Psychology2016

Theories of Personality 529

as the Philippines, Mexico, many Arab countries, and India were found to be high

in such expectations, whereas countries such as Austria, Sweden, Australia, