Agreement in Personality Judgments within and between Nonoverlapping Social Groups in Collectivist Cultures

On Personality Measures and Their Data: A Classification of Measurement Approaches and Their Recommended Uses

We employ a new approach for classifying methods of personality measurement such as self-judgment, mental ability, and lifespace measures and the data they produce. We divide these measures into two fundamental groups: personal-source data, which arise from the target person's own reports, and external-source data, which derive from the areas surrounding the person. These two broad classes are then further divided according to what they target and the response processes that produce them. We use the model to organize roughly a dozen kinds of data currently employed in the field. With this classification system in hand, we describe how much we might expect two types of measures of the same attribute to converge-and explain why methods often yield somewhat different results. Given that each measurement method has its own strengths and weaknesses, we examine the pros and cons of selecting a given type of measure to assess a specific area of personality.

Cultural Variations in Perceived Partner Responsiveness: The Role of Self-Consistency

Past research has shown that perceived partner responsiveness (PPR) is a key process contributing to individual and relational outcomes and identified dispositional, relational, and situational factors that can influence it. However, little is known about how cultural factors play a role in the process of PPR. In Studies 1 ( n = 4,041) and 2 ( n = 414), we examined whether the degree of PPR differs across cultures by comparing European Americans and East Asians. We found that East Asians are less likely to experience perceived responsiveness from others than European Americans (Cohen’s d = 1.11–1.25 for Study 1 and Cohen’s d = 0.23 for Study 2). Furthermore, we found that self-consistency explained the cultural difference in PPR, indicating that East Asians underperceived partner responsiveness compared with European Americans because they behave less consistently across social situations. We conclude by highlighting the importance of exploring the process of PPR from a cultural perspective.

Prospects for an integrated trait and cultural psychology

Church (2000) discussed a possible integration of trait and cultural psychology perspectives, two dominant theoretical approaches in the study of culture and personality. In this article, I summarise the results of cross‐cultural studies we have conducted to test elements of this integrated perspective, discuss prospects for an integrated approach, and note future research needs. The studies address the measurement of implicit theories regarding the traitedness versus contextuality of behaviour; culture, method, and the content of self‐concepts; culture and explanations of everyday behaviours; accuracy and self‐enhancement in trait assessments; cross‐role consistency and its relation to adjustment; and cross‐situational consistency and trait prediction of daily behaviour. Our results, and those of other researchers, indicate that an integration of trait and cultural psychology perspectives has potential. However, some findings suggest that cultural psychology hypotheses may be more consistently supported in comparisons of Americans with selected Asian cultures than in comparisons of individualistic and collectivistic cultures more generally. Thus, an integrated perspective may need to be recast using theoretical perspectives that go beyond individualism–collectivism. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Assessing the Similarity of Injunctive Norm Profiles Across Different Social Roles: The Effect of Closeness and Status in the United States and China

Do social roles affect injunctive norms for behavior and more so in Chinese than American cultural contexts? We use mixed methods to analyze open-ended data describing appropriate behavior within social roles that differ in interpersonal closeness and relative status. American ( N = 401) and Chinese ( N = 392) participants provided descriptions of ideal behavior of two actors in one of 16 role dyads. The 2,219 (American) and 1,466 (Chinese) behavior descriptions were coded into 71 content categories, forming profiles of appropriate behavior for six social roles (Close/Distant × Low/Equal/High status). First, we adapt a method for assessing profile similarity in personality psychology to quantitatively evaluate how closeness and status affect similarity between the six social roles. By separating profiles into normative (average behavior) and distinctive (behavior specific to a particular social role) components, we find that distinctive behavioral profiles for specific social roles vary systematically by closeness/status in both American and Chinese data; we also find a larger effect of closeness in Chinese data. Second, we qualitatively analyze the content of the distinctive behavioral profiles through the lens of the rapport management model, showing how rights and obligations associated with each role vary, and finding cultural differences in which behaviors appropriately manage these expectations. Quantitative findings emphasize the cross-cultural importance of interpersonal situations for determining appropriate behavior, with some evidence for a greater effect in Chinese culture; qualitative results reveal the culturally specific ways in which relational situations direct expectations for behavior.

Interpersonal Attraction in Dyads and Groups: Effects of the Hearts of the Beholder and the Beheld

Dyadic interpersonal attraction (IA) was studied within groups of very highly acquainted family members, friends and co-workers. IA was determined by the perceiver (i.e., the heart of the beholder), the target (i.e., the heart of the beheld), and in specific dyads, by the unique combination of the two. The consistency of one's attraction to others and others' attraction to the person across groups were addressed using the key person design. Attraction to a person in one group was independent of attraction to that person in another, although people predicted that members of different groups were similarly attracted to them. A new model (ARRMA) was specified to simultaneously study assumed reciprocity, actual reciprocity, and metaperception accuracy of attraction (i.e., accurate predictions of others' attraction to oneself). Assumed reciprocity of IA was substantial at the individual and dyadic levels. Reciprocity of attraction at the individual level, a heretofore unconfirmed "plausible hypothesis" (Newcomb, 1979), was supported; dyadic reciprocity was weak. Meta-accuracy of IA was observed among individuals but was weak in dyads. Perceived interpersonal similarity predicted IA among individuals and in specific dyads. Considering dyadic attraction within and between groups, and the use of componential analysis permitted the specification of new IA phenomena and resolved a long standing theoretical problem regarding the reciprocity of attraction.

