Personality and culture studies have largely disappeared since the 1960s, but progress in trait psychology makes their revival feasible. A review of evidence on the consensual validity, longitudinal stability, heritability, and structure of personality traits suggests new approaches to old issues. At the transcultural level, claims of universality are addressed. At the intercultural level, associations are sought between mean levels of personality traits and corresponding culture-level variables; cultural institutions may be either causes or effects of personality. At the intracultural level, culture-specific manifestations of universal traits are documented. The new discipline of personality traits and culture draws on multiple methodologies to understand human nature in social context.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adorno, T. W. , Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1969). The authoritarian personality. New York: Norton. (Original work published 1950)
2.
Asturias, M. Á . (1993). Men of maize (G. Martin, Trans.). Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. (Original work published 1949)
3.
Benedict, R. F. (1934). Patterns of culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
4.
Berry, J. W. (1967). Independence and conformity in subsistence-level societies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 7, 415-418.
5.
Berry, J. W. (1969). On cross-cultural comparability. International Journal of Psychology, 4, 119-128.
6.
Bock, P. K. (Ed.). (1994). Handbook of psychological anthropology. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
7.
Bond, R. , & Smith, P. B. (1996). Culture and conformity: A meta-analysis of studies using Asch's (1952b, 1956) line judgment task. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 111-137.
8.
Brown, D. E. (1991). Human universals. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
9.
Butcher, J. N. , & Han, K. (1996). Methods of establishing cross-cultural equivalence. In J. N. Butcher (Ed.), International adaptations of the MMPI-2: A handbook of research and clinical applications (pp. 44-63). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
10.
Cheung, F. M. , Leung, K., Fan, R. M., Song, W. Z., Zhang, J. X., & Zhang, J. P. (1996). Development of the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 27, 181-199.
11.
Costa, P. T., Jr. , & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.
12.
Costa, P. T., Jr. , & McCrae, R. R. (1994). “Set like plaster”? Evidence for the stability of adult personality. In T. Heatherton & J. Weinberger (Eds.), Can personality change? (pp. 21-40). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
13.
D'Andrade, R. B. (1965). Trait psychology and componential analysis. American Anthropologist, 67, 215-228.
14.
Digman, J. M. (1990). Personality structure: Emergence of the five-factor model. Annual Review of Psychology, 41, 417-440.
15.
Digman, J. M. , & Takemoto-Chock, N. K. (1981). Factors in the natural language of personality: Re-analysis, comparison, and interpretation of six major studies. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 16, 149-170.
16.
Dixon, R.M. W. (1977). Where have all the adjectives gone?Studies in Language, 1, 19-80.
17.
Draguns, J. G. , Krilova, A. V., Oryol, V. E., Rukavishnikov, A. A., & Martin, T. A. (1998, August). Personality characteristics of the Nentsy in the Russian Arctic. Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco.
18.
DuBois, C. (1944). The people of Alor. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
19.
Eley, T. , & Plomin, R. (1997). Genetic analysis of emotionality. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 7, 279-284.
20.
Ember, M. (1997). Evolution of the Human Relations Area Files. Cross-Cultural Research, 31, 3-15.
21.
Epstein, S. (1979). The stability of behavior: I. On predicting most of the people much of the time. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1097-1126.
22.
Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: Norton.
23.
Eysenck, H. J. (1952). The effects of psychotherapy: An evaluation. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 16, 319-324.
24.
Funder, D. C. , Kolar, D. C., & Blackman, M. C. (1995). Agreement among judges of personality: Interpersonal relations, similarity, and acquaintanceship. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 656-672.
25.
Georgas, J. , & Berry, J. W. (1995). An ecocultural taxonomy for cross-cultural psychology. Cross-Cultural Research: The Journal of Comparative Social Science, 29, 121-157.
26.
Gergen, K. J. , Gulerce, A., Lock, A., & Misra, G. (1996). Psychological science in cultural context. American Psychologist, 51, 496-503.
27.
Hall, E. T. (1959). The silent language. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
28.
Harkness, A. R. , & Lilienfeld, S. O. (1997). Individual differences science for treatment planning: Personality traits. Psychological Assessment, 9, 349-360.
29.
Harris, J. R. (1998). The nurture assumption: Why children turn out the way they do. New York: Free Press.
30.
Hoffman, L. W. (1991). The influence of the family environment on personality: Accounting for sibling differences. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 187-203.
31.
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
32.
Huang, C. D. , Church, A. T., & Katigbak, M. S. (1997). Identifying cultural differences in items and traits: Differential item functioning in the NEO Personality Inventory. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 28, 192-218.
33.
