Does language affect personality perception? A functional approach to testing the Whorfian hypothesis

The neural basis of dialectical thinking: recent advances and future prospects

Dialectical thinking represents a cognitive style emphasizing change, contradiction, and holism. Cross-cultural studies reveal a stark contrast of dialectical thinking between East Asian and Western cultures, highlighting East Asians' superior ability to embrace contradictions and foresee transformation, fostering psychological resilience through emotional complexity and tolerance for contradictions. Despite its importance, the neural basis of dialectical thinking remains underexplored. This review synthesizes current neuroscientific findings and introduces the dialectical-integration network (DIN) hypothesis, which identifies key brain regions such as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), nucleus accumbens, basal ganglia, and amygdala. These regions, along with networks like the default mode network (DMN) and frontoparietal network (FPN), facilitate holistic reasoning, conflict resolution, and sensory-emotional integration. The psychological benefits of dialectical thinking include enhanced cognitive flexibility, reduced emotional extremes, and improved conflict resolution. This review emphasizes the need for cross-cultural and neuroscientific research to explore the principle of change, a core aspect of dialectical cognition. By bridging cultural psychology and cognitive neuroscience, this work offers theoretical and methodological insights into culturally shaped cognitive styles, with practical applications in education, mental health, and intercultural communication. The DIN model provides a framework for future research on dynamic neural interactions supporting dialectical thinking.

Mapping Chinese Personality: An Assessment of the Psychometric Properties of the NEO-PI-3 in Monolingual and Bilingual Studies

The NEO-PI-3 is a fourth-generation instrument that has been shown to improve the psychometrics and readability of its immediate precedent, the NEO-PI-R. We examined the psychometric properties of the Chinese versions of the NEO-PI-R and NEO-PI-3 using three datasets (Ns = 913, 299, 403) collected using both monolingual and bilingual designs. The Chinese NEO-PI-3 scales displayed a five-factor structure in which the facets had the highest loadings on their intended factors. The structure demonstrated strong invariance across both languages (English vs. Chinese) and gender groups, maintained high test-retest reliability, and attained slightly better internal consistency than the NEO-PI-R. We also examined the affective underpinnings of personality factors and well-being measures using the Chinese Circumplex Model of Affect. Consistent with past findings, Neuroticism and Extraversion were most related to affect, while Satisfaction with Life and Subjective Happiness shared the affective core of pleasant feelings and medium arousal. Based on these results, the Chinese NEO-PI-3 appears to be a sound instrument to measure personality in Chinese communities and to compare personality across cultures.

The Nature of Word Associations in Sentence Contexts

How words are interrelated in the human mind is a scientific topic on which there is still no consensus, with different views on how word co-occurrence and semantic relatedness mediate word association. Recent research has shown that lexical associations are strongly predicted by the similarity of those words in terms of valence, arousal, and concreteness ratings. In the current study, we aimed at extending these results to more complex and realistic linguistic scenarios, since human communication is not done with word pairs, but rather through sentences. Hence, the aim of the current study was to verify whether valence, arousal, and concreteness also articulate sentence-level lexical representations. To this end, 32 native Spanish speakers were given cue words and asked to use them in sentences that would provide a meaningful context. The content words of the written sentences were then analyzed. Our results showed that the emotional dimensions (valence and arousal) and concreteness values of the cue words effectively predicted the same values of said dimensions of their sentences' words. In sum, the similarity in the emotional dimensions and concreteness are crucial mechanisms behind word association in the human mind.

Language Matters: The Autism-Spectrum Quotient in English, Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia

The autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) measures autistic traits and has been studied in different countries, sometimes with the English version, and sometimes with translated versions. However, the language of the questionnaire might influence non-native English speakers' answering tendency. In the current study we compared the responses on the AQ of multilingual Malaysians (96 participants filled out the AQ in English and Mandarin, and 79 participants filled out English and Bahasa Malaysia). Participants scored higher on the English AQ compared to the Mandarin AQ, whereas there was no difference between the English and Bahasa Malaysia AQ score. Analysis of the response style suggests the same person might display discrepant response styles in different languages, which seems to be related to language proficiency.

