Culture and Personality

1. Culture and Personality What is cultural psychology? Why should we study it? Different research approaches Structural framework Self-Ways (Markus)

2. Cultural Psychology Interdependence of personality and sociocultural context: • Concepts of personality in specific cultures • Cross-cultural comparisons of personality • Search for universal aspects of personality

3. Psychodynamic Approach • Content of the superego • Societal norms for the development of psychosexual stages • Societally accepted defense mechanisms • Role of the unconscious (societal norms for making it conscious)

4. Biological Approaches • Interaction between universal “nature” and cultural differences in “nurture” • Search for human universals • Influence of environment on cultural practices (Jared Diamond: Guns, germs, and steel)

5. Trait Approach • Differences in factorial structure across cultures • Differences in stability of factorial structure across cultures • Differences in the nature of traits across cultures Etic Approach • Universal • Objective • Outsider’s view Emic Approach • Specific • Subjective • Insider’s view

6. Etic Approach • Translation & back-translation of existing questionnaires into new language • Reliability and validity checks • Confirmatory factor analysis • Yang et al (1990) Chinese “Big Five” don’t map completely on Western Factors • McCrae et al. (2000) translated Big Five into Filipino  all five factors revealed

7. Emic Approach • Use indigenous sources (e.g. dictionary, literature, open ended responses) • Exploratory factor analysis to reveal new factors • Cheung et al. (1997) created Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI) • Factor “openness” not in CPAI • Factor “chinese tradition” not in Big Five

8. A Structural Framework of Cultural Psychology • Historical background • Cultural practices • Specific social episodes • Psychological tendencies • Example: Video of pre-schools in Japan and USA

9. Structural Framework - USA

10. Structural Framework - Japan

11. Self-Ways “Cultural and social groups in every historical period are associated with characteristic patterns of sociocultural participation or, more specifically, with characteristic ways of being a person in the world … these culturally constructed patterns, including ways of thinking, feeling, wanting, and doing, arise from living one’s life in particular sociocultural contexts - that is, contexts structured according to certain meanings, practices and institutions.” -- Markus & Kitayama In other words, self-ways are ways of being a self.

12. TST - Twenty Statements Test • Twenty answers to the question “Who am I?” • Cross cultural comparisons reveal differences in relative frequency of response categories • Psychological attributes (I am outgoing.) • Physical attributes (I am tall.) • Preferences/Interests (I like to cook.) • Goals (I want to get an A in this class.) • Attitudes (I am not a racist.) • Activities (I have a part time job.) • Social Roles (I am a student./I am a father.)

13. TST: Japan vs. USAKanagawa, Cross, & Markus, 1998

14. Independent Self Father Mother Self X Co-Worker X Sibling X X Friend Friend Friend

15. Interdependent Self Father Mother Self Co-Worker X Sibling X X Friend X Friend Friend

16. Independent vs. Interdependent Self-Ways • Independent - USA • Individual as fundamental societal unit • Positive, independent, unrestrained self • Choice, self-efficacy • Consistency over time • Interdependent - Japan • Relationships as fundamental societal unit • Connected, harmonic, restrained self • Obligation, duty • Flexibility and improvement over time

17. Summary • Cultural psychology studies the influence of cultural factors on people’s personality. • Every approach to personality research needs to account for cross-cultural differences. • Global cross-cultural differences do not imply uniformity within each culture.