- •Cross-cultural universal traits and the culturally specific in human behavior Cross-cultural and Cultural Psychology Knud s. Larsen
- •Introduction
- •Introduction
- •Cross-cultural psychology in a changing world
- •Behavior as culture specific or universal.
- •1.2 The etic and emic approaches.
- •1.3 Cross-cultural psychology and cultural/ indigenous psychology.
- •1.4 Culture versus ethnicity and race.
- •1.5 All groups with a significant history have culture
- •1.6 Toward an inclusive definition of culture.
- •1.6.1 Culture is the evolution of human society.
- •1.6.2 Animal and human culture.
- •1.6.3 The ecological and sociological context.
- •1.7 Resource rich or poor cultures.
- •1.8 Cultural values and dimensions.
- •1.8.1 Universal values.
- •1.8.2 Cultural value dimensions.
- •1.8.3 The social axioms of Leung and Bond.
- •1.9 Enculturation, culture, and psychological outcomes.
- •1.10 Understanding cross-cultural psychology in a changing world.
- •1.11 The major objectives of cross-cultural psychology.
- •1.12 The ethnocentrism of Psychology.
- •Summary
- •Research approaches and critical thinking in cross-cultural psychology
- •2.1 Cultural bias and criterion of equivalence.
- •2.1.1 The issue of language equivalence.
- •2.1.2 Psychometric equivalence.
- •2.1.3 Selecting equivalent samples in cross-cultural psychology.
- •2.2 Nonequivalence in cross-cultural research.
- •2.3 Levels of inference.
- •2.4 Studies of cultural level ecological averages.
- •2.5 What is measured in cross-cultural research?
- •2.6 Bias in psychological assessments.
- •2.7 Inferences from statistical tests on cross-cultural comparisons.
- •2.8 Experimental versus correlational studies.
- •2.9 Qualitative and quantitative research in cross-cultural psychology.
- •2.10 Quantitative comparative cross-cultural research.
- •2.10.1 Surveys.
- •2.10.2 Experiments.
- •2.11 The problems of validity.
- •2.12 A critical look at the findings from cross-cultural comparisons.
- •2.13 Skeptical thinking is the path to an improved cross-cultural psychology.
- •Summary
- •The origin of culture: cultural transformation and sociocultural evolution
- •3.1 The case for the biological foundations of human characteristics.
- •3.1.1 Evolution and the mechanisms of transmission.
- •3.1.2 Races as a biological and social construct.
- •3.1.3 The role of adaptation.
- •3.2 The research supporting the evolution of human emotion.
- •3.2.1 Universal temperament and personality traits are evidence of common evolved history.
- •3.2.2 Intelligence as a biological and racial construct.
- •3.2.3 Behavior genetics and disease.
- •3.2.4 Hardwired optimism: The driver for cultural development.
- •3.3 Sociobiology and evolutionary psychology.
- •3.3.1 Gender differences in mate selection.
- •3.3.2 Is ethnocentrism and racism a broader manifestation of inclusive fitness for reproductive success?
- •3.4 Culture matters!
- •3.5 Socio-cultural evolution: a little history.
- •3.5.1 The evolution of evolutionary theories.
- •3.5.2 Dual inheritance: Approaches to cultural transmission.
- •3.6 Theories of modernization and post-industrial society.
- •Summary
- •Human development: culture and biology
- •4.1 Socialization or enculturation?
- •4.2 Enculturation and choice.
- •4.3 Authoritative versus authoritarian childrearing approaches and cultural differences.
- •4.4 Creating the climate of home: Cultural and cross-cultural studies.
- •4.4.1 The sleeping arrangements of childhood.
- •4.4.2 Attachment in childhood.
- •4.4.3 Relationships with siblings.
- •4.4.4 The influence of the extended family and peers.
- •4.5 Culture and the educational system.
- •4.6 Socio-economic climate.
- •4.7 Social identity.
