Geert Hofstede’s 4 Dimensions of Cultural Personality

Unit 3 Chapter 11 Part 6 Heritability: how much a trait within a population can be attributed to genetic influences and the extent individual genetic variation impacts differences in observed behavior ● The Big Five: about 50% rate of heritability across several cultures ● Variations in personality traits are about 30-50% inherited ● Environmental influences are about 50% variation in personality traits Personality Neuroscience: all persistent personality must be based on consistent functioning of specific brain areas Geert Hofstede’s 4 Dimensions of Cultural Personality 1. Individualism: loose ties between individuals, people look after themselves and immediately families only. Friends based on shared activities/interests and apart of many different loose social groups. Ex. U.S. Great Britian Collectivism: from birth deeply tied to strong in-groups and includes extended family. High loyalty to family before individual care. Few permanent groups with large influence over individual. Respect for the elderly and hierarchy. Ex. China, Japan, Korea 2. Power Distance: less powerful members accept power is in the hands of few rather than distributed. Ex. Philippines, Mexico, India high. Ex. U.S., Great Britian are low in power distance, so power is more distributed 3. Masculinity: assertive, competitive. Women not as these as men, which leads to great difference in sexes. Ex. U.S., Mexico, Great Britian. Femininity: modest and caring. Both men and women have these values. Ex. Thailand, Chile, Costa Rica 4. Uncertainty Avoidance: some more tolerant of uncertainty and unstructured situations with few rules, allow many different religious beliefs, less anxious and emotional. Ex. Hong Kong, Great Britian, U.S. Some don’t tolerate this lack of structure and have strict laws, rules, security, safety measures, and a philosophical/religious belief of “One Truth”. Ex. Japan, Greece, Peru Assessment of Personality: differ in the purpose for they are conducted ● Ex. Personality tests that want to learn about their personality vs. Clinical psychologists use these to diagnosis personality disorders Eclectic View: choosing parts of different theories that seem to best fit a particular situation rather than only using 1 to explain a phenomenon. Interviews: psychoanalysts, humanistic therapists ● Interview: professional asks questions of client ○ Unstructured: flow naturally dialogue between both people ○ Semi Structured: specific questions based on Indvidual response and guidance for follow up items ● Clients can lie or distort the truth for a socially acceptable answer ● Halo Effect: tendency to form a favorable/unfavorable impression of someone at the first meeting, so later comments and behaviors will have a positive or negative impression based on that first impression Projective Tests: psychoanalysts ● Ambiguous visual stimuli to client and asks to respond whatever comes to mind ● Hope that the client will project unconscious concerns onto visual stimulus ● Rorschach Inkblot Test: projective test of 10 inkblots as ambiguous stimuli and say first thing to come to mind. Psychologists score responses on key factors as reference to color, shape, figures, or reference to the whole ○ Used to describe personality, diagnose mental disorders, predict behavior ● TAT: 20 black and white ambiguous situation pictures and told to tell a story which will reveal client’s own problems onto the people in the pictures ● Sentence Completion Test: “I wish my mother....” “Every day I feel...” or draw ● Subjective: only valid within own person perception and influenced by experiences as the answers are interpreted like art, so problem in reliability (tendency to give the same score every time) and validity (ability to measure what is intended) and no standard grading scales and answers may differ from one day to the next or mood Behavioral Assessments: behavioral and social cognitive therapists ● Direct Observation: professional observes client in ordinary day-to-day behavior ○ Ex. Therapist observes child tantrum behavior in a class only when asked to do fine motor skills (writing) thus to avoid the difficult task ● Rating Scale: numerical value assigned to specific behavior ● Frequency Count: frequency of a particular behavior is counted within time limit ○ Both used to diagnose behavioral problem (ADHD), and social skill level ● The observer effect and observer bias, but controlled having many observers ● No control over the external environment, not catch in time, other problems Personality Inventories (16PF, MBTI): Trait theorists ● Paper-and-pencil or computerized test that has statements that require a specific standardized response. Everyone gets the same questions. More objective and reliable than projective tests ● MMPI-2-RF: questionnaire that tests for abnormal behavior and thinking patterns in personality and psychopathology ○ Best suited for objectively identifying abnormal patterns of behavior/thinking ■ Not influenced by personal feelings or experiences ○ Tool for mental health settings, vocational guidance and job screening for potential police officers, medical settings to help predict treatment effectiveness and outcomes for specific disorders and interventions ● Validity Scales: indicate if the person is responding honestly, to see if they are trying to make themselves look better or worse. People trying to “fake” the test will have difficulty responding to items consistently ○ MMPI-2-RF able to fake major depression, true chronic pain ● Advantage over others: standardized so observer bias is not possible, but may have variability in dialogistic suggestions based on computerized scoring ● Validity and reliability are superior to projective tests ○ Validity not perfect against cheating, response patterns can still be modified for socially acceptable ways, questions can be interpreted differently and be subject to cultural influences, habit of picking particular answer not carefully read the question or get tired and pick random answers