Jang, K. L. , McCrae, R. R., Angleitner, A., Riemann, R., & Livesley, W. J. (1998). Heritability of facet-level traits in a cross-cultural twin study: Support for a hierarchical model of personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1556-1565.
34.
Juni, S. (1996). Review of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. In J. C. Conoley & J. C. Impara (Eds.), 12th mental measurements yearbook (pp. 863-868). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
35.
Kagan, J. , & Moss, H. A. (1962). From birth to maturity. New York: John Wiley.
36.
Kardiner, A. (1939). The individual and his society. New York: Columbia University Press.
37.
Kenrick, D. T. , & Funder, D. C. (1988). Profiting from controversy: Lessons from the person-situation debate. American Psychologist, 43, 23-34.
38.
Konner, M. (1991). Human nature and culture: Biology and the residue of uniqueness. In J. J. Sheehan & M. Sosna (Eds.), The boundaries of humanity: Humans, animals, machines (pp. 103-124). Berkeley: University of California Press.
39.
Konner, M. (1995). Anthropology and psychiatry. In H. I. Kaplan & B. J. Saddock (Eds.), Comprehensive textbook of psychiatry/VI (Vol. 1, pp. 337-356). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
40.
Kwan, V.S. Y. , Bond, M. H., & Singelis, T. M. (1997). Pancultural explanations for life satisfaction: Adding relationship harmony to self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1038-1051.
41.
Lillard, A. (1998). Ethnopsychologies: Cultural variations in theories of mind. Psychological Bulletin, 123, 3-32.
42.
Loehlin, J. C. (1992). Genes and environment in personality development. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
43.
Lonner, W. J. (1980). The search for psychological universals. In H. C. Triandis & W. W. Lambert (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology. Vol. 1: Perspectives (pp. 143-204). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
44.
Malinowski, B. (1964). Sex and repression in savage society. Cleveland, OH: Meridian Books. (Original work published 1927)
45.
McAdams, D. P. (1992). The five-factor model in personality: A critical appraisal. Journal of Personality, 60, 329-361.
46.
McClelland, D. C. (1961). The achieving society. New York: Free Press.
47.
McCrae, R. R. (1990). Traits and trait names: How well is Openness represented in natural languages?European Journal of Personality, 4, 119-129.
48.
McCrae, R. R. (1996). Social consequences of experiential openness. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 323-337.
49.
McCrae, R. R. , & Costa, P. T., Jr. (1985). Updating Norman's “adequate taxonomy”: Intelligence and personality dimensions in natural language and in questionnaires. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 710-721.
50.
McCrae, R. R. , & Costa, P. T., Jr. (1996). Toward a new generation of personality theories: Theoretical contexts for the five-factor model. In J. S. Wiggins (Ed.), The five-factor model of personality: Theoretical perspectives (pp. 51-87). New York: Guilford.
51.
McCrae, R. R. , & Costa, P. T., Jr. (1997). Personality trait structure as a human universal. American Psychologist, 52, 509-516.
52.
McCrae, R. R. , & Costa, P. T., Jr. (1999). A five-factor theory of personality. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed. pp. 139-153). New York: Guilford.
53.
McCrae, R. R. , Costa, P. T., Jr., del Pilar, G. H., Rolland, J. P., & Parker, W. D. (1998). Cross-cultural assessment of the five-factor model: The Revised NEO Personality Inventory. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 29, 171-188.
54.
McCrae, R. R. , Costa, P. T., Jr., de Lima, M. P., Simões, A., Ostendorf, F., Angleitner, A., Marušić, I., Bratko, D., Caprara, G. V., Barbaranelli, C., Chae, J. H., & Piedmont, R. L. (1999). Age differences in personality across the adult lifespan: Parallels in five cultures. Developmental Psychology, 35, 466-477.
55.
McCrae, R. R. , & John, O. P. (1992). An introduction to the five-factor model and its applications. Journal of Personality, 60, 175-215.
56.
McCrae, R. R. , Yik, M.S.M., Trapnell, P. D., Bond, M. H., & Paulhus, D. L. (1998). Interpreting personality profiles across cultures: Bilingual, acculturation, and peer rating studies of Chinese undergraduates. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1041-1055.
57.
Miller, J. G. (1997). The interdependence of interpretive ethnographic and quantitative psychological methodologies in cultural psychology. Ethos, 25, 164-176.
58.
Miller, J. G. (1999). Cultural psychology: Implications for basic psychological theory. Psychological Science, 10, 85-91.
59.
Mischel, W. (1968). Personality and assessment. New York: John Wiley.
60.
Molina, M.A.N. (1996). Archetypes and spirits: A Jungian analysis of Puerto Rican espiritismo. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 41, 227-244.
