Title: Personality and Culture (sample research paper)
Headings: Personality and Culture: Individualism Versus Collectivism
Personality and Culture: Individualism Versus Collectivism
RUNNING HEAD: Personality and Culture
ABSTRACT
Bibliography

Content: Individualism versus collectivism is one of the basic differences that have been described in varying national cultures. The individualism-collectivism framework, which describes factors such as how a culture views personal traits like independence, personal achievement, group, team and familial connections, egalitarian relationships and role flexibility, personal ownership of private property and the concept of personal space, and the human separation from the natural world, is often used to describe personality traits and differences between individuals of varying cultures (Hofstede, 2001). However, the connection between the individualism-collectivism framework and personality cannot be considered to be a simple connection; as noted by McCrae and Allik, this framework is often used to describe individual personality differences that are not in fact persistent across cultures, and may not be as uniform as the individualism-collectivism model would indicate. In short, personality may be influenced by the cultural factors at work, but there is no guarantee that the personality traits described by the individualism-collectivism framework will only, or even primarily, be influenced by cultural aspects. Common personal experiences may indicate that this is the case. For example, there are persistent personality differences between siblings in areas described by the individualism-collectivism framework, despite the fact that these siblings were usually raised not only in the same culture, but also in the same household. As such, it is not possible to attribute all of the factors described within the individualism-collectivism framework only to the cultural influence described. However, neither can it be said that the individual development of the personality is completely free of cultural influence, and as such it is necessary to consider this influence when considering the individual development of the personality. Consideration of the issue of the individualism-collectivism cultural framework in comparison to personality theories, including those of Erickson and Jung, creates a balance between the cultural individualism-collectivism framework and the personality theory that can describe the creation of the individual personality within this culture.