validity/generalizability
-WEIRD people are the ones who can have the time/money to participate in studies & researchers usually live in WEIRD countries
Discuss how Understanding Whole Persons relates to studying culture
- People of different cultures have different experience of the world and it is important to understand their experience
- Understanding Whole Persons means understanding the meaning of their different/cultural behaviors
examples
- a WEIRD person would be more scared in a rainforest than someone whose tribe lives there
- European people would be harsher criticizing research than North Americans but it doesn’t mean they liked it less
Discuss how Understanding Whole Persons relates to studying culture
- People of different cultures have different experience of the world and it is important to understand their experience
- Understanding Whole Persons means understanding the meaning of their different/cultural behaviors
examples
- a WEIRD person would be more scared in a rainforest than someone whose tribe lives there
- European people would be harsher criticizing research than North Americans but it doesn’t mean they liked it less
what are Etics?
Universal core or components of an idea
-ideas that have the same meaning across cultures
What are emics?
Specific aspects or particulars of an idea
-specific aspects of an idea that are bound to a specific culture
Some things might be too emic to compare, a concept a culture has that cant be translated into another culture because it’s too different
Examples:
Korea: “Chemyon” social face
Japan: “Amae” (Sweet?) Indulgence & dependence
Taiwan: “Yuan” Predestined relationship
Difference between etic and emic example?
Duty would be an etic, almost all cultures have some sort of concept d Duty
But, different countries have different emics of duty such as a difference between how Canada, Germany, and New Guinea handle duty
Discuss the notion of Easier Cultures vs. Harder Cultures
Easier cultures: people can pursue many paths to success
Harder cultures: few paths to success
-idea: core etic of success and countries vary in how hard it is to be successful
-Research on this dimension died off in the 80s
-Scientists thought toughness would correlate to murder rates
What is an “easier culture”
People can pursue many paths to success
-compared to a culture where a woman only has 1 path to success (motherhood), an easier culture may consider her successful whatever her occupation
What is a “harder culture”?
Fewer paths to success as an individual in a society
-certain cultures may only think women are successful is if they are a mother, and not caring about anything else
Discuss the notion of Achievement vs. Affiliation
-First work said best way to measure achievement vs. affiliation was that the morals represented in the culture’s children’s stories would represent which they emphasize more. (ex: little engine that could)
Achievement-focused cultures:
- Higher power consumption
- more likely to move/migrate
What is “Achievement”?
Achievement means the culture emphasizes the need to achieve, to stand out, be the top of their class, Harvard university would be achievement-oriented. Notion that you should accomplish great things, be productive.
What is “Affiliation”?
Affiliation-oriented cultures would emphasize love, affiliation, social harmony, connectedness.
What does “Tightness” mean?
Tightness means in it is not okay to deviate from that culture’s norms.
Example:
Hong Kong considered tight
What does “Looseness” mean?
Looseness means it is okay to deviate from that culture’s norms.
There aren’t as strict expectations or guidelines about what behavior should look like in certain situations
Example:
USA considered loose
-people often cut in line which is a deviation but there’s not really conseuquences
Discuss tightness vs. looseness examples
How different cultures handle:
- priority seating
- jaywalking
Discuss tightness vs. looseness examples
How different cultures handle:
- priority seating
- jaywalking
- population density (as you cram more people in a space, you need them to behave tighter. As population density increases, the culture gets tighter)
- Diversity (more diverse countries are looser because intermingling cultures means it’s harder to have strict adherence.)
Discuss the notion of Head vs. Heart
cultural comparison is city to city not country to country
-data all from america (american cities)
N=600,000 Americans Top 5 Cities that favor Head (A lot around silicon valley): San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Albuquerque, Honolulu
Top 5 Cities that favor Heart: El Paso, Messa, Miami, Virginia Beach, Fresno
What does “Head” mean?
Artistic excellence, creativity, curiosity, learning Cities that favor head have: High job growth, low unemployment More Patents are Filed Voted for Hillary, more Liberal
What does “Heart” mean?
