1. Veronica Benet-Martinez University of California at Riverside, USA
Culture and Personality Processes: Conceptual and Methodological Issues
Veronica Benet-Martinez
University of California at Riverside, USA
Universitat Rovira i Virgili
March 23-25, 2010

2. March 23:
Culture and Personality: What and How to Research it
March 24:
Culture and Personality Taxonomies
March 25:
The Dynamic Interplay of Cultural Identity, Language, and Personality

4. Academic Bio: August 1989 Graduated in psych from UAB
Move to USA: Au-pair for family in Davis (California)
Ph.D. in Social-Personality Psychology at UC Davis
Postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley (IPSR)
Assistant Professor at Univ. of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
2003-now Associate Professor at UC Riverside
Fall 2010 ICREA professor at Pompeu Fabra Univ.

5.
SO here are the main 3 questions we try to answer in the bicultural lab at UCR

6. Culture and Personality: What it is and How to Research it
DAY 1
Culture and Personality:
What it is and How to Research it
*Required Readings:
Ozer, D., & Benet-Martínez, V. (2006). Personality and the prediction of consequential outcomes. Annual Review of Psychology, 57,
Benet-Martínez, V. (2007). Cross-cultural personality research: Conceptual and methodological issues. In R.W. Robins, R.C. Fraley, & R. Krueger (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in personality psychology. New York, NY: Guildford Press.

7. Culture and Personality: What and How
1. PERSONALITY –Definitional issues
Personality is consequential (Ozer & Benet-Martinez, 2006)
2. CULTURE --Definitional issues: Culture, race, ethnicity; Cultural & Cross-cultural psychology; Cultural syndromes
3. CULTURE PERSONALITY CULTURE
Inseparability of culture & psyche
4. Benefits of cultural social/personality studies

8. One of my favorite quotes ….
Every person is in certain respects like all other people, like some other person, like no other person (Kluckhohn & Murray, 1948)

9. 3 Levels of Personality Analysis
Every human being is…
…like all others = Human nature level (universal)
…like some others = Group level
…like no others = Individual level
PERSONALITY Psychology

10. DO YOU FIND THESE QUESTIONS INTERESTING?
Why we are all different from each other?
Where do these differences come from?
How can we best measure and organize these differences?
What do people really want/desire/need?
How would I be different if I had grown up in a different culture? With a different gender/race/social class?
If you find the following questions interesting, I think you will enjoy this course:
Why we are all different from each other? (even identical twins are different)
Where do these differences come from? (interaction of life experiences and inner forces)
How can we best measure and organize these differences? (tests, lie on couch)
What do people want? (do we all want different/same things?)
How would I be different if I had grown up in a different culture? With a different gender/race/social class?
(we wont always provide concrete answers or formulas but tools –info about research and theories, how to think critically about these questions).

11. PERSONALITY: Each of us is unique We are not unique in random ways
That thread of consistency within each of us is personality!
Non-technical definition of personality:
A person’s general style of interacting with the world
-The prior example shows that each of us is unique (even identical twins). My way of thinking, feeling, and behaving isn’t exactly like anyone else’s.
-But people are different in predictive ways (people do not behave at random). Within each individual there is a thread of consistency that accounts for his/her behavioral style-pattern and that explains why two people behave differently in the same situation.
-> that consistency is called personality!
person’s general style of interacting with the world (being withdrawn, outgoing, messy, or nervous)

12. My favorite (technical) definition of personality:
“Dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysiological systems that ‘determine’ his/her characteristic pattern of behavior, thoughts, and feelings” (Gordon Allport)
-Dynamic -->active
-Organization -->system, rather than an accumulation of charact.
-Psychophysical -->mental and physiological
-Determine -->causal force (influences what we do)
-Characteristic -->unique and typical for each individual
-Pattern -->consistent style
-Behaviors, etc -->multidimensional
=psychology’s technical definition
“Dynamic organization within the person of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic pattern of behavior, thoughts, and feelings”
-Dynamic –active, not set in plaster, that it ‘does’ something (besides ‘is’)
-Organization --system, rather than a accumulation of characts. (whole = sum of parts)
-Psychophysical --mental and physiological
-Determine --causal force (how we react)
-Characteristic --unique --individuality (smell with your nose isn’t a personality manifestation)
-Pattern --style, consistent tendencies broadly manifested (eg. being nervous at a test, job interview, etc.)
-behaviors, etc --multidimensional

