chp 13

Personality Psychology

Focuses on psychological differences between individuals.

Culture

Shapes psychological differences between individuals due to belonging to different cultural groups.

Enculturation

The process of acquiring one's native culture mainly early in life.

Acculturation

The process of acquiring a new cultural outlook when exposed to a different culture.

Cross-Cultural Universals

Examines the extent to which people from different cultures are psychologically similar or different.

Cultural Specificity

Focuses on how people from separate cultures may be fundamentally different.

Generalizability of Research

Concerns the extent to which research findings apply to humanity at large.

Varieties of Human Experience

Explores how cultural backgrounds influence the way individuals see and interpret the world.

Etic

Universal components of an idea or concept that are the same across cultures.

Emic

Particular aspects of an idea or concept that are specific to a particular culture.

Tightness and looseness

A cultural dimension that contrasts cultures tolerating little deviation from norms (tight cultures) with those allowing larger deviations (loose cultures).

Collectivism

Cultural orientation where the needs of the group are prioritized over individual rights.

Individualism

Cultural orientation emphasizing the importance of individual rights over the needs of the group.

Individualist Cultures

Cultures, like the United States, where the single person is considered more important, emphasizing independence and prominence as virtues.

Collectivist Cultures

Cultures, such as Japan, China, and India, where the group is prioritized over the individual, focusing on harmony and relationships.

Existential Anxiety

Concern over whether one is living life in the right way, often experienced in individualist cultures.

Trait Words

Words used to describe personality characteristics; collectivist cultures like China have fewer trait words compared to individualist cultures like the United States.

Self-Regard

The need for positive self-esteem, more prevalent in individualist cultures than in collectivist cultures.

Sociability

The degree to which individuals engage in social interactions, higher in collectivist cultures like Mexico.

Emotional Experience

Differences in how emotions are experienced, with individualist cultures reporting more self-focused emotions and collectivist cultures reporting more other-focused emotions.

Fundamental Motivations

The driving forces behind behavior, with individualist cultures focusing on individual achievement and collectivist cultures emphasizing group respect and avoiding loss of face.

Behavioral Consistency

The extent to which behavior remains stable across different situations, more valued in individualist cultures than in collectivist cultures.

Cultural Comparisons

Challenges in accurately comparing behavioral variability across cultures, highlighting the importance of using multiple assessment methods.

Verticality

Refers to the categorization of societies as either vertical or horizontal, where vertical societies view individuals as significantly different from each other.

Compassion

Defined as "holding painful emotions in mindful awareness while extending care and kindness to oneself," as studied in different cultures like the United States, Thailand, and Taiwan.

Collectivism-Individualism

A dimension used in cross-cultural psychology to compare cultures, where collectivist societies emphasize group harmony and individualist societies prioritize personal freedom.

Honor Culture

Cultures where individuals protect their reputation and respond to insults with retaliation, such as in the historic American South and Latin America.

Face Culture

Societies like Japan and China that value hierarchy, humility, and harmony, where individuals avoid public disagreements and criticism to maintain social image.

Dignity Culture

Cultures, like in Western societies, where individuals are valued for themselves, not based on others' opinions, promoting internal strength and adherence to personal values.

Clusters of Traits

Different types of people identified based on personality traits, such as friendly and conventional, relaxed and creative, and temperamental and uninhibited.

Conscientiousness

A personality trait associated with competence, order, dutifulness, achievement striving, self-discipline, and deliberation, which varies across countries and is linked to various societal outcomes.

Self-esteem

Varies across countries, with residents of Canada having the highest self-esteem and residents of Japan having the lowest, with implications for factors like suicide rates.

Religious Tendency

The association between religiosity and personality traits differs across countries, with highly religious individuals in secular countries differing in traits from those in countries where religion is strong.

Gender Differences

Women tend to score higher than men in neuroticism, agreeableness, warmth, and openness to feelings, while men score higher in assertiveness and openness to ideas across cultures.

Holistic Perception

East Asians tend to think more holistically than Americans, integrating divergent points of view and describing themselves in contradictory terms, which may be related to collectivism-individualism distinctions.

Independent Thinking

Controversial research area comparing how Asians and Americans formulate and express independent and original points of view, influenced by cultural values and educational philosophies.

Universal Values

Values that are believed to be shared across all cultures, indicating a common understanding or importance.

Schwartz and Sagiv's 10 Values

Power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, understanding, benevolence, tradition, conformity, and security - identified as possibly universal values by cross-cultural psychologists.

Openness to Change-Conservatism Dimension

One of the dimensions proposed by Schwartz and Sagiv to organize values, indicating the level of openness to change versus conservatism.

Self-Transcendence-Self-Enhancement Dimension

Another dimension proposed by Schwartz and Sagiv to organize values, indicating the level of self-transcendence versus self-enhancement.

Collectivist Culture

Emphasizes obligations, reciprocity, and duties to the group over individual needs and freedom of choice.

Individualist Culture

Emphasizes liberty, freedom of choice, rights, and individual needs over obligations to the group.

Ecological Model of Cultural Development

Proposes that different cultures develop based on the physical environment, resources, challenges, and tasks they face over time.

Genetic Influence on Cultural Differences

Genetic differences may play a role in cultural differences, as seen in the study on interdependence trait and the DRD4 receptor gene among Americans and Asian-born Asians.

Genetic Differences and Cross-Cultural Variability

Genetic variations are not the primary cause of cross-cultural differences as individuals within the same ethnic group are only slightly more similar to each other genetically than to individuals from different groups.

Culture and Personality Interaction

The relationship between culture and personality is complex, with cultural factors influencing personality development and vice versa, leading to potential genetic changes over generations that reinforce cultural differences.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to judge other cultures based on one's own cultural background, making it challenging to achieve a completely objective perspective in cross-cultural research.

Exaggeration of Cultural Differences

Cross-cultural research may overstate differences by generalizing behaviors or traits to entire cultures, while individual differences within cultures are often more significant than differences between cultures.

Outgroup Homogeneity Bias

The tendency to perceive members of other groups as more similar to each other than members of one's own group, leading to oversimplified views of other cultures in cross-cultural psychology.

Cultural Relativism

The belief that all cultural perspectives are equally valid, which can raise ethical dilemmas when considering practices that conflict with universal values.

Subcultures and Multiculturalism

The complexity of cultural categorization, especially in multicultural societies, where individuals may identify with multiple cultures, leading to challenges in defining cultural identities and behaviors.

Outgroup homogeneity bias

The sociopsychological phenomenon by which members of a group to which one does not belong seem more alike than do members of a group to which one does belong.

The Universal Human Condition

According to Sartre, the concept that all individuals and cultures share the necessity to exist, work, relate to others, and face mortality.

Enculturation

The process by which a child adopts the culture into which they are born.

Acculturation

The process by which an individual who moves into a new culture adopts its customs and behaviors.

Etic vs

Contrasting elements common to all cultures (etics) with elements that make cultures different (emics).

Collectivism vs

The distinction between cultures that prioritize group values and harmony (collectivism) versus those that emphasize individual values and freedom (individualism).

Dignity, Honor, and Face Cultures

Cultures that emphasize the importance of the individual (dignity), self-protection and respect rituals (honor), and harmony and stable hierarchies (face).

Universal Values

Some values, such as openness to change, conservatism, transcendence, and self-enhancement, are considered potentially global across cultures.

Challenges in Cross-Cultural Research

Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are constant challenges in cross-cultural research, influencing researchers' perspectives and interpretations.

Multicultural Individuals

Individuals who belong to multiple cultures and face the challenge of integrating these cultures within themselves to avoid conflict.