Fairness, Mercy, Gratitude, Hope, Love
Why might it be that cities form their own culture of head vs. heart?
Selective Migration
-people who favor head or heart would migrate to a city that favors the same thing
Social Influence
-society pressures children to favor the strengths of their culture
Geologic Factors
- Physical geography can impact & drive cultural variations
- Depending on how much sunlight you get, it could cause SAD/winter blues which doesn’t exist in other cultures. Having more resources could drive achievement-oriented culture to use up those resources
Discuss the notion of Individualism vs. Collectivism
- The most-studied cross-cultural dimension
- About how individuals relate to their society as a whole
Describe individualism
- considers the individual as most important part of society. society cares about every individual unique person.
- independence is an important value
- self-sufficient= success
Example
U.S.A. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”
Describe Collectivism
- Needs of the many outweigh the rights of the individual
- Individual expected to sacrifice their own well-being for the greater good of society
- Boundary between self and society is fuzzy (extreme)
Example
Japan “The nail that sticks out shall be hammered down”
Are countries becoming more individualistic?
A study of N=78 countries saw that
On average, countries received a 12% increase in how individualistic they are
.
Exceptions were countries (Mali, Malaysia) that experienced the least economic growth, which suggests that economic growth is linked to individualism.
Trends in individualistic cultures
TRENDS in Individualistic cultures
- More autobiographies
- Profs prefer first names
- Positive self-regard important
- Higher Behavioral Consistency within a person (personality is more culturally appropriate regardless of situation)
- Behavioral Consistency is linked to mental health
- More social (based on number of people when you socialize)
- Fewer arranged marriages
- Emotions are more self-focused
Trends in Collectivist cultures
TRENDS in Collectivist cultures
- Fewer autobiographies
- Profs prefer formal title
- Positive self-regard less important
- Lower Behavioral Consistency within a person (Behavior more situational than from personality)
- Behavioral Consistency is unrelated to mental health
- Less social (But deeper depth of connection)
- More arranged marriages
- Emotions are more other-focused (sympathy/concern for others)
Do the Big 5 exist in other countries?
MOSTLY etics
Facets & items are more emic
Strong claim: Big 5 traits are universal across all cultures (from the researchers who created the Big 5)
-All “S” a & “I” data from WEIRD cultures
test #1: Showed that it is statistically similar in all countries.
Exception: Didn’t find Open-mindedness in Botswana
Lowest Similarity to other parts of the world: Botswana & Nigeria
To what extent might there be distinct personality structure or was it difficulty in translating?
-Stronger similarity in WEIRD cultures than universal
50 diff Cultures measured with big 5 test
200 ppl per culture, over 10k ppl from around thw world
“S” & “I” data
test #2: Little evidence for the Big 5
-Some items wouldn’t translate well
-Found Big 2 instead: Prosocial & Industrious
tested a remote culture: forager-horticulturalist tribe in Bolivia
N=632
“S” & “I” data
What were the Big 2 found in the forager-horticulturalist tribe in Bolivia?
Prosocial & Industrious
Define multicultural
A place that has many cultures represented
OR
Many cultures within a person
How prevalent is multiculturalism?
- Some estimate 50% of the world is at least bilingual
- 20% of Canadians born outside of Canada
- 13% of Americans born outside of America
- 12% of Germans born outside of Germany
Discuss some findings about mulitcultural personality
-Bicultural Chinese-Americans can switch between cultural (collectivist or individualist) lens which is called FRAME SWITCHING
Extreme claim: Bilinguals might have 2 personalities, might be different people when they talk in one language vs. another
-doing experiment in different languages changed their frame, and you could see differences in expression of Big 5 traits based on how they spoke.
