The genetic and evolutionary basis of personality.

The Big Five personality structure has been explained as a universal human adaptation developed in the common struggle for survival. The Big Five is seen from this functional perspective as a universal psychological mechanism important in solving problems between members of a culture and adapting to the sociocultural and physical environment. For example the trait “conscientiousness” may help individuals in monitoring the environment and thereby avoid punishing outcomes or alternatively help the individual to persevere toward important goals in tasks that have no intrinsic reward (McDonald, 1998). At the same time the presence of universal personality structure does not negate the importance of cultural affects. Culture can influence the mean levels of personality traits, some of the big Five traits measured high in some societies and low in others. In the final analysis it is culture that create the specific context that shapes personality and produces the behaviors that allows individuals to reach universal affective goals like satisfying the need for intimacy (McCrae, Del-Pilar, & Rolland, 1998).

8.1.9 Is national character a psychological reality?

Personality traits vary among individuals. The work on the Big Five traits shows that they vary also between countries and cultures while at the same time indicating little trait variance within the culture. The similarity within nations and cultures support the presence of what has been called national character. People have perceptions about the modal or average personality of people living in different countries and cultures also called national character. Research shows that national stereotypes are part of the discourse all over the world. Peabody (1985) sought to make a distinction between national stereotypes that he argued were often irrational or incorrect and national character that contained more valid descriptions of the population. In his research he found that nations differed on some traits, for example whether members of a culture were assertive or unassertive, lending support to the concept of national character. TerracianoAbdel-Khalek, Adam, Adamovova, Ahn and Ahn, (2005) asked thousands of respondents in 49 cultures to describe the “typical member” of that society. The results yielded a high agreement about perceptions of national character, yet these stereotypes did not correlate with the actual personality traits of members of the same cultural groups. So the question might be logically asked, why do people maintain stereotypes about themselves and others? The answer according to Terraciano et al, is that stereotypes help maintain national identity and the self-worth of the national group.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 866