13. Four types of units within the PERSONALITY SYSTEM
Stable
Variable
Inner,
private
2. Cognition
e.g. schemas,
beliefs, ideals
Major theorists:
Kelly, Mischel
3. Motivation
e.g. motives, goals,
defenses
Major theorists:
Freud, McClelland
Outer,
obsverbable
1. Traits &
Temperament
e.g. extraversion,
neuroticism
Major theorists:
Jung, Eysenck
4. Social Context
e.g., culture,
ethnicity, power,
gender
Major theorists:
Markus, Stewart
Winter, D.G. (1996). Personality: Analysis and Interpretation of Lives.

14. Personality: Units & Approaches
Psychoanalytic, Humanistic = MOTIVES
[unconscious, conflict, neuroses]
Cognitive = COGNITIONS
[conscious, beliefs, schemas]
Lexical, Biological, Evolutionary = TRAITS
[differences, description, classification]
[biology, evolution, genes]
Learning, Cultural = CONTEXT
[environmental rewards and punishment, experience]
The book uses a different but inter-related structure: Domains of knowledge [make sure to know and understand how these 2 approaches relate to each other]

15. FOUR MAJOR TYPES OF UNITS IN PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY
MOTIVES
-Intentions, desires, goals behind behavior
-Causal (vs. descriptive) personality units
(e.g., intimacy, affiliation, power, achievement motives)
COGNITIONS
-Information we handle in living in this world (beliefs, attitudes, values, schemas) and how we take it/use it (e.g., optimist-pessimist, flexible-rigid)
FOUR MAJOR ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY (good way to organize all the prior factors)
-These four elements = taxonomy to classify all of the units, variables studied by personality psychologists.
-Two underlying dimensions: observability and situation-dependent
=TRAITS AND TEMPERAMENT
-Observable dispositions, habits to do things in certain ways
-Very much influenced by temperament and pretty stable (activity/energy; sociability, stability)
(eg. an person high in extroversion talks to much on the phone, dominates conversations, and successfully meets people on bars)
=CONTEXT
-Personality doesn’t exist in isolation (context channels the expression of personality)
-Micro (weather, hunger, company) and macrocontext (race, culture, institutions)
=MOTIVES
-Intentions, desires, goals (causal more than descriptive aspect of personality)
(eg. she has a high need to control people; he avoids confrontation)
-Approach and avoidance goals; role of conflict
-Goals change (fulfillment/disengagement of them, life tasks)
=COGNITIONS
-Focus on information we handle in living in this world (beliefs, attitudes, values) and how we take it/use it (e.g., optimist-pessimist, flexible-rigid)

16. FOUR MAJOR TYPES OF UNITS IN PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY
TRAITS
-Observable dispositions, habits to do things in certain ways (e.g. extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness)
-Stable and largely influenced by temperament
-Descriptive (vs. causal) personality units
CONTEXT
-The environment/context that channels the expression of the other 3 units (personality doesn’t exist in isolation)
-Micro (weather, hunger, other people) and macrocontext (race, gender, culture, institutions)
FOUR MAJOR ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY (good way to organize all the prior factors)
-These four elements = taxonomy to classify all of the units, variables studied by personality psychologists.
-Two underlying dimensions: observability and situation-dependent
=TRAITS AND TEMPERAMENT
-Observable dispositions, habits to do things in certain ways
-Very much influenced by temperament and pretty stable (activity/energy; sociability, stability)
(eg. an person high in extroversion talks to much on the phone, dominates conversations, and successfully meets people on bars)
=CONTEXT
-Personality doesn’t exist in isolation (context channels the expression of personality)
-Micro (weather, hunger, company) and macrocontext (race, culture, institutions)
=MOTIVES
-Intentions, desires, goals (causal more than descriptive aspect of personality)
(eg. she has a high need to control people; he avoids confrontation)
-Approach and avoidance goals; role of conflict
-Goals change (fulfillment/disengagement of them, life tasks)
=COGNITIONS
-Focus on information we handle in living in this world (beliefs, attitudes, values) and how we take it/use it (e.g., optimist-pessimist, flexible-rigid)