Bicultural Identity Integration- strength & weakness
Discuss some findings about mulitcultural personality
-Bicultural Chinese-Americans can switch between cultural (collectivist or individualist) lens which is called FRAME SWITCHING
Extreme claim: Bilinguals might have 2 personalities, might be different people when they talk in one language vs. another
-doing experiment in different languages changed their frame, and you could see differences in expression of Big 5 traits based on how they spoke.
Bicultural Identity Integration- strength & weakness
depending on view. If you feel competition between cultures, then inconsistency causes discomfort/weakness
If you utilize both aspects of your identity when theyre most useful it is a strength
What traits are strongly related to having good, functional relationships?
COMMUNAL TRAITS
Extraversion
- Sociability = Meet more people
- Energy level = do more things with their relationship partners
Agreeableness
-Easy to get along with, avoid conflict, resolve conflict when it arises
What does it mean if someone has a communal orientation?
Someone with a communal orientation…
- is motivated to meet partner’s needs
- Not contingent on partner’s actions (doesn’t “keep score”)
- People who are on the communal end tend to have happy, long lasting relationships (i.e. couple tends to do more mutually enjoyed activities)
- Tend to report more sexual desire
- Also less desire loss overtime
Explain the Contempt trait
“I feel like others are wasting my time”
“I often lose respect for others”
“all in all, I’m repelled by other’s faults”
- People who score high in this trait are seen as very COLD individuals (less likable, more difficult to form relationship)
- Also seen as more ARROGANT, and have low agreeableness
- Men and younger people are higher in the trait
- People who are high in this trait are less committed (more likely to cheat)
- dissatisfied with partner (mutual)
Explain the trait: Rejection Sensitivity
- Hyper vigilant people are for rejection
- Look for any cue that they are going to be rejected by their partner (Mis-utilize cues)
- Leading to anxiety, or even panicked actions
- “I” data can be causal!
Who uses online dating?
36% Canadians (19% Americans)
19% enter long term relationships
Growing in popularity
What technique do online dating platforms use to match people?
They match people using similarity
In what sense is similarity between people important?
The typical person enjoys the typical person, they can understand one another.
In what sense is similarity actually not important?
People may seek out others who are similar to them, but how similar they are doesn’t actually end up increasing their relationship success.
- regardless is both partners have it, extroversion & agreeableness makes good partners
- two people high in rejection sensitivity (even though they are similar, it wouldn’t make for a successful relationship)
What traits will make a good partner regardless of whether or not you possess that trait?
Extroversion & agreeableness
What trait makes an unsuccessful relationship even if both partners share it (have similarity)?
Rejection sensitivity
Discuss strategic representation
- 86% believe people are liars
- 50% of people say that they lie in their dating profile
- Men more often lie about their height, whereas women more often lie about their weight
Negative emotionality = tendency to engage in more strategic misrepresentation
Conscientiousness & Agreeableness do NOT tend to engage in strategic misrepresentation
What trait has the highest tendency of engaging in strategic misrepresentation?
Negative emotionality
Which traits do NOT tend to engage in strategic misrepresentation?
Conscientious and agreeableness do NOT engage in strategic misrepresentation
Explain how extroversion uses strategic misrepresentation
Extroversion does not show misrepresentation in hobbies, however they often lie about other relationships (go on more dates than they disclose)
What are linguistic cues of strategic misrepresentation?
Data was found using a textual analysis of what people using strategic misrepresentation put in their profile Linguistic cues: -Fewer self-references -Increased negations (double negatives) -Fewer words
Explain the experiment which determined what makes someone likable
N=741 University students (WEIRD) 60% Women
Rate someone you know (“I” data) on 51 traits (Many trait approach- not essentialist)
Then rate how much you like them
To understand why some traits are more related to liking than others: Psychologists rated how communal each trait was
Findings: Extroversion = likable because of facets higher sociability & energy level = meet more people and do more things
Assertiveness (facet of extroversion) was not communal and thought of as dominant/controlling- was not as likable.
Agreeableness (any facet, including thankful, humble, avoided conflict) = likable
What facet of extroversion is not likable?