- •4.8 Comparative studies in child rearing behaviors.
- •4.9 Human development is incorporation of culture.
- •4.10 Stage theories of human development: Culturally unique or universal.
- •4.10.1 The evolution of cognition.
- •4.10.2 The evolution of moral development.
- •4.10.3 Evolution of psychosocial development.
- •4.11 Human development is the expression of biology: the presence of universal values.
- •4.12 The evolutionary basis for human behavior: Maximizing inclusive fitness.
- •4.13 Perspective in the transmission of culture.
- •Summary
- •The evolution of language and socio-culture
- •5.1 The evolution of socioculture and language.
- •5.2 Language development: the meaning of language terms and early speech.
- •5.3 Cultural language difference and linguistic relativity.
- •5.4 Cultural language and thought.
- •5.5 Universals in language.
- •5.6 Intercultural communication.
- •5.6.1 Obstacles and uncertainty reduction in intercultural communication.
- •5.6.2 The affect of bilingualism.
- •5.7 Nonverbal communication and culture.
- •5.8 Darwinian evolution and phylogenetic trees of language and socio-cultural evolution.
- •5.8.1 Selective group genetic advantages in cultural evolution.
- •5.8.2 The analogy of genetic and cultural evolution.
- •5.9 The tree branching of cultural traits.
- •5.10 Limitations of genetic and cultural co-evolutionary theory: Horizontal and vertical cultural evolution.
- •5.11 Cultural stability: Processes countering cultural evolution.
- •5.11.1 Migration and cultural stability.
- •5.11.2 Conformity and geographical mechanisms affecting cultural evolution and language development.
- •5.12 Social learning: Imitating success.
- •5.13 Religion, agriculture development and cultural evolution.
- •5.14 Phylogenetic evidence of the socio-cultural origins of language and other cultural traits.
- •5.14.1 Tracing the evolution of languages.
- •5.14.2 Evidence of language evolution.
- •5.15 Culture as a function of evolving information.
- •5.16 How did language evolve?
- •5.16.1 Contacts between different language speakers.
- •5.16.2 Artefactual languages.
- •Cognition: our common biology and cultural impact
- •6.1 Culture and cognition.
- •6.1.1 Sensation and perception.
- •6.1.2 Cultural impact on sensation and perception.
- •6.2 Cognitive development.
- •6.3 Cognitive style and cultural values.
- •6.3.1 Field dependent and independent cognitive style.
- •6.3.2 Perception studies and cognitive style.
- •6.3.3 Collectivistic and individualistic cognition.
- •6.3.4 Greek versus Asian thinking style.
- •6.3.5 Dialectical and logical thinking.
- •6.3.6 Authoritarianism and dogmatism as a cognitive style.
- •6.4 The general processor implied in cognitive styles versus contextualized cognition.
- •6.5 Cognitive style and priming cognition.
- •6.6 Cross-cultural differences in cognition as a function of practical imperatives.
- •6.7 Intelligence and adaptation: general and cross-cultural aspects.
- •6.7.1 Definitions of general intelligence.
- •6.7.2 Nature or nurture: What determines intelligence?
- •6.7.3 Sources of bias in intelligence testing.
- •6.7.4 Socioeconomic differences and fairness.
- •6.7.5 Race and the interaction effect.
- •6.8 The use of psychological tests in varying cultures.
- •6.9 How intelligence is viewed in other cultures.
- •6.10 General processes in higher order cognition and intelligence.
- •6.10.1 Categorization.
- •6.10.2 Memory functions.
- •6.10.3 Mathematical abilities.
- •6.10.4 The ultimate pedagogical goal: Creativity.
- •Summary
- •Emotions and human happiness: universal expressions and cultural values
- •7.1 The universality of emotions: Basic neurophysiological responses.
- •7.1.1 How we understand the emotion of others: Facial expressions.