61.
Naroll, R. , Michik, G. L., & Naroll, F. (1980). Holocultural research methods. In J. W. Berry (Ed.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology. Vol. 2: Methodology (pp. 479-521). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
62.
Ojha, H. , & Jha, C. N. (1991). Personality pattern of Hindu and Muslim college students. Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient, 34, 248-253.
63.
Ostendorf, F. (1990). Sprache und persönlichkeitsstruktur: Zur validität des fünf-faktoren-modells der persönlichkeit [Language and personality structure: Toward the validation of the five-factor model of personality]. Regensburg, Germany: S. Roderer Verlag.
64.
Paranjpe, A. (1997). Piles of data that contribute little to the mutual understanding of cultures: The papers presented at the Pamplona Congress of IACCP. Cross-Cultural Psychology Bulletin, 31(2), 11-17.
65.
Paunonen, S. V. , Keinonen, M., Trzebinski, J., Forsterling, F., Grishenko-Roze, N., Kouznetsova, L., & Chan, D. W. (1996). The structure of personality in six cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 27, 339-353.
66.
Pettigrew, T. F. (1997). Personality and social structure: Social psychological contributions. In R. Hogan, J. A. Johnson, & S. R. Briggs (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology (pp. 417-438). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
67.
Piedmont, R. L. , & Chae, J. H. (1997). Cross-cultural generalizability of the five-factor model of personality: Development and validation of the NEO-PI-R for Koreans. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 28, 131-155.
68.
Poortinga, Y. H. (1998). Cultural diversity and psychological invariance: Methodological and theoretical dilemmas of (cross-) cultural psychology. In J. G. Adair, D. Béanger, & K. L. Dion (Eds.), Advances in psychological science (Vol. 1, pp. 229-246). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
69.
Redfield, R. (1957). The universally human and the culturally variable. Journal of General Education, 10, 150-160.
70.
Riemann, R. , Angleitner, A., & Strelau, J. (1997). Genetic and environmental influences on personality: A study of twins reared together using the self-and peer report NEO-FFI scales. Journal of Personality, 65, 449-475.
71.
Rohner, R. P. (1986). The warmth dimension: Foundations of parental acceptance-rejection theory. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
72.
Rothbaum, F. , & Xu, X. (1995). The theme of giving back to parents in Chinese and American songs. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 26, 698-713.
73.
Rowe, D. C. (1994). The limits of family influence: Genes, experience, and behavior. New York: Guilford.
74.
Shweder, R. A. (1975). How relevant is an individual difference theory of personality?Journal of Personality, 43, 455-484.
75.
Shweder, R. A. (1997). The surprise of ethnography. Ethos, 25, 152-163.
76.
Shweder, R. A. , & Sullivan, M. A. (1990). The semiotic subject of cultural psychology. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 399-416). New York: Guilford.
77.
Singer, M. (1961). A survey of culture and personality theory and research. In B. Kaplan (Ed.), Studying personality cross-culturally (pp. 9-90). Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson.
78.
Strelau, J. , & Angleitner, A. (1994). Cross-cultural studies on temperament: Theoretical considerations and empirical studies based on the Pavlovian Temperament Survey. Personality and Individual Differences, 16, 331-342.
79.
Suinn, R. M. , & Oskamp, S. (1969). The predictive validity of projective measures: A fifteen year evaluative review of research. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas.
80.
Sulloway, F. J. (1991). Reassessing Freud's case histories: The social construction of psychoanalysis. Isis, 82, 245-275.
81.
Triandis, H. C. (1994). Culture and social behavior. New York: McGraw-Hill.
82.
Triandis, H. C. (1997). Cross-cultural perspectives on personality. In R. Hogan, J. A. Johnson, & S. R. Briggs (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology (pp. 439-464). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
83.
Van de Vijver, F.J.R. , & Leung, K. (1997). Methods and data analysis for cross-cultural research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
84.
Van de Vijver, F.J.R. , & Poortinga, Y. H. (1997). Toward an integrated analysis of bias in crosscultural assessment. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 13, 29-37.
85.
Weber, M. (1930). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (T. Parsons, Trans.). New York: Scribner.
86.
Whiting, B. B. (1950). Paiute sorcery. New York: Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology.
87.
Whiting, J.W.M. , & Child, I. L. (1953). Child training and personality: A cross-cultural study. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
88.
Willey, G. R. , & Shimkin, D. B. (1973). The Maya collapse: A summary view. In T. P. Culbert (Ed.), The Classic Maya collapse (pp. 457-501). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
89.
Wright, R. (1991). Time among the Maya: Travels in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico. New York: Henry Holt.