Self-other agreement in personality traits and profiles across cultures: A multirater, multiscale study in Blacks and Whites in South Africa

OBJECTIVE

Despite the importance of self-other agreement for the validity of trait models, few studies have assessed cultural differences systematically. We examined self-other agreement in traits and profiles in the more collectivistic Black group and the more individualistic White group in South Africa.

METHOD

Participants were 172 Black and 198 White students, and one relative and one friend of each student. Participants completed a behavior-based and a trait-adjective-based inventory.

RESULTS

Aggregated across traits and raters, there were no cultural differences in trait agreement. However, agreement was stronger for social-relational concepts in Blacks and for personal growth concepts in Whites, providing moderate support for the hypothesis of stronger agreement on culturally more salient traits. Trait agreement was stronger in Blacks' relatives and Whites' friends, but there was no such interaction in profile agreement. The differences in profile agreement (higher in Whites than in Blacks) involved normative agreement and were mediated by dialecticism (higher in Blacks) and social desirability (higher in Whites). Results with the two inventories were similar.

CONCLUSIONS

In the framework of trait consistency research, cultural differences in self-other agreement may be limited compared to differences in perceived trait consistency, although sizable compared to differences in actual behavior consistency.

Cross-Situational Self-Consistency in Nine Cultures: The Importance of Separating Influences of Social Norms and Distinctive Dispositions

We assessed self-consistency (expressing similar traits in different situations) by having undergraduates in the United States ( n = 230), Australia ( n = 220), Canada ( n = 240), Ecuador ( n = 101), Mexico ( n = 209), Venezuela ( n = 209), Japan ( n = 178), Malaysia ( n = 254), and the Philippines ( n = 241) report the traits they expressed in four different social situations. Self-consistency was positively associated with age, well-being, living in Latin America, and not living in Japan; however, each of these variables showed a unique pattern of associations with various psychologically distinct sources of raw self-consistency, including cross-situationally consistent social norms and injunctions. For example, low consistency between injunctive norms and trait expressions fully explained the low self-consistency in Japan. In accord with trait theory, after removing normative and injunctive sources of consistency, there remained robust distinctive noninjunctive self-consistency (reflecting individuating personality dispositions) in every country, including Japan. The results highlight how clarifying the determinants and implications of self-consistency requires differentiating its distinctive, injunctive, and noninjunctive components.

A Review and Critique of Partner Effect Research in Small Groups

The purpose of this review is to discuss the ways in which partner effects are examined in group contexts. We focus on social influence, as it is a common theme in group research from cognate fields such as communication, psychology, family studies, social psychology, and business. We elaborate on different conceptions of partner effects in our discussion of the social relations model (SRM), the actor–partner interdependence model (APIM), and the group actor–partner interdependence model (GAPIM), and provide a comprehensive review of the studies that have utilized these models to study groups. Following that, we discuss the ways in which partner effects research can improve our theoretical and empirical understanding of group processes.

Establishing Commonality Versus Affirming Distinctiveness

We predicted that members of Chinese groups would tend to express personality judgments that establish commonalities among members, whereas members of American groups would tend to express judgments that affirm how members differ. We had groups of five acquaintances (23 groups at one U.S. university, 28 groups at three Chinese universities) rate their own and each other’s traits and subjected the round-robin data to social relations model and social accuracy model analyses. As hypothesized, Chinese were more likely to portray their peers as similar to themselves and to each other as indicated by greater perceived self-other similarity and less variance in target ratings; conversely, Americans were more likely to express a shared understanding of what distinguished each group member from others, as indicated by greater distinctive agreement and target variance (consensus). Collectivistic values mediated effects of country on perceived similarity; individualistic values mediated effects of country on consensus and perceived similarity.

Cultural Differences in Implicit Theories and Self-Perceptions of Traitedness

Cultural differences in implicit theories and self-perceptions of traitedness were examined in the United States ( N = 198), Mexico ( N = 257), the Philippines ( N = 212), and Japan ( N = 225). Participants in all four cultures endorsed beliefs about the longitudinal stability, cross-situational consistency, and predictive validity of traits. At the same time, Americans and Mexicans, more than Filipinos and Japanese, endorsed implicit trait or dispositionist perspectives and described their own behavior as traited or consistent (i.e., lower in self-monitoring). Alternative measurement formats were compared and led to the conclusion that forced-choice measures may be advantageous in some cases, particularly when acquiescence bias may impact cross-cultural comparisons. Cultural differences were observed in participants’ perceptions of the individualism-collectivism, dialecticism, and tightness-looseness of their respective cultures and these measures partially mediated some of the cultural differences in traitedness. Overall, the results supported an integration of trait and cultural psychology perspectives, leading to a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between culture and personality.

