Relationship between personality and culture

Table of Contents

Personality and Culture - Their Interrelationship ..........................Error! Bookmark not defined.

Personality development and cultural influence ............................................................................. 3
The impacts of culture on personality development ....................................................................... 4
Reference ........................................................................................................................................ 6
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The interrelationship of culture and personality

The term culture speaks about the norms, beliefs, and shared values of a certain group of

individuals. It has a major influence on the way humans learn new things, behave to their

surrounding, and live in their environment. This reason makes multiple cultural theorists believe

that culture shapes the personality of individuals. It is generally assumed that individuals born

and brought up in similar culture boundaries hold common characteristics. Personality is shaped

by both familial and environmental impacts. Personality is acquired through culture is what

Franz Boas, the pioneer of Psychological Anthropology insists. He additionally states biology

does not impact personality. An extensive explanation of the relationship between personality

and culture can be found in his theory, Cultural Relativism.

Self-actualization, a concept derived from Abraham Maslow’s humanistic psychological

theory, epitomizes the growth and development of an individual towards the achievement of the

highest needs. Carl Rogers also established a theory citing a potential for growth whose purpose

is to incorporate compatibly the ‘ideal self’ and the ‘true self’ thus developing the emergence of

the fully functional individual. In simple terms, self-actualization is self-realization.

Personality development and cultural influence

Hans Eysenck was one of the forerunners who started to believe that the design of co-

variation between characteristic traits and the personality structure might be universal and

transcends the divergence of human cultures. One of the principal reasons for this outcome was

his examination of twins that displayed a substantial genetic impact on all characteristic traits

and almost zero influence from the common environment. A study on the topic presented a

daring suggestion about the intercultural generalizability of the FFM (Five-Factor Model) of
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personality (McCRAE, 2000). By examining six translations of the Revised Personality

Inventory into Portuguese, German, Hebrew, Korean, Chinese and Japanese, they noted that all

translations demonstrated the same constructions after varimax rotation of the five factors and

almost similar structure of factor when the varimax solution was aimed toward the initial

American structure. The suggestion that the basic structure of personality is to a large extent (or

even fully) independent from the culture was somewhat unconventional. It assumedly met with

incredulity and rejection. It is worth noting that even though the repeatability of the design of co-

variations throughout cultures proved to be quite a powerful phenomenon. However, this fact

does not certainly indicate that all of the finer details are always duplicated in every novel culture

(Cheung, Vijver & Leong, 2011).

The impacts of culture on personality development

The processes of maturation that build personality are presumably to be directed by a

blend of environmental, biological and social factors. Yet, a research body points out that the

pattern of the development of personality is strikingly similar across cultures. Most examples

from every continent show older adults as more psychologically stable, close-minded,

introverted, agreeable and punctilious than juveniles and young adults. Albeit some intercultural

distinctions are found, it is still unclear whether these distinctions are trustworthy. Even clichéd

beliefs about the personality of youths and older adults are identical across cultures, although

these stereotypes amplify the actual differences in age. Future research could profit from studies

in more varied samples, particularly from African, Arabic and Asian cultures.

Some of the first methodical intercultural research on personality has been published in

the last two decades. Anecdotal evidence showed that people from varied continents could be
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effectively described in the same vein as the five dimensions such as introversion versus

extraversion or antagonism versus amenability (Mooradian & Swan, 2006).

Intercultural research represents a potent tool to understand the advent and maintenance

of individual variations in personality. It offers an understanding of what are the standard

patterns against which to compare developmental courses that vary due to internal and external

factors, such as ailments or changes in the environment.

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Reference

Cheung, F. M., van de Vijver, F. J., & Leong, F. T. (2011). Toward a new approach to the study

of personality in culture. American Psychologist, 66(7), 593.

McCRAE, R. R. (2000). Trait psychology and the revival of personality and culture studies.

American Behavioral Scientist, 44(1), 10-31.

Mooradian, T. A., & Swan, K. S. (2006). Personality-and-culture: The case of national

extraversion and word-of-mouth. Journal of Business Research, 59(6), 778-785.