What Happens When Individuals Answer Questionnaires in Two Different Languages

The aim of the present study was to compare scores from the English and the Spanish versions of two well-known measures of psychological distress using a within-subject approach. This method involved bilingual participants completing both measures in four conditions. For two groups of people, measures were offered in the same language both times and for the other two groups, each language version was offered, the order differing between the groups. The measures were the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure and the Schwartz Outcome Scale-10, both originally created in English and then translated to Spanish. In total, 109 bilingual participants (69.7% women) completed the measures in two occasions and were randomly allocated to the four conditions (English-English, English-Spanish, Spanish-English and Spanish-Spanish). Linear mixed effects models were performed to provide a formal null hypothesis test of the effect of language, order of completion and their interaction for each measure. The results indicate that for the total score of the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure just language had a significant effect, but no significant effects were found for completion order or the language by order interaction. For the Schwartz Outcome Scale-10 scores, none of these effects were statistically significant. This method offers some clear advantages over the more prevalent psychometric methods of testing score comparability across measure translations.

The Potential Cost of Cultural Fit: Frame Switching Undermines Perceptions of Authenticity in Western Contexts

Behaving consistently across situations is fundamental to a person's authenticity in Western societies. This can pose a problem for biculturals who often frame switch, or adapt their behavior across cultural contexts, as a way of maintaining fit with each of their cultures. In particular, the behavioral inconsistency entailed in frame switching may undermine biculturals' sense of authenticity, as well as Westerners' impressions of biculturals' authenticity. Study 1 had a diverse sample of biculturals (N = 127) living in the United States and Canada describe an episode of frame switching (vs. no switching control vs. neutral control) and report on their state authenticity during the episode. Results showed that biculturals recalled feeling less authentic during an instance of frame switching compared to no switching control and neutral control. Study 2 had mainstream Canadians (White and of American, Canadian, or Western European cultural heritage, N = 97) read a hypothetical vignette, from a third-person perspective, about a bicultural who frame switches (vs. no switching control vs. neutral control) and provide their impressions of the bicultural's authenticity and multiple other desirable traits. Participants rated the bicultural as less authentic when he frame switched compared to no switching control and neutral control, and rated him as less likeable, trustworthy, and warm (but not competent) as downstream consequences of seeing him as less authentic. These results demonstrate that frame switching can come at a cost to authenticity, both in terms of how biculturals see themselves and are seen by others, at least in Western societies. These findings highlight that the way biculturals negotiate their cultures affects them psychologically and socially. In the context of cultural fit, the active process of establishing and maintaining fit with one's cultures can have unforeseen consequences.

Maltreated Children Use More Grammatical Negations

Many studies reveal a strong impact of childhood maltreatment on language development, mainly resulting in shorter utterances, less rich vocabulary, or a delay in grammatical complexity. However, different theories suggest the possibility for resilience-a positive adaptation to an otherwise adverse environment-in children who experienced childhood maltreatment. Here, we investigated different measures for language development in spontaneous speech, examining whether childhood maltreatment leads to a language deficit only or whether it can also result in differences in language use due to a possible adaptation to a toxic environment. We compared spontaneous speech during therapeutic peer-play sessions of 32 maltreated and 32 non-maltreated children from the same preschool and equivalent in gender, age (2 to 5 years), home neighborhood, ethnicity, and family income. Maltreatment status was reported by formal child protection reports, and corroborated by independent social service reports. We investigated general language sophistication (i.e., vocabulary, talkativeness, mean length of utterance), as well as grammatical development (i.e., use of plurals, tense, grammatical negations). We found that maltreated and non-maltreated children showed similar sophistication across all linguistic measures, except for the use of grammatical negations. Maltreated children used twice as many grammatical negations as non-maltreated children. The use of this highly complex grammatical structure shows an advanced linguistic skill, which shows that childhood maltreatment does not necessarily lead to a language deficit. The result might indicate the development of a negativity bias in the structure of spontaneous language due to an adaptation to their experiences.

