CHAPTER 17
Social Identity, Personality, and
Gender
Chapter Preview
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What Is Enculturation?
How Does Enculturation Influence
Personality?
Are Different Personalities
Characteristic of Different Cultures?
Tabula Rasa
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In the late 17th century philosopher
John Locke suggested a theory (tabula
rasa) that the human infant is
comparable to that of an tablet
(chalkboard) throughout the infants life
experiences would be written (chalk)
onto the tablet. Eventually the person
would have been molded by his/her life
experiences.
How Does Enculturation
Influence Personality?
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Each individual begins with certain
broad potentials and limitations that are
genetically inherited.
In some cultures, particular childrearing
practices seem to promote the
development of compliant personalities.
In others different practices seem to
promote more independent, self-reliant
personalities.
Are Different Personalities
Characteristic of Different
Cultures?
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Every culture emphasizes certain personality
traits as good and others as bad.
The concept of modal personality recognizes
that any human society has a range of
individual personalities, but some will be more
typical than others.
Since modal personalities may differ from one
culture to another and since cultures may differ
in the range of variation they will accept, it is
clear that abnormal personality is a relative
concept.
Enculturation: The Human
Self
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Culture is socially constructed and learned it
is not innate, in other words we are not born
knowing what our culture entails.
Our closest members to us during our
formative years are the one’s who help to
enculturate us into our culture.
As we mature outside factors and people
will also help the enculturation process.
This process begins with self-awareness
Self Awareness
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The ability to:
 Identify oneself as an individual.
 To reflect on oneself.
 To evaluate oneself.
The ability to do the above is something we
learn again not something we are born with.
Attaching positive value to the self ensures
individuals act to their own advantage.
Social Identity & Names
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Naming a child might be one of the most
exciting and also difficult aspects of
parenthood. Names reflect and identify who
that child will be and represent in life.
Some cultures wait until birth or soon after
and other’s might pick a name before the
child is born (typical in the United States).
These naming ceremonies are special
events or rituals that mark the naming of a
child.
Naming in in Multicultural and
Pluralistic Societies
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When an ethnic group or nation falls under
the control of a more powerful and
expanding neighboring group, its members
may be forced to assimilate and give up
their cultural identity. Thus making naming
of a child more difficult because of the
abandoned practices.
People may be forced to change their
names into more culturally accepted names
by mainstream society.
The Self and the Behavioral
Environment
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There are four main orientations that
must be learned by an individual as the
mature into their culture and natural
environment.
 Object Orientation
 Spatial Orientation
 Temporal Orientation
 Normative Orientation
Orientation
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Object Orientations are when
individuals must learn about all objects
in the world and then they tend to
ignore or lump together those which are
deemed unimportant by their culture.
Spatial Orientations are when one
must remember or recall how to travel
from one place to another; incorporates
placing yourself in a geographical
context.
Orientation
Temporal Orientation allows
people to have a sense of their
place in time.
 Normative Orientation deals with
the understanding of moral values,
ideals, and principles which are
relative to one’s culture.
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Personality
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Personalities reflect the process of
enculturation for an individual their
personality refers to the distinctive
ways they think, feel, and behave.
Most anthropologists believe adult
personality is shaped by early
childhood experiences.
The economy helps structure the way
children are raised and this influences
their adult personalities.
Two Patterns of Child
Rearing
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Dependence training - promotes child
rearing practices that foster compliance in
the performance of assigned tasks and
dependence of the domestic group rather
than reliance on oneself.
Independence training –Child rearing
practices that foster independence, selfreliance, and personal achievement.
 Which best describes the United States?
Independence Training
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Common to industrial and postindustrial
societies where these traits
(independence & self reliance) are best
for success is not for survival.
Infants in these societies typically
spend less time with their parents than
in non-industrial societies.
Dependence Training
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This technique is common to nonindustrial societies where co-habitation
with extended families is a necessity.
Family members all actively work to
help and support each other, rather
than one doing the work for the whole
family.
Modal Personality
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The modal personality of a group is
defined as the body of character traits
that occur with the highest frequency in
a culturally bounded population.
Modal personality is a statistical
concept.
It opens up for investigation the
questions of how societies organize
diversity and how diversity relates to
culture change.
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This data is best collected by psychological
tests which are administered to a sample of
the population.
They are not intended to ascribe one
personality trait with an entire culture.
Highly objective data due to the fact that not
every culture defines certain characteristics
the same. Furthermore not every society
member may identify a trait in a similar
fashion.
National Character Studies
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Focused on the modal characteristics
of modern countries.
Many anthropologists believe national
character theories are based on
unscientific and overgeneralized data.
Although still debatable in their
relevance they did help to shift focus to
modern cultures as opposed to
traditional non-industrial small scale
societies.
Gender
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When there are only two biological sexes among
humans (male/female) how does one identifies
their personality and social identity if it does not
fit clearly into one of those sexes?
Many societies identify more than one sex (third
gender) and have developed special roles for
these individuals.
 Intersexual is a person born with reproductive
organs, genitalia, and/or sex chromosomes
that are not exclusively male or female.
Mental Disorders
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Despite odd or even rare cultural
practices it is possible for there to be
“abnormal” activities, thoughts, or
actions no matter what the culture.
Although each culture might identify the
disorder in a different capacity.
Culture Bound Syndrome or Ethic
psychosis- mental disorders specific
to particular ethnic groups.