17. (e.g., gender, SES, power, race, culture, history)
MICRO-CONTEXT
MACRO-CONTEXT
(e.g., gender, SES, power, race, culture, history)
MICRO-CONTEXT
immediate features of the environment (e.g., physical and subjective features of situation, emotional states, group pressures)
Macrocontexts:
Large-scale, complex, and enduring patterns of environments.

18. Examples of social context:

19. How do these four elements work?
They all interact in predicting behavior
Researchers tend to focus on one or two at the time (focus of convenience).
Personality as a homeostatic system:
>traits (default, baseline)
>cognitions (information to operate the ‘machine’)
>motives (directionality, tasks)
>context (outside pressures)
…..when the machine breaks down or losses homeostasis we have a problem! (feelings of depression, anxiety, adjustment problems)
=How do these elements work?
-Developmental sequence: from temperament to cognitions.
-They all interact in predicting behavior (although one type may have more weight in explaining partic. behaviors, it’s hard to fully understand why someone does something only using one category).
-Researchers tend to focus on one or two at the time (focus of convenience).
-Personality as a homeostatic system (always in equilibrium = adaptation)
>traits (default baseline, unique setup of the machine), e.g.: underestimulted extrovert seeks estimulation; upset agreeable withdraws from fight.
>cognitions (information to operate the machine)
>motives (directionality, tasks)
>context (outside pressures), e.g.: weather, obstacles, resources
when the machine breaks down or losses homeostasis we have a problem!

20. Macrocontext
Microcontext
Personality

21. Selection of certain environments Reactions from others
(Buss, 1987)
Selection of certain environments
PERSONALITY Manipulation of the environment
Reactions from others
This article proposes three key mechanisms by which personality and social processes are intrinsically linked. Selection deals with the manner in which individuals choose to enter or avoid existing environments. Evocation is defined by the ways in which individuals unintentionally elicit predictable reactions from others in their social environments. Manipulation deals with the tactics that individuals use intentionally to alter, shape, exploit, or change the social environments they inhabit.

22. SOCIAL/INSTITUTIONAL
Summary of the relation between personality traits and consequential outcomes
OUTCOME
INDIVIDUAL
INTERPERSONAL
SOCIAL/INSTITUTIONAL
Extraversion
HAPPINESS: Subjective well-being
SPIRITUALITY & VIRTUES: Existential well-being, gratitude, inspiration
HEALTH: Longevity, coping, resilience
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: (-) Depression, (-/+) personality disorders
IDENTITY: Majority culture identification (for minorities)
PEER & FAMILY RELATIONS: Peers acceptance and friendship (children and adults); dating variety, attractiveness, status (adults)
ROMANTIC RELATIONS: Satisfaction
OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE & PERFORMANCE: Social & enterprising interests, satisfaction, commitment, involvement
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Volunteerism, leadership
Agreeableness
SPIRITUALITY & VIRTUES: Religious beliefs and behavior, gratitude, forgiveness, humor
HEALTH: Longevity; (-) heart disease
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: (-/+) personality disorders
IDENTITY: Ethnic culture identification (for minorities)
PEER & FAMILY RELATIONS: Peers acceptance and friendship (children)
ROMANTIC RELATIONS: Satisfaction (dating couples only)
OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE & PERFORMANCE: Social interests, job attainment, (-) extrinsic success
CRIMINALITY: (-) Criminal behavior
Conscientiousness
SPIRITUALITY & VIRTUES: Religious beliefs and behavior
HEALTH: Longevity, (-) risky behavior,
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: (-) Substance abuse, (-/+) personality disorders
IDENTITY: Achievement, Ethnic culture identification (for minorities)
PEER & FAMILY RELATIONS: Family satisfaction
OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE & PERFORMANCE: Performance, success
POLITICAL ATTITUDES & VALUES: Conservatism
CRIMINALITY (-) Antisocial and criminal behavior
(Ozer & Benet-Martinez, 2006; ARP)