- •7.1.2 The effect of language and learning: Criticisms of studies supporting genetically based facial recognition.
- •7.1.3 The definitive answer to the source of the facial expressions of emotions: Biology is the determinant.
- •7.1.4 Universal agreement and cultural emphasis in other emotion constructs.
- •7.1.4.1 Antecedents of emotions.
- •7.1.4.2 Vocalization and intonation in emotional expression.
- •7.1.4.3 Appraisal of emotion.
- •7.2 The role of culture in emotional reactions.
- •7.2.1 The display of emotions.
- •7.2.2 Individualistic versus collectivistic cultures: Display rules in emotion intensity and negativity ratings.
- •7.2.3 Personal space and gestures: Cultural influences in non-verbal communication.
- •7.2.4 Cross-cultural differences in evaluating emotions in other people.
- •7.3. The cultural context of emotional communication.
- •7.4 Toward a positive psychology of emotion: Happiness and well-being.
- •7.4.1 Methodological issues in definitions of happiness and well-being.
- •7.4.2 Sources of well-being.
- •7.4.3 The trending of happiness scores and economic crises and transitions.
- •7.4.4 The impact of culture on happiness and subjective well-being.
- •7.4.5 Creating social policies that promote well-being.
- •7.4.6 The role of national and local government.
- •Personality theory: western, eastern and indigenous approaches
- •8.1 Western thoughts on personality.
- •8.1.1 Freud’s contributions.
- •8.1.2 The humanistic approach to personality.
- •8.1.3 Social-cognitive interaction theory.
- •8.1.4 Locus of control
- •8.1.5 Cross-cultural research on locus of control and autonomy: In control or being controlled.
- •8.1.6 Personality types and hardwired foundations.
- •8.1.7 The Big Five.
- •8.1.8 The genetic and evolutionary basis of personality.
- •8.1.9 Is national character a psychological reality?
- •8.2 Eastern thoughts about personality.
- •8.2.1 The Buddhist tradition.
- •8.2.2 The self and causation.
- •8.2.3 Buddhism and consciousness.
- •8.2.4 Buddhism as a therapeutic approach.
- •8.2.5 A critical thought.
- •8.3 Confucian perspective on personality and the self.
- •8.4 Culture specific personality: As seen from the perspective of indigenous cultures.
- •8.5 Some evaluative comments on Confucianism and indigenous psychology.
- •Summary
- •Culture, sex and gender
- •10.1 Culture and gender.
- •10.1.1 Sex roles, gender stereotypes, and culture.
- •10.1. 2 Gender and families.
- •10.1.3 Traditional versus egalitarian sex role ideologies.
- •10.2 Gender stereotypes and discrimination against women.
- •10.2.1 Dissatisfaction with body image.
- •10.2.2 Equal work equal pay?
- •10.3 Violence against women: a dirty page of history and contemporary society.
- •10.3.1 Intimate violence: The ubiquitous nature of rape.
- •10.3.2 Sexual exploitation.
- •10.3.3 Gender justice and the empowerment of women.
- •10.3.4 Gender ability differences and the role of culture.
- •10.3.5 Culture and Gender differences in spatial abilities.
- •10.3.6 Current research on gender differences in mathematical abilities.
- •10.3.7 Gender and conformity.
- •10.3.8 Gender and aggression.
- •10.4 Sexual behavior and culture.
- •10.4.1 Mate selection.
- •10.4.2 Attractiveness and culture.
- •10.4.3 The future of love and marriage.
- •Summary
- •Culture and human health
- •12.1 The injustice of health disparities in the world.
- •12.1.1 Socio-economic disparities and well-being.
- •12.1.2 Mental health among ethnic minorities: Injustice in the United States.
- •12.1.3 Migrants, refugees and stress: Mental health outcomes.
- •12.2 The role of culture.
- •12.2.1 Cultural health beliefs.
