Culture of Self and Personality

You have probably noticed that some people are very social and outgoing while others are very quiet and reserved. Some people seem to worry a lot while others never seem to get anxious. Each time we use words like social, outgoing, reserved or anxious to describe people around us, we are talking about a person’s personality.  Personality is one of the things that make us unique from one another.  Our personalities are thought to be long term, stable, and not easily changed (Caspi, Roberts, & Shiner, 2005) leading some psychologists argue that personality is heritable and biological.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the chapter, you should be able to:

1. Describe how identity is different from self.
2. Distinguish between personal self and social self.
3. Describe the three common characteristics of self-concept.
4. Distinguish between interdependent and independent.
5. Explain how culture impacts self and self-concept.
6. Distinguish between enhancement and effacement.
7. Explain how culture influences enhancement and effacement.
8. Identify the three criteria of personality.
9. Describe each of the Big Five personality traits, and the low and high end of the dimension.
10. Distinguish between cross-cultural psychology and indigenous perspectives of personality.
11. Distinguish between the two views of personality and culture.
12. Explain how personality is different than perspectives on self and personality.