Perceiving the target's state or state provoked by the target? An analysis of the descriptive and evaluative knowledge in person perception

In line with the theory of traits as generalized affordances, the present article argues that target's states (TSs) and states provoked by a target (other's states (OSs) towards target) are two components of the meaning of traits referring, respectively, to a descriptive and to an evaluative knowledge of people. A preliminary study confirmed that TS and OS were equally representative of a trait. Two studies were designed to study the effects of practising the use of traits as either TS or OS categories (an induction procedure) on a subsequent person perception task, requiring participants to rate photographed targets on a series of traits. Results show that both the differentiation between targets and evaluative consistency of ratings were enhanced under the OS condition compared to TS and control (with no practice of traits) conditions. Importantly, Study 2 tends to show that the effects of the induction procedure are not limited to the practised traits but also generalize to unpractised traits. Implications of these findings for social perception research are discussed.

Cultural Differences in Expectations of Change and Tolerance for Contradiction: A Decade of Empirical Research

Since the publication of Peng and Nisbett’s seminal paper on dialectical thinking, a substantial amount of empirical research has replicated and expanded on the core finding that people differ in the degree to which they view the world as inherently contradictory and in constant flux. Dialectical thinkers (who are more often members of East Asian than Western cultures) show greater expectation of change in tasks related to explanation and prediction and greater tolerance of contradiction in tasks involving the reconciliation of contradictory information. The authors show how these effects are manifested in the domains of the self, emotional experience, psychological well-being, attitudes and evaluations, social categorization and perception, and judgment and decision making. They note important topics in need of further investigation and offer predictions concerning possible cultural differences in unexplored domains as a function of the presence or absence of naïve dialecticism.

Evidence of differential meta-accuracy: people understand the different impressions they make

This article reexamines the prevailing conclusion that people are unaware of the different impressions they make, or that their differential meta-accuracy is poor. This conclusion emerged from research employing contextually undifferentiated designs that may have constrained differences in actual impressions, thereby limiting participants' ability to demonstrate differential meta-accuracy. We argue that an alternative, contextually differentiated approach may reveal evidence for differential meta-accuracy because (a) people tend to behave differently in different social contexts, (b) interaction partners from different social contexts witness differing behaviors and form differing impressions of a target person, and (c) contextual information used to infer the impression one makes on others is relatively differentiated across contexts, resulting in differentiated metaperceptions. We assessed differential meta-accuracy across social contexts (i.e., parents, hometown friends, and college friends) and found that, in contrast to researchers' prevailing conclusion, people can indeed detect the relative impressions they make on others.

Culture, cross-role consistency, and adjustment: testing trait and cultural psychology perspectives

Trait and cultural psychology perspectives on cross-role consistency and its relation to adjustment were examined in 2 individualistic cultures, the United States (N=231) and Australia (N=195), and 4 collectivistic cultures, Mexico (N=199), the Philippines (N=195), Malaysia (N=217), and Japan (N=180). Cross-role consistency in trait ratings was evident in all cultures, supporting trait perspectives. Cultural comparisons of mean consistency provided support for cultural psychology perspectives as applied to East Asian cultures (i.e., Japan) but not collectivistic cultures more generally. Some but not all of the hypothesized predictors of consistency were supported across cultures. Cross-role consistency predicted aspects of adjustment in all cultures, but prediction was most reliable in the U.S. sample and weakest in the Japanese sample. Alternative constructs proposed by cultural psychologists--personality coherence, social appraisal, and relationship harmony--predicted adjustment in all cultures but were not, as hypothesized, better predictors of adjustment in collectivistic cultures than in individualistic cultures.

Culture, Method, and the Content of Self-Concepts: Testing Trait, Individual-Self-Primacy, and Cultural Psychology Perspectives

Three theoretical perspectives on cultural universals and differences in the content of self-concepts were tested in individualistic (United States, n = 178; Australia, n = 112) and collectivistic (Mexico, n = 157; Philippines, n = 138) cultures, using three methods of self-concept assessment. Support was found for both trait perspectives and the individual-self-primacy hypothesis. In contrast, support for cultural psychology hypotheses was limited because traits and other personal attributes were not more salient, or social attributes less salient, in individualistic cultures than collectivistic cultures. The salience of some aspects of self-concept depended on the method of assessment, calling into question conclusions based on monomethod studies.

Prediction and Cross-Situational Consistency of Daily Behavior across Cultures: Testing Trait and Cultural Psychology Perspectives

Trait and cultural psychology perspectives on the cross-situational consistency of behavior, and the predictive validity of traits, were tested in a daily process study in the United States (N = 68), an individualistic culture, and the Philippines (N = 80), a collectivistic culture. Participants completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and a measure of self-monitoring, then reported their daily behaviors and associated situational contexts for approximately 30 days. Consistent with trait perspectives, the Big Five traits predicted daily behaviors in both cultures, and relative (interindividual) consistency was observed across many, although not all, situational contexts. The frequency of various Big Five behaviors varied across relevant situational contexts in both cultures and, consistent with cultural psychology perspectives, there was a tendency for Filipinos to exhibit greater situational variability than Americans. Self-monitoring showed some ability to account for individual differences in situational variability in the American sample, but not the Filipino sample.