Culture is a broad term encompassing many elements of a society. Those may include traditions, religions, languages, and other common understandings. Concisely described, culture is the visible manifestation of collective human intellectual achievement. The individual personality emerges from within a cultural context as a unique person, often expressing various aspects of their personality dependent on the context and salient cues (Lewis-Fernández, & Kleinman, 1994).
The relationship between culture and personality has been the subject of controversy for many years. Understanding the diverse cultures of the world need to central to understanding personality development before psychopathology, and the field of psychology can be a force for positive social change, at the roots of society – clinicians only heal social symptoms such as growing divorce rates, increased teenage aggression and shootings, or family degradation (Lewis-Fernández, & Kleinman, 1994).
Ties Between Culture and Personality
There are eight perspectives used to approach understanding the relationship culture has on personality; they are also the eight perspectives used to understand the personality construct. Those approaches are the Psychoanalytic approach, the Neo-Analytic approach, the biological/evolutionary approach, the behaviorist approach, the cognitive approach, the trait approach, the humanistic approach, and the interactionist approach (Friedman & Schustack, 2016, pp. 260-269). While these eight perspectives were formed over the years, the field of personality science is not decelerating; there might be more perspectives in the future as technology continues to assist medical and psychological inquiries into the mind.
One benefit of understanding personality through these perspectives is the opportunity to determine which theory works best with various expressions of personality.
It is important to consider the gender variable when considering these cultural influences. Each perspective offers a different opinion on how culture influences men and women.
Three Approaches to Culture and Personality
The behaviorist perspective flows naturally with cultural variations in personality due to its reinforcement contingencies which are unique to each environment and produce altered behavior per situation. Likewise, the cognitive perspective works well in adapting to cultural variations due to the individual’s cognition and understanding of their environment, which are paramount in the development of their personality and the way they interact with their society.
The interactionists perspective of personality also incorporates cultural elements better than most other perspectives. “Culture is a collection of common situations; but behavior cannot be understood without a simultaneous focus on the particular individual in the particular situation” (Friedman & Schusack, 2016). Gordon Allport expressed the importance of being aware of cultural influences on personality and gave the example that there would be very little confusion between a Viennese and a Vietnamese or a Venetian, “as their culture provides each with ready-made ways of approaching their lives” (Friedman & Schusack, 2016).
Best and Worst Perspectives
The psychoanalytical, biological and trait perspectives are not as successful with incorporating cultural elements in their perspectives of personality. Both the psychoanalytical and biological perspectives contain limitations such as diminishing environmental and societal that are important to consider as a holistic view of the developing personality. Although the trait perspective has met with some success cross-culturally, it has met with some limitations primarily in that the traits factored are cognitively valued differently by different cultures, which inherently diminishes its perspective (Cheung, et. al., 2011).
References
Cheung, F. M., Van de Vijver, F. J., & Leong, F. T. (2011, October). Toward a new approach to the study of personality in culture. American Psychologist, 66(7), 593-603. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0022389
Friedman, H. S. & Schustack, M. W. (2016). Personality: Classic theories and modern research (6th ed.). MA: Pearson
Lewis-Fernández, R., & Kleinman, A. (1994). Culture, personality, and psychopathology. Journal Of Abnormal Psychology, 103(1), 67-71. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.103.1.67
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