Conceptual and methodological issues in the study of the personality-and-culture relationship

Frontiers in Psychology

Psychology

Jüri Allik¹  Anu Realo²  Robert R. McCrae³ 

[1] Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia;Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia;Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom;Retired, Gloucester, MA, United States;

关键词: culture;    personality;    Five-Factor Theory;    characteristic adaptations;    basic traits;    convergent and discriminant validity;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1077851

 received in 2022-10-23, accepted in 2023-02-27,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Culture-and-personality studies were central to social science in the early 20th century and have recently been revived (as personality-and-culture studies) by trait and cross-cultural psychologists. In this article we comment on conceptual issues, including the nature of traits and the nature of the personality-and-culture relationship, and we describe methodological challenges in understanding associations between features of culture and aspects of personality. We give an overview of research hypothesizing the shaping of personality traits by culture, reviewing studies of indigenous traits, acculturation and sojourner effects, birth cohorts, social role changes, and ideological interventions. We also consider the possibility that aggregate traits affect culture, through psychological means and gene flow. In all these cases we highlight alternative explanations and the need for designs and analyses that strengthen the interpretation of observations. We offer a set of testable hypotheses based on the premises that personality is adequately described by Five-Factor Theory, and that observed differences in aggregate personality traits across cultures are veridical. It is clear that culture has dramatic effects on the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from which we infer traits, but it is not yet clear whether, how, and in what degree culture shapes traits themselves.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Allik, Realo and McCrae.