25 Culture and personality: conceptions of self Flashcards
What did Gurven et al. (2013) find when testing Big 5 on the Tsimane tribe in Bolivia?
Could not replicate Big 5. Didn’t find 5 factors.
What did Gurven et al. (2013) conclude about the universality of the Big 5?
It works when restricted to literate, urban populations –which is not representative of most of human history.
What is the reference group effect and how does it relate to the Big 5?
People rate themselves on traits compared to those around them. Eg. in Brazil, a quite social person might rate themselves not very social compared to very social population
What is a better predictor of conscientiousness within a country – national perception of culture (stereotypes) or score on Big 5?
National perception of culture, as Big 5 scores are confounded by reference group effect.
What’s the difference between independent and interdependent self?
Independent self – self as autonomous, socially independent entity. Self consists of internal attributes that are stable across situations.
Interdependent self –self as a socially interdependent entity (e.g., son, teacher). Sense of self consists of social relationships that are flexible across situations.
How did FMRI scans of Chinese and American participants demonstrate different perception of self-other relationship?
In both Chinese and American students, thoughts of self resulted in greater activation of medial prefrontal cortex (relative to thinking of a stranger.)
Only in Chinese did thinking of mother also activate MPC.
How can the independent/interdependent self distinction be implicated in ways individuals think about themselves.
Independents – value consistency of self-concept across situations.
Interdependents – restrain personality to avoid disharmony
Independents –a quest to validate internal positive attributes
Do Westerners derive more benefits than East Asians for being consistent?
Yep. There was greater correlation between consistency and well-being, social skills and likeability for Americans than Koreans.
How did discrepancy between real and ideal-self vary between Americans and Japanese in front of mirror or not?
Real-actual discrepancy was the same for Japanese irrespective of mirror.
American real-actual discrepancy was significantly less than Japanese in no mirror condition, but the same as Japanese when mirror added.
