How Culture affects your Personality

Key Concepts

• Individualism vs. Collectivism: Cultural spectrum focusing on the prioritization of individual needs versus group needs.
• Approach vs. Avoidance: Cultural spectrum focusing on how cultures respond to novelty, uncertainty, and ambiguity.
• Uncertainty Avoidance: A measure of how a culture responds to novelty and uncertainty.
• Culture: Shared values, beliefs, and behaviors learned from a group of people (country, occupation, class, etc.).
• Personality: Influenced by both genes and the culture in which one grows up.

Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Individualism:
  • Focuses on individual self-improvement and satisfying personal needs before those of the community.
  • Believes that individual self-sufficiency leads to the thriving of the entire group.
  • Emphasizes independence and self-reliance.
  • Individuals are typically driven workers but may struggle with collaboration and teamwork.
  • Psychological and emotional distance between individuals is common.
  • Often associated with men, people in urban settings, and Western culture.
• Collectivism:
  • Focuses on the needs of the group before individual needs.
  • Individuals associate their identity with their role and function within a larger group (family, team, nation).
  • Teaches that everyone benefits when they look out for one another.
  • Values harmony and interdependence between group members.
  • Members are typically very close to each other psychologically and emotionally.
  • Can create an "us-versus-them" mindset.
  • Often associated with women, people in rural settings, and Eastern culture.

Approach vs. Avoidance

• Humans naturally approach pleasurable things and avoid painful things (similar to Freud's pleasure-pain principle).
• Culture teaches what to approach and avoid beyond basic instincts, appealing to higher needs.
• Rat Experiment (1948):
  • Rats exposed to positive and negative stimuli.
  • Researchers measured the strength of their pull towards the stimuli.
  • The closer the rats were to the item, the stronger their pull was in either direction.
  • This can be applied to humans and how they make their decisions and categorize conflict.

Uncertainty Avoidance

• A measure of how a culture responds to novelty and uncertainty.
• High Uncertainty Avoidance:
  • Countries often score high in neuroticism.
  • Formal system of rules to minimize ambiguity.
  • Citizens are uninterested in changing rules.
  • More conservative, emotional, and often xenophobic.
  • Traditional gender roles in families.
  • Structured learning in schools; teachers are seen as having all the answers.
  • Children are taught that the outside world may be hostile.
  • Religions: Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, and Shintoism.
• Low Uncertainty Avoidance:
  • Countries often score low in neuroticism.
  • Fewer laws and regulations.
  • Citizens are more interested in politics.
  • More open to change and tolerant of diversity.
  • People tend to suppress their emotions more.
  • Looser gender roles in families.
  • Open-minded learning in schools; teachers can admit they don't know, and students are encouraged to question authority.
  • Children are taught to see the outside world as benevolent and not to persecute others based on beliefs.
  • Religions: Protestantism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism.

Logical Connections

The video connects the broad concept of personality to the specific influence of culture. It establishes that culture, through learned behaviors and values, shapes individual personalities. The two spectrums (individualism/collectivism and approach/avoidance) are presented as frameworks for understanding how different cultures instill different values, which in turn influence the decisions and behaviors of individuals within those cultures. Uncertainty avoidance is presented as a specific example of how the approach/avoidance spectrum manifests in cultural norms and societal structures.

Synthesis/Conclusion

The video emphasizes that personality is not solely determined by genetics but is significantly shaped by the culture in which one grows up. The individualism/collectivism and approach/avoidance spectrums, particularly the concept of uncertainty avoidance, provide valuable frameworks for understanding how cultural values influence individual behavior and decision-making. By understanding these cultural influences, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others. The video encourages viewers to reflect on the cultural values they were taught and how those values shape their perceptions of comfort and discomfort.