Write a short response to two essays. (50-100 words)

Write a short response to two essays. (50-100 words)

Respond to these two short essay in one or more of the following ways: (50-100 words for each)

• Ask a probing question.
• Share an insight from having read your colleague’s posting.
• Offer and support an opinion.
• Validate an idea with your own experience.
• Make a suggestion.
• Expand on your colleague’s posting.

Essay1 ( Write a 50-100 words response)

Two Universal Personality Traits

As outlined by McCrae (2002), there are five universal personality traits known as the Five Factor Model that include the following: Openness to Experience, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness. Two of the traits that I will briefly summarize include: Openness to Experience and Extraversion. Openness to Experience is the ability to be able to receive new ideas and think outside the box. It further looks at values, promoting harmony, tolerance, justice and equality. It also leads to gains in knowledge and skills. These traits are known to produce strong, creative, passionate team leaders. (Schmitt, Realo, Voracek, Alik, 2008). Extroversion is the process by which one values excitement and stimulation from the outside of the family. Extroverts are assertive, sociable, direct and straightforward. They are known to be charismatic and are people pleasers and people engagers. (Matsumoto, 2001).

For the Japanese culture, the two personality traits that come to mind is that of shame and self-control. People in Japan are concerned about how their actions affect others and avoid making mistakes. Further, they do not want to cause trouble for others, which often lead people in Japan to put up with situations that they are not really happy about them. Their demeanour is one of calmness, and self-control as they tend to plan ahead and think through situations.

In the Croatian Culture, the values that the people hold sacred are the hardworking trait and the family-oriented characteristic. The direct form of communication is valued as is diplomacy. (Mlacic, Goldberg, 2007). One’s comfort level and quality of the relationship will determine how direct someone will be. If the relationship has not been formed well, then people will not be as forthcoming and will keep to themselves

With the readings this week, it has become quite apparent that culture has a tremendous amount of impact on the development of personalities. In addition, heredity and environment play an important role in shaping one’s personality and to determine who the individual will turn out to be in the future. (Schmitt, Realo, Voracek, Allik, 2008). Specifically, parents influence personality through their level of education, religious orientation, socio-economic background, age and career choice. For example, a parent who is a university graduate will model for their children the importance of pursuing further education in order to succeed whereby another parent who values a strong work ethic and who are from a poorer socioeconomic background may instill a need to finish high school and work in order to help support the family.

The Big Five personality factors influence various cultural milieus and affect both individualism and collectivism. (Triandis, Suh ,2002). However, there should be caution exerted for this universality and more research is needed to identify culture specific traits known as emic traits in many cultures. There are tests that have been known to measure this universality such as: The Personality Profiles of Cultures (PPOC) Project and the NEO-PI-R. (Terracciano, McCrae, 2006)

The importance of recognizing that each culture holds their own values, moral, beliefs and has instilled through their environment and genes various personality and culture specific traits that accurately assess the situation or people is important to ponder.

Becoming more knowledgeable about what the personality and culture specific traits are in each person’s culture prior to making any inferences and conclusions, as well as educating oneself about different cultures, having information translated in many languages, ensuring that the information captures various cultural backgrounds and experiences, (Triandis, Suh, 2002) and obtaining all the facts and information required with standardized testing and measurement to accurately reflect what is occurring. Lastly, ascertaining if the same psychological constructs are found in culturally diverse populations and are traits organized in a similar fashion across cultures are areas that a scholar practitioner needs to keep at the forefront.

References

Alik, J., Realo, A., Mottus, R.,Borkenau, P.,Kuppens,P., & Hrebickova, M. (2010).How people

See others is different from how people semselves: A replicable pattern across

cultures. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 99(5), 870-882.

Matsumoto, D. (Ed.). (2001). The handbook of culture and psychology. New York, NY:

Oxford University Press.

McCrae, R.R. (2002). Cross-cultural research on the five-factor model of personality. In W.J.

Lonner, D.L. Dinnel, S.A. Hayes, & D.N. Satler (Eds), Online Readings in Psychology

and Culture (UnitChapterRetrievedhttps://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcntent.cgi?artic

le=1038&context=orpc.

McCrae, R.R., Terracciano, A., DeFruyt, F., De Fruyt, F., De Bolle, M., Gelfand, M. J., & Costa

Jr.,P.T. (2010). The Validity and structure of culture-level personality scores: Data from

ratings of young adolescents. Journal of Personality, 78(3), 815-838.

Mlacic B, Goldberg L (2007). An Analysis of a Cross-Cultural Personality Inventory: The IPIP

Big-Factor Markers in Croatia. Institute of Social Sciences. Journof Personality

Assessment; 88(2), 168-177.

Terracciano, A; McCrae R (2006). Cross-Cultural Studies of Personality Traits and their Relevance to Psychiatry. Epidemiol Psichiatr Soc. 15(3), 176-184

Triandis, H.C., Suh E.M (2002). Cultural Influences on Personality. Annual Review of

Psychology; 53 133-160. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135200.

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Essay 2:

Identity is how individuals see themselves and how they relate to specific groups. In a collectivistic culture individuals are more concerned with group work and reaching goals as a family. In an individualistic culture everyone is independent, and making decisions on their own, In America we are very individualistic. I grew up knowing that when I turned 18 I was an adult and would need to find my own way in the world. In a collectivist culture many families live together for a very long time. According to Matsumoto (2001), in an individualistic culture individuals will more than likely identify with being more independent rather than relying on family when decisions are made like collectivist cultures.

Growing up I was very determined in school, and I wanted to be the best. I also knew that when I became an adult I wanted my own home, and to make my own money. I began working hard in school to make good grades, and as soon as I turned 16 I got my first job. My identity is a strong and independent woman. I knew that I had the freedom to grow up and be whoever I wanted to be, and do whatever I wanted to do.

If I had grew up in a collectivist culture I honestly would have liked it to a certain extent. I’m so family oriented that I would love the idea of being around/living with my family constantly. It seems like people in collectivist cultures are more prone to be happy and less stressed. Imagine being surrounded by family and having help making life decisions hands on. My identity would be the same as everyone around me. What I wouldn’t like is not having a lot of freedom to choose what I wanted to do as an individual. To me, a person’s choices somewhat define them and make them who they are.