CULTURE AND PERSONALITY:
BASIC CONCEPTS: culture & cultural syndromes
CULTURE & PERSONALITY: Benet-Martinez’s
work
2 Approaches:
Lexical / Taxonomic
Socio-cognitive
One of my favorite quotes ….
Every person is in certain respects
a) like all other people,
b) like some other person,
c) like no other person.
(Kluckhohn & Murray, 1948)
GENERAL QUESTIONS:
As people of varying cultures and ethnicities, how
are we different and how are we alike?
How do culture and ethnicity shape our identities
and personalities?
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).
Useful metaphor -> culture = game rules
Culture  Race or Ethnicity
Question for the class:
Who can explain the differences between these?
Cultural Syndromes
(TAXONOMY OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCES)
2 basic dimensions of cultural difference: (Hofstede, 1983)
• Individualism/Collectivism: extent to which the self is
defined as a bound and separate (vs. fluid and interdependent).
• Independent/Interdependent Selves (Markus & Kitayama, 1991)
•Vertical/Horizontal Relationships: emphasis on hierarchy and
status versus equality
SELF
INDEPENDENT SELF
SELF
INTER-DEPENDENT SELF
VERTICAL
USA
India
COLLECTIVISTIC
INDIVIDUALISTIC
Israel?
Sweden
HORIZONTAL
Culture & Personality:
Benet-Martinez’s studies
Two different approaches:
(1) LEXICAL/TAXONOMIC
Basic dimensions of personality in Spanish?
(2) SOCIO-COGNITIVE
Modeling Biculturalism in the Laboratory
CULTURE AND PERSONALITY:
(1) PSYCHO-LEXICAL
Key idea: Language as a window to the ‘personality’ of a
particular culture
My work: Exploration of basic dimensions of personality
description in different languages
Method: ‘Combined emic-etic’ approach; factor analysis
(1) LEXICAL APPROACH
Natural language as a window to study cultural
universals/differences in personality
FUNDAMENTAL LEXICAL HYPOTHESIS:
Those psychological constructs that are the most salient and socially relevant in
people’s lives will eventually become encoded into their language; the more
important is such construct: (1) the more likely it is to be expressed as a single
word and be overepresented in the language; and (2) the more languages and
cultures will have a word for it.
(Goldberg, 1982)
Are the English Big Five (Seven) cross-culturally
robust?
Yes in Spanish (using translated American measures)
(JPSP: Benet-Martinez & Waller, 1995; JPSP: Benet-Martinez & John, 1998)
NEED FOR ANOTHER STUDY THAT:
(1) Identifies the basic indigenous dimensions of personality
description in Spanish
(2) Assesses the overlap/specificity between these indigenous
Spanish dimensions and the American Big 7.
(1) LEXICAL APPROACH
Exploring Indigenous Spanish Personality Constructs with
a Combined Emic-Etic Approach
(Benet-Martinez & Waller, 1997; Benet-Martinez, 2000)
GOALS OF THE STUDIES:
(1) To identify the basic indigenous dimensions of personality description in Spanish
(2) To assess the overlap/specificity between these indigenous Spanish dimensions
and the American Big 7
COMBINED ETIC/EMIC APPROACH (Yang & Bond, 1990)
EMIC APPROACH: Reliance on indigenous measures or models
--> in this study: self-reports on 299 indigenous Spanish personality adjectives from the
dictionary
PLUS
ETIC APPROACH: Reliance on imported measures of models
--> in this study: self-reports on Spanish-translated Big Seven and Big Five questionnaires
Sample
N = 894 college students from Spain who completed both emic and etic measures
Results from factor analysis of emic measure:
7 INDIGENOUS SPANISH PERSONALITY
DIMENSIONS
Examples
of marker items (translated from
Spanish)
POSITIVE VALENCE
NEGATIVE VALENCE
Amazing
Superior
Formidable
Resplendent
Not special
Mediocre
62
58
56
56
-35
-40
43
41
41
39
39
38
Sickening
Terrifying
Filthy
Greasy
Cruel
Wicked
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
AGREEABLENESS
Well-balanced
64
Moderate
54
Reasonable
53
Hasty
-42
Reckless
-43
Crazy
-49
Easy-going
Good-natured
Docile
Stormy
Unreconciling
Unyielding
54
49
46
-45
-47
-48
OPENNESS
Bohemian
Mystical
Quaint
Gossiping
Disclosing
Nosy
38
40
42
-36
-34
-30
PLEASANTNESS
Happy
Engergetic
Relaxed
Stressed
Depressed
Unhappy
54
53
48
–53
–54
–56
ENGAGEMENT
Ardent
Seething
Intense
Cold
Idle
Unemotional
43
36
35
-34
-30
-37
CIRCUMPLEX MODEL OF AFFECT
Aroused
Engagement
Fearful
Hi Negative
Affect
Hi Positive Enthusiastic
Affect
Sad Unpleasantness
Pleasantness Happy
Lo Positive
Sluggish Affect
Lo Negative
Affect Calm
Disengagement
Sleepy
Adapted from Larsen & Diener (1992)
PLEASANTNESS & ENGAGEMENT in
Spain:
Gran placer y poco duelo es el deseo de todo
hombre.
(Much pleasure and little pain is every man’s desire)
--Spanish proverb
Spaniards ..... passion is the seed that brings them
forth, and passion is the flower they bear.
--George Orwell (Homage to Catalonia)
ALMODOVAR’S FILMS:
A celebration of pleasure/pain and passion
Kinder, M. (1987). Pleasure and the New Spanish Mentality: A Conversation With
Pedro Almodovar. Film Quarterly, vol 41.1, 33 - 44.
Pally, M. (1991). The Politics of Passion: Pedro Almodovar and the Camp Esthetic.
Cineaste Magazine, vol 12 issue 3.
OVERLAP BETWEEN THE INDIGENOUS (EMIC) SPANISH PERSONALITY
DIMENSIONS AND IMPORTED (ETIC) BIG 7 INVENTORY
INDIGENOUS SPANISH BIG 7
IMPORTED BIG 7
Pos. Valence
Positive
Valence
Negative Agreable- Conscien- Openness Pleasant- EngageValence ness
tiousness
ness
ment
79
Neg. Valence
47
Agreeableness
71
Conscientious.
60
Openness
22
Extraversion
75
-43
Neuroticism
Average
Off-Diagonal
Correlations
(19)
(07)
(10)
(25)
(11)
(20)
45
40
(09)
CONCLUSIONS FROM STUDIES:
(1) There is considerable overlap between the Spanish Siete
Grandes and the American Big 7
(1b) Exception: Pleasantness and Engagement (instead of E &
N)
(2) Positive and Negative Valence seem fairly robust across
these two cultures.