- •12.2.2 Problems in cultural definitions of abnormality and mental illness
- •12.3 Psychopathology as universal or relativist.
- •12.4 Culturally specific and universal factors in mental health.
- •12.4.1 Anxiety disorders.
- •12.4.2 Regulation of mood: Depression.
- •12.4.3 Schizophrenia.
- •12.4.4 Attention deficit disorder.
- •12.4.5 Personality disorders.
- •12.5 Culturally sensitive assessment of abnormal behavior.
- •12.6 Cross-cultural assessments of mental disorder.
- •12.7 Abnormal behavior and psychotherapy from cultural perspectives.
- •12.7.1 The cultural framework matters in psychotherapy.
- •12.7.2 Homogeneity of patient and therapist.
- •12.7.3 Approaches based in indigenous forms of treatment.
- •12.7.4 Adding the biomedical model to indigenous beliefs.
- •Summary
Summary
This chapter summarizes major approaches to theories of personality from Western conceptions to the thoughts of Eastern philosophy and the cultural psychologist’s work on indigenous traits. Definitions of personality in the West refer to enduring traits that are reflected in consistent behavior across situations, context and the lifespan. The dominant contemporary personality model in Western psychology is the trait approach through which researchers can learn what distinguishes one person from another. The departure point in Western psychology is the seminal work of Sigmund Freud. Through his method of having patients "free associate" he developed a broad theory of personality that emphasized the importance of childhood development (the child is the father of the man) and the dominant role of unconscious motivation. Freud argued for the presence of two opposing instincts in human life. The Eros represented life, love and creativity, the Thanatos death, aggression and destruction. Personality structure in Freud’s theory consists of three components. The Id is based on the pleasure principle, the Ego moderates behavior in compliance with social reality and demands, and the Superego incorporates parental values in the form of individual conscience. Probably the most useful construct derived from Freud’s psychoanalysis is the conceptualization of defense mechanisms that intuitively seem to match and explain great deal of human behavior. The neo-Freudians differed from Freud by emphasizing conscious motivation, the importance of social stages of development, and by deemphasizing the role of sexuality.
The contributors to humanistic psychology were more interested in the development of healthy people in contrast to Freud’s work with neurotic patients. Maslow and Rogers thought and wrote about the human potential for growth and happiness. Maslow developed a theory of motivation where the peak of personal development is the self-actualized person, a concept that has greatly influenced contemporary debate and research. Traits that describe a self-actualized personality include compassion, a concept similar to that advocated in Buddhism. Rogers emphasized the essential goodness of human beings and the importance of rejecting the false in life, striving toward self-acceptance and the acceptance of others through unconditional positive regard. Humanistic psychology served a heuristic role in encouraging research on the etiology and correlates of self-esteem.
Social-cognition is an interaction theory that explains personality from the point of view of principles of learning and cognition. The critical determinant in the development of personality is found in the interaction of the person with the environment called reciprocal determinism. Bandura argued that we all exercise choices in regard to our environment, and that these choices shape our personality. In many ways we become self-fulfilling prophecies as our attitudes sensitize us to environmental variables. Social-cognition interaction theory formed the framework for research on the locus of control variable. Because of their reinforcement history some people have developed an external locus of control and come to believe that they have little or no power over environmental forces and that their behavior has no affect on outcomes. Other people believe that the outcomes of life are primarily a function of their own behavior. Learned helplessness is a related concept where people exposed to powerful forces learn that there is no relationship between their efforts and their outcomes. A great deal of cross-cultural research has emerged out social-cognition interaction theory on the locus of control and autonomy variables.
On the whole Americans are more likely to score high on beliefs in the internal locus of control compared to Asian and some other cultural groups. Research has also supported the relationship between real life conditions of control and whether people believe in an internal or external locus of control. People who come from impoverished backgrounds believe more strongly in the external locus of control thus validating the concept. Further, in related research the relative influence of individualistic versus collectivistic cultures affect the degree of autonomy people experience. However, research supports the idea that people who are able to live their values feel they are autonomous regardless of other cultural organization of life that reinforce authoritarianism.