Hablo Inglés y Español: Cultural Self-Schemas as a Function of Language

Research has demonstrated that bilingual individuals experience a "double personality," which allows them to shift their self-schemas when they are primed with different language modes. In this study, we examine whether self-schemas change in Mexican-American (N = 193) bilinguals living in the U.S. when they provide open-ended personality self-descriptions in both English and Spanish. We used the Meaning Extraction Helper (MEH) software to extract the most salient self-schemas that influence individuals' self-defining process. Following a qualitative-inductive approach, words were extracted from the open-ended essays and organized into semantic clusters, which were analyzed qualitatively and named. The results show that as expected, language primed bilinguals to think about different self-schemas. In Spanish, their Mexican self-schemas were more salient; whereas, in English their U.S. American self-schemas were more salient. Similarities of self-schemas across languages were assessed using a quantitative approach. Language differences and similarities in theme definition and implications for self-identity of bilinguals are discussed.

Self-consistency in Bicultural Persons: Dialectical Self-beliefs Mediate the Relation between Identity Integration and Self-consistency

Prior research differentiates dialectical (e.g., East Asian) from non-dialectical cultures (e.g., North American and Latino) and attributes cultural differences in self-concept consistency to naïve dialecticism. In this research, we explored the effects of managing two cultural identities on consistency within the bicultural self-concept via the role of dialectical beliefs. Because the challenge of integrating more than one culture within the self is common to biculturals of various heritage backgrounds, the effects of bicultural identity integration should not depend on whether the heritage culture is dialectical or not. In four studies across diverse groups of bicultural Canadians, we showed that having an integrated bicultural identity was associated with being more consistent across roles (Studies 1–3) and making less ambiguous self-evaluations (Study 4). Furthermore, dialectical self-beliefs mediated the effect of bicultural identity integration on self-consistency (Studies 2–4). Finally, Latino biculturals reported being more consistent across roles than did East Asian biculturals (Study 2), revealing the ethnic heritage difference between the two groups. We conclude that both the content of heritage culture and the process of integrating cultural identities influence the extent of self-consistency among biculturals. Thus, consistency within the bicultural self-concept can be understood, in part, to be a unique psychological product of bicultural experience.

Measurement Invariance and the Five-Factor Model of Personality

This study examined measurement invariance of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), assessing the five-factor model (FFM) of personality among Euro American ( N = 290) and Asian international ( N = 301) students (47.8% women, Mage = 19.69 years). The full 60-item NEO-FFI data fit the expected five-factor structure for both groups using exploratory structural equation modeling, and achieved configural invariance. Only 37 items significantly loaded onto the FFM-theorized factors for both groups and demonstrated metric invariance. Threshold invariance was not supported with this reduced item set. Groups differed the most in the item–factor relationships for Extraversion and Agreeableness, as well as in response styles. Asian internationals were more likely to use midpoint responses than Euro Americans. While the FFM can characterize broad nomothetic patterns of personality traits, metric invariance with only the subset of NEO-FFI items identified limits direct group comparisons of correlation coefficients among personality domains and with other constructs, and of mean differences on personality domains.

Immorality East and West

What makes some acts immoral? Although Western theories of morality often define harmful behaviors as centrally immoral, whether this is applicable to other cultures is still under debate. In particular, Confucianism emphasizes civility as fundamental to moral excellence. We describe three studies examining how the word immoral is used by Chinese and Westerners. Layperson-generated examples were used to examine cultural differences in which behaviors are called “immoral” (Study 1, n = 609; Study 2, n = 480), and whether “immoral” behaviors were best characterized as particularly harmful versus uncivilized (Study 3, N = 443). Results suggest that Chinese were more likely to use the word immoral for behaviors that were uncivilized, rather than exceptionally harmful, whereas Westerners were more likely to link immorality tightly to harm. More research into lay concepts of morality is needed to inform theories of moral cognition and improve understanding of human conceptualizations of social norms.