23. Note: (-) indicates a negative relation between the trait and outcome.
Neuroticism
HAPPINESS: (-) Subjective well-being
SPIRITUALITY & VIRTUES: (-) Existential well-being, (-) humor
HEALTH: (-) Coping
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: Anxiety, depression, (+/-) personality disorders
IDENTITY: (-) Identity integration/consolidation
PEER & FAMILY RELATIONS: (-) Family satisfaction, (-) status (males only)
ROMANTIC RELATIONS: Dissatisfaction, conflict, abuse, dissolution
OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE & PERFORMANCE: (-) Satisfaction, (-) commitment, (-) financial security, (-) success
CRIMINALITY: Antisocial behavior
Openness
SPIRITUALITY & VIRTUES: Existential/phenomenological concerns, forgiveness, inspiration
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: Substance abuse
IDENTITY: (-) Foreclosure, identity integration/consolidation, majority culture identification (for minorities),
OCCUPATIONAL CHOICE & PERFORMANCE: Investigative and artistic interests, success
POLITICAL ATTITUDES & VALUES: (-) Right-wing authoritarianism, liberalism
Note: (-) indicates a negative relation between the trait and outcome.

24. CULTURE
Macrocontext
Microcontext
Personality

25. CULTURE:
Shared systems of meaning that provide the standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating, communicating, and acting among those who share a language, a historic period, and a geographic location (Shweder & LeVine, 1984).
Subjective culture (vs. objective culture: dress, food, music, buildings etc.)
Culture is multi-dimensional and dynamic
Culture = network of procedural and declarative knowledge

26. Useful metaphor: culture = game rules
Does John from Iowa know the rules of this game?
Culture’s influence on behavior is probabilistic  degree to which ‘players’ follow the rules differs across individuals depending on personal preferences, moods, and specific situations  within-culture heterogeneity

27. Cultural Syndromes (TAXONOMY OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCES)
2 BIG basic dimensions of cultural difference: (Triandis, Hofstede)
Individualism/Collectivism: extent to which the self is defined as a bound and separate (vs. fluid and interdependent).
Vertical/Horizontal Relationships: emphasis on hierarchy and status versus equality

28. INDIVIDUALISM  INDEPENDENT SELF
Western world
Judeo-Christian tradition (Protestant ethic)
Focus is on individual freedom and personal pursuits and self expression

29. COLLECTIVISM INTER-DEPENDENT SELF
Non-Western/Anglo world
Confucian/Catholic/Muslim tradition
Focus is on the collective goals over individual goals, needs of society

30. VERTICAL
USA
India
COLLECTIVISTIC
INDIVIDUALISTIC
Spain?
Israel?
Sweden
HORIZONTAL

31. Culture  Race  Ethnicity
e.g. Culture = N. American culture [macro]
e.g. Ethnicity = Hispanics [group]
e.g. Race = Black [biology]

32. CULTURE  PSYCHE  CULTURE

33. Personality as a product of biological and socio-cultural influences
CULTURE  PERSONALITY
“Personality is completely interdependent with the meanings and practices of particular sociocultural contexts. People develop their personalities over time through their active participation in the various social worlds in which they engage. A cultural psychological perspective implies that there is no personality without culture; there is only a biological entity.“ (Markus & Kitayama, 1998)