Assertiveness, it is considered dominant/controlling and not communal
Describe the study on Speed dating
N = 350
University Students
Single
Heterosexual
- 4-minute rounds of unstructured interaction
- Took a Many Trait Approach- had participants spend an hour filling out surveys about themselves
- Purpose: try to predict when relationships happen/which pairs will want to go on a subsequent date using Machine Learning
Findings: Machine learning algorithm sucked & couldn’t predict when ppl would form relationships, meaning it is COMPLICATED
-we can know where relationships are more likely to form
ppl who described themselves as:
“picky” = less attracted to others
“warm” = more attracted to others & were reported as more interesting by partners
“extroversion” = reported as more interesting by partners
If someone describes themselves as “picky”, they are more likely to be…
less attracted to others
If someone describes themselves as “warm”, they are more likely to be…
more attracted to others & reported as more interesting by partners
If someone describes themselves as extroverted, they are more likely to be…
Reported as more interesting by their partners
-Probably because they have high energy and can carry conversation
What are some examples of counter-productive work behaviors?
Stealing, drinking, sleeping
What traits do people assess in personnel testing?
Conscientiousness
Guilt proneness
Honesty Humility (H-Factor)
What is Guilt proneness?
Guilt proneness refers to people who tend to feel guilty after committing an unproductive work behavior, and so they tend not to engage in those behaviors
Explain integrity tests
22% of employers use “integrity tests” which are basically personality tests.
1,000s of different integrity tests exist to buy/use
Most of these tests are of questionable quality and really are just designed to convince the employer to buy the test, but don’t actually do a great job at measuring the traits that psychologists think actually correspond to productivity.
-Have poor reliability & Validity
Explain how type 1 errors/False positives relate to personnel tests
A personnel test which is usually has low reliability and low validity may say a candidate is unproductive when they’re actually productive.
Employers worry about missing out on good employees from using tests that would create false positives.
Explain how type 2 errors relate to personnel tests
People might be faking!
With a lot of integrity tests, it’s easy to figure out what the best answers are and produce them.
In reality a person could be counterproductive, but the test says they are productive.
You can statistically control for faking- it is mathematically complicated, but basically you can ask people about things they don’t care about first to “calibrate” them.
What is “coaching”?
Coaching is when current employees coach applicants on how to pass integrity tests, or people buy the tests & know how they’re scored & then teach people how to pass.
This is a problem for personnel selection.
What are some other issues related to integrity tests?
Retaking the test
Fairness:how fair/ethical is it to select potential employees based on personality traits? Discrimination for being who they are as a person?
Privacy
Discuss the Income study (Gensowski, 2014)
Study was done with archival data
Sample: IQ> 140 (.5%)
Applied iq tests to children and only recruited those who had an iq higher than 140
- California Children
- Born in 1910 (gen before baby boomers)
- N = 856
- Only men
Design: Longitudinal
- Measured kids from grade 1 & every 5 years
- Measured Big 5 Traits through S & I data- asked parents when the children were young
- Inflation accounted for by converting the Income to 2010 USD
Findings
-IQ might help you most in mid-life
For exam: know the overall patterns:
- Conscientiousness has similar trends In benefits but actually even a bit more
- Extroversion has big spike in mid age and seems to be the most beneficial- never go below the line
- Neuroticism is essentially unrelated to people’s income but dips when the others go high (30-60)
- Openness: probably doesn’t have much of a relationship, but kind of starts to trend towards being detrimental to people’s income
- Agreeableness: no effect around 20-30 but detrimental after (potentially)
What are the overall patterns of the big 5 & Income
- Conscientiousness has similar trends In benefits as IQ but actually even a bit more, benefits in middle age. Looks like extroversion but extroversion is spikier.
