More to Personality Than We Think : A Cultural Perspective

 

Personality is defined as persistent traits, interests, motivations, values, self-concept, and emotional patterns that make up a person's particular way of adjusting to life. Different theories have varied explanations for the origin and structure of personality but they all concur that personality influences behaviour. Although some people might tend to believe that we have complete control over our personalities, the truth is that many factors outside of our control have an impact. One such factor is culture.

The culture of a place is the distinctive customs, values, beliefs, knowledge, and language of a society or a community. These values and concepts are passed on from generation to generation and are the basis for everyday behaviours and practices. Since culture affects every area of our lives, we may look at many cultural factors when studying personality. However, a few key elements stand out and have been the focus of much psychological research. These are religion, race, gender, and age. People who are born and raised in the same culture share common behavioural characteristics is one of the generalisations that support the notion that culture has an impact on personality. For example, people from the Gujarati culture are said to be good at business and are inclined towards a money-making mindset due to which they are wealthy but contradictorily misers. It is also seen that people of the same culture tend to trust other people of similar cultures because they like what they see. For instance, we often think of persons who are similar to us as being more dependable, kind, and honest than those who are not (Brewer, 1999).

According to the father of Anthropology, Franz Boas, the source of an individual’s personality is culture and not biology (Sincero & Sincero, n.d.). His theory of "Cultural Relativism" explains the fundamental connection between culture and personality. This theory states that one’s culture is best known by the culture itself and no one else. And culture forms the basis of a person’s identity and personality. Primitive societies apart from civilized ones have very strong traces of shared personality traits. Ruth Benedict, the disciple of Boas, wrote a book called ‘Patterns of Culture’ where she elaborated on a study she did compare the cultural traits of a group of Indians living off the coast of Papua New Guinea as well as 2 distinct northern American Indian tribes. Her results show that although sharing a similar genetic makeup, these populations' value systems are very different. For instance, the definition of a "good guy" varies from tribe to tribe (Sincero & Sincero, n.d.)

Looking at more individualistic cultures and those that are more collectivistic can be a wonderful approach to seeing how culture can affect personality. Individualistic cultures tend to produce more idiocentric or self-centred individuals. Such individuals display traits such as emotional distance, competitiveness, self-reliance and higher self-esteem. The United States, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, and Australia are a few nations with individualistic cultures.

Allocentric behaviour, or focusing one's attention on others, is more prevalent among people in collectivist cultures. They show traits such as sociability, empathy, ease of embarrassment and lower self-esteem. Collectivism is far more prevalent in some nations such as China, Japan, Indonesia, India, Ghana, and Guatemala. Countries that practise collectivism will design their social systems to support the community, family, and society as a whole rather than the individual.

There might be personality differences even within a collectivistic or individualistic cultural group. Collectivism, for instance, might be horizontal like in Israel's kibbutz or vertical like in India. Vertical collectivist cultures may produce people who are more obedient to authority and conventional in their behaviour. Emotional intelligence, teamwork, and social skills are traits of horizontal collectivist cultural groups.

Cultural relativism although a theory from the past has some truth in it. As we develop during our childhood, behaviours such as manners and morals are ingrained in us that shape us to become who we are today. For example, the people of japan are known for their hospitality and politeness when it comes to mannerisms. This can be seen as forming perfect queues at train stations to greeting every individual with a bow. According to one study, Chinese people are more likely than Germans to overlook deception if it helps someone maintain their self-respect. It has been observed that Japanese people have more respectful personalities compared to Americans, who tend to have superior and egotistical traits.

Another major aspect of culture is gender. The term "gender" is distinctly cultural and refers to the expected behaviours or patterns of conduct for men and women in a particular culture or civilization. We all must’ve experienced or heard someone we know experience gender-based biases in their daily life. Statements like men are supposed to be tough and earn for their families while women should learn how to cook and clean are something that is taught to Indian children from an early age. Learning these things from aunties and uncles leads to developing a submissive personality in women and a dominant one in men. We try to fit into these societal personality expectations and constant inculcation of these values ends up getting ingrained subconsciously which eventually becomes a part of our core personality. But is it true today? 

In the 21st-century gender equality, trends have caused western and civilized cultures to adapt to more open and accepting forms of personality traits based on gender. Men can be emotional and vulnerable while women can be hard working, money minded and independent. 

One reason why I feel personality traits have been more open to change when it comes to culture is due to innovations in technology. We as a generation are more in touch with other cultures and their way of living. We see other people live out different lives on social media for instance and then their way of living overpowers our cultural impacts on personality. This, in my opinion, is a positive outlook on the development of the personality because it means that now I as a woman am not being obstructed to unleash my full potential when it comes to personality due to outdated cultural customs. Although the modernisation of personality to a certain level is a boon, certain cultural traits such as respect for elders, moral value inculcation and the cooperative and helpful nature of our culture is a positive aspects of cultural impacts on personality.

About the author

Muskaan Kalaria is a second-year student pursuing a BSc in Psychology at NMIMS SDSOS. She is passionate about creating art which is expressed in the form of painting, graphic designing and writing. Her passion for writing started as a method of expressing herself which later progressed into devotion towards scientific reading and writing. She enjoys her free time listening to music along with exploring and reading about topics that fascinate her.

Reference 

Brewer, M. B. (1999). The Psychology of Prejudice: Ingroup Love and Outgroup Hate? Journal of Social Issues, 55(3), 429–444. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00126 

Sincero, S. M., & Sincero, S. M. (n.d.). Does culture affect our personality? - Individual Traits and Culture. https://explorable.com/culture-and-personality