34. “We are forced to conclude that human nature is almost unbelievable malleable, responding accurately and contrastingly to contrasting cultural conditions.” (Mead, 1935, p. 280) But Mead (1954) also observed that “… the individual’s inclination to respond in a certain ways is relatively stable when the cultural context is understood.”  CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY helps us at ‘seeing’ personality
A review of many studies published in cultural and personality journals indicates a still prevalent tendency to view cultural and personality influences on individual behavior as opposing and independent forces on individual lives (personality= the power of the individual, agency and uniqueness; culture = the power of group pressures, within-social group homogeneity).
=However, as this quote indicates, Mead (perhaps the most famous anthropologist and founder of the field of c & p) viewed cultural and personality differences as two interlocked layers of human nature that coexist and make up each other. {e.g., culture provides the context and meaning in which personality individual differences develop and are manifested}
=Today in my talk I hope to convince you that researchers need to move away from this representation of culture and personality as inherently competing and opposing variables.

35. PERSONALITY  CULTURE … and there is no culture without personality.
Personality meaning resides within/between people as well as in artifacts they use (e.g., living spaces, consumer preferences, preferred icons, etc.) and institutions they support (Hollywood, capitalism, etc.).
[personality  culture]
Commercial brands living spaces cultural icons music preferences
(Aaker & Benet-Martinez, 2001) (Gosling et al., 2002) (Hong et al., 2000) (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003)
The use and availability of these cultural products, in turn, perpetuates particular behavioral, affective, and cognitive tendencies (personality).
[culture  personality]

36. Cultural Studies in Personality Psychology KEY GENERAL QUESTIONS: As people of varying cultures and ethnicities, how are we different and how are we alike? [DIFFERENCES] CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY How do culture and ethnicity shape our identities and personalities? How does personality/behavior influence culture? [PROCESSES] CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY

37. Benefits of cultural social/personality studies:
= help elucidate how macro- and micro-contextual factors mediate and moderate personality outcomes (e.g., Schimmack, Radhakrishnan, Oishi, Dzokoto, & Ahadi, 2002; JPSP)
= help dispel shaky cultural stereotypes (e.g., Terracciano, McCrae, Brant, & Costa, 2005; Science)
= Test the generalizability of our theories (e.g., Benet­Martinez & John, 1998; JPSP).
= Are methodologically fun! -> reliance on multiple languages, samples, and covariates (Benet-Martinez, 2007; HRMSP).

38. Schimmack et al. (2002, JPSP)

39. (‘Cultural valuesPersonality SWB’ model) PHENOTYPIC VIEW
Benet-Martinez & Karakitapoglu (2003). The interplay of cultural values and personality in predicting life-satisfaction. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
Examine interplay between personality and cultural syndromes in predicting subjective well-being (SWB) among Anglos and Asians:
Do cultural syndromes predict variations on personality traits, which in turn predict SWB?
(‘Cultural valuesPersonality SWB’ model) PHENOTYPIC VIEW OR
Do personality traits drive the internalization of cultural syndromes, which in turn predict SWB?
(‘Personality Cultural values SWB’ model) GENOTYPIC VIEW
Ethnic differences in these processes? (e.g., individualism as stronger predictor of SWB among Caucasians)
Using this approach as a framework to study the interplay between personality and culture, my postdoc Zahide and I conducted a study which had the following goals:
1=examine the links between cultural syndromes and personality
2=examine the interplay between personality and cultural syndromes in predicting SWB
-specifically interested in evaluating the adequacy of two competing models –read-
-note that these two models represent highly contested views in personality:
Phenotypic view: traits observable behavioral regularities that reflect characteristic adaptations to the socio-cultural context (Saucier & Goldberg, 1996)
Genotypic view: endogenous and inherited basic tendencies that are largely independent from culture (McCrae & Costa, 1996).
It is important to note that the processes involved in our two models, like in most processes in psychology, are both true, occur over time and, ideally, should be tested with longitudinal samples.
Given the cross-sectional nature of our data, our study focuses instead on providing insight into a slice of this phenomenon: how individuals’ cultural values and personality dispositions separately and jointly influence life-satisfaction for college age individuals
3=examine possible ethnic differences (eg. Is an individualistic orientation a stronger predictor of wb among caucasians vs. asians?)

