Title: Cultural Understandings of Personality – Psychology
Headings: 
Cultural Understandings of Personality
Learning Objectives
PERSONALITY IN INDIVIDUALIST AND COLLECTIVIST CULTURES
APPROACHES TO STUDYING PERSONALITY IN A CULTURAL CONTEXT
Summary
Critical Thinking Questions
Personal Application Questions
Glossary
License

Content: Cultural Understandings of Personality – Psychology
Personality
Cultural Understandings of Personality
OpenStaxCollege
[latexpage]
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section you should be able to: Discuss personality differences of people from collectivist and individualist cultures
Discuss the three approaches to studying personality in a cultural context
As you have learned in this chapter, personality is shaped by both genetic and environmental factors. The culture in which you live is one of the most important environmental factors that shapes your personality (Triandis & Suh, 2002). The term culture refers to all of the beliefs, customs, art, and traditions of a particular society. Culture is transmitted to people through language as well as through the modeling of culturally acceptable and nonacceptable behaviors that are either rewarded or punished (Triandis & Suh, 2002). With these ideas in mind, personality psychologists have become interested in the role of culture in understanding personality. They ask whether personality traits are the same across cultures or if there are variations. It appears that there are both universal and culture-specific aspects that account for variation in people’s personalities. Why might it be important to consider cultural influences on personality? Western ideas about personality may not be applicable to other cultures (Benet-Martinez & Oishi, 2008).