The chapter reports on personality types and how these can be understood as a hardwired legacy from our adaptive efforts to survive. The competitive and stressed type A personality seem to be a particular contribution of modern capitalism. Research support at least in part the genetic heritability of some personality traits and those that are discovered early in childhood have consistent affects across the lifespan. Research on the Big Five super traits support the genetic basis for personality structure as these traits appear in all cultures studied. Although the presence of the Big Five is now commonly accepted it is important to remember that culture affects the mean values of the traits within cultures. Conversely societies that are geographically closer also have a greater correspondence on the mean values of the Big Five supporting the role of culture. Criticisms suggest that the Big Five do not describe very well the interpersonal relatedness central to personality in Asia and elsewhere. Research has also demonstrated the universality of other personality traits like the relative levels of authoritarianism. Nevertheless the presence of the big Five has been explained as a universal adaptation that developed because it gave advantages in the common human struggle for survival. The research on national character also support the influence of culture in personality development as such self-stereotypes that serve to reinforce national identity.
Eastern thought and philosophies have made important contributions to personality theory and many mind-related constructs emerged from Eastern cultures across many centuries before they occurred to people in the Western world. The major difference between Western and Eastern thought is in the construal of the self. Whereas the self is seen as an enduring aspect of personality in Western thinking, the self is viewed as a reification and delusion in the Buddhist worldview. Central to Buddhist philosophy is the concept of the middle way where the healthy person seeks to find a balance that does not lead to self-indulgence or self-mortification. Suffering in life is real and from that affliction humans search for relief often in pleasure seeking that however produces nothing of enduring value and only provide a temporary cessation of desire. Buddha taught that suffering and desire can be controlled and lead to a personal transformation when we choose the path leading to self-fulfillment and an authentic existence by accepting the welfare other others as a high ethical responsibility. The ego based self is an illusion that only brings suffering.
Buddhist personality theory posits components called Skandhas that are interdependent in origin and functions and are based on the consciousness that emerge from the basic sensory processes. The mind is the location of complex cognition although all these processes are temporary. Nevertheless complex cognition gives rise to the “subjective knower” that seem to be in control. The aim of Buddhism is to eliminate or reduce all unnecessary suffering by creating an understanding of the delusion of the inner self and replacing that with more healthy conceptualizations found in the interconnectedness of the person to all in the universe. When we see ourselves as connected to all in the universe we are able to empathize with the sufferings of others and develop compassion. Meditation offers a path in Buddhism that can lead to greater peace and serenity. A critical thought about the Buddhist idea of reification of the self might be: does it matter if the self is a delusion and is reified when the individual and others behave as if it is real?
Confucian philosophy also made a major contribution to our thinking about personality. As a body of thought it seeks to explain basic aspects of personality, how it develops in the family structure, why people suffer, and healthy behavior and personality. According to Confucian thinking the locus of personality development is found in the family. However, Western psychology sees maturity of personality development in the formation of independent and autonomous persons, whereas Confucianism sees a healthy personality as someone who recognizes and fulfills important roles and responsibilities of relationships. The family is the initial place of role responsibility, but as the person develops he/she must respond to ever widening circles of relationships and associated duties. The independent Ego makes no sense in Confucianism since the autonomous personality favored in the West is seen as both unhealthy and dysfunctional. Although Confucius has been criticized for supporting authoritarianism in human relationships an alternative interpretation is to view hierarchical relationships as those between benefactor and beneficent.
Collateral to the cross-cultural comparative research on personality, the cultural psychologists have found evidence for traits that are unique to a particular culture and indigenous. The overall picture revealed by personality research would support the presence of both universal personality structures that can be compared across cultures, but also culturally specific traits unique to the cultural values of particular societies.
Chapter 10