40. =sample: college students (mean age=20); first-generation=11 years in the US; Asians were bicultural who identified with both cultures almost equally
=We measured the following variables in two samples –read top-
-ind-col (Singelis & Triandis)
-personality (BFI)
-SWB (relational & individuated self-esteem, life-satisfaction):
=We found some ethnic differences which supported findings with cross-national studies
-Asians were higher in indiv., lower in collec.; less extroverted, conscientious, and open; lower SE and life-satisfaction (supporting cross-national studies)
Differences support cross-national studies (Oyserman et al., 2002; Kwan et al., 1997)

41. Do cultural syndromes predict variations on personality traits, which in turn predict SWB? (‘Cultural syndromesPersonality SWB’ model) OR Do personality traits drive the endorsement of cultural syndromes, which in turn predict SWB? (‘Personality Cultural syndromes SWB’ model) ---method: multi-group SEM analyses
Next we tested our two competing models using structural equation modeling–read-
-we tested these two models using multi-group SEM
-for the sake of time I will show you the final model which fitted the data best

42. Final Model: Cultural values  Personality traits  SWB
RMSEA = .060, CFI = MULTI-GROUP RESULTS
Cons.
.21
.29
Self- Esteem
-.53
-.41
Neur.
.57
Individu .
.17
.63
-.24
Life Satisfac.
Open.
.23
Friends Satisfac.
.60
.44
Extr.
This model fitted the data better than the competing personality-> culture model
=I wont get into the details of each path and instead talk about the main picture portrayed by these results
-Interestingly, despite the ethnic differences found between these two groups, for both groups, individualistic values (emphasis on uniqueness and personal goals) predicted the expression of CNOE, and collectivist values (emphasis on group membership and collective goals) predicted agreaableness
-In multi-group SEM the equality/difference between groups in their paths is tested by sequencially constraining the paths to be equal and observe if the fit for the model decreases: interestingly, this model [were all these paths were constrained to be equal] did not fit the data worse than models were the paths were unconstrained
-self-esteem stronger predictor of happiness for both groups
-again, this model fitted the data bettter than a model where personality drove the internalization of cultural values, which in turn, predicted SWB
.20
.21
Collecti .
.44
Family Satisfac.
Agre.
.27
[competing personality-culture model of SWB = RMSEA = .14, NNFI = .67, CFI = .82]

43. Conclusions
‘Cultural valuesPersonalitySWB’ model fitted the data better than ‘PCSWB’ model
Cultural norms & values influences the endorsement and expression of personality traits
Individualism (vs. collectiv.) & self-esteem (vs. relational- esteem) were strongest predictors of personality & life- satisfaction (respectively) for both groups.
All the processes worked similarly across Asian-and European- Americans (despite the large ethnic mean-level differences).
Indicative of a particular Asian-American bicultural identity stage? (internalization of US-specific psychosocial processes while keeping Asian features)
CONCLUSIONS
=CulturePersonalitySWB model fitted the data better than PersonalityCultureSWB model.
Cultural norms & values may influence the expression & realization of personality dispositions more than the other way around
=Self-esteem (vs. relational-esteem) was found to be a stronger predictor of life-satisfaction for both groups.
=All the processes worked similarly across Asian-and European-Americans (despite the ethnic mean-level differences).
Indicative of a particular bicultural identity achievement stage? -> Asian-American biculturals have already internalized the psychosocial processes that are adaptive in the US., while also conserving some features of their cultural background.
LIMITATIONS:
Need to examine this with other cultural groups and with longitudinal designs
- Longitudinal studies can identify reverse causation effects. For instance, it is possible that, over time, particularly once individuals’ identity and personality becomes more stable in middle and late adulthood, personality traits become strong predictors of variations in cultural syndromes instead of the other way around.