- Extroversion has big spike in mid age and seems to be the most beneficial- never go below the line
- Neuroticism is essentially unrelated to people’s income but dips when the others go high (30-60)
- Openness: probably doesn’t have much of a relationship, but kind of starts to trend towards being detrimental to people’s income
- Agreeableness: no effect around 20-30 but detrimental after (potentially)
Explain the Job Satisfaction study (Higgens et al,. 1999)
Sample: 3 different samples
- Berkley & Oakland (Still data from California)
- Born 1920s
- N = 354
- 51% female
- 60% middle class
- Overwhelmingly white (only 1 sample had anybody that wasn’t white) - Reasonable concern about external validity
Design:
- Longitudinal
- 50 years later
- Big 5 traits (Expert Raters)
Job satisfaction:
Extraversion: -.06: Essentially unrelated
Agreeableness: r=.13: some correlation
Conscientiousness: r=.4: strongest correlation
Negative emotionality: r= -.22: predictably somewhat negatively correlated
Open-mindedness: r=.21: enjoy their jobs a bit more
Overall: r= .42
What is the correlation between the big 5 & job satisfaction?
Extraversion: -.06: Essentially unrelated
Agreeableness: r=.13: some correlation
Conscientiousness: r=.4: strongest correlation
Negative emotionality: r= -.22: predictably somewhat negatively correlated
Open-mindedness: r=.21: enjoy their jobs a bit more
Overall: r= .42
What is the correlation between the big 5 & career success (income) (Higgins et al,. 1999)?
Extraversion: r=.18: positively correlated with income
Agreeableness: r=.01 not related
Conscientiousness: r=.41 strong predictor
Negative emotionality: r=-.34 negative correlation
Open-mindedness: r=.26 higher levels of income
Discuss strengths/weaknesses of Bicultural identity
Bicultural Identity Integration- strength & weakness
depending on view. If you feel competition between cultures, then inconsistency causes discomfort/weakness
If you utilize both aspects of your identity when they’re most useful it is a strength
What are challenges to being a cross-cultural scientist?
Major challenges include:
Ethnocentrism and Exaggerating Differences
What is ethnocentrism?
Judging another culture from the point of view of your own
- People are inherently tethered to their culture, & sense of their own culture when doing studies across their own cannot just be removed which could influence their research.
- Political comic of the chicken saying the other chicken is already on the other side
Discuss the exaggerating of differences as a challenge to cross-cultural research
The divisions of cultures are somewhat arbitrary
-defined by geography, where a river might be
It implies that all people of the same country are the same, such as “Canadians are hardy”
-broad generalizations
How has exaggerating differences become a problem in cross-cultural research?
Reason 1: Historically, researchers are TRYING to find interesting differences because that is what people find fascinating- they don’t care about how we’re all similar
Reason 2: Poor statistical validity. Effect size matters and people don’t acknowledge how MUCH difference there is, and sometimes it’s not that much. Only care about whether the differences exist but not how much.
Reason 3: Outgroup Homogeneity Bias
-People perceive more individual differences within their own culture, and everyone else looks the same.
What does Outgroup Homogeneity Bias mean?
People perceive more individual differences within their own culture, and everyone else (from other cultures) looks the same.
What are some future directions in cross-cultural research?
Within culture changes
- Cultures change
- Increasing Individualism
- Increasing Extroversion (Western University Students)
- New jobs: Corporate culture consultants assess a corporation’s culture and help modify it
Discuss “Within culture changes”
- Cultures change
- Increasing Individualism
- Increasing Extroversion (Western University Students)
- New jobs: Corporate culture consultants assess a corporation’s culture and help modify it
Discuss the future direction of integrating evolution
Evolution & culture have been thought of as separate forces that impact personality, where EVOLUTION is more DISTAL and CULTURE is more PROXIMAL
- Evolution creates human blueprint
- Culture modifies blueprint
-Tools are more accessible to study bio basis of personality in non-WEIRD countries
Discuss the future direction that personality & culture have a more bi-directional relationship than previously thought
-Essentially no research on this, but people think personality just has to impact culture like how culture impacts personality
Personality -> Culture = People have impact on micro-level and Macro-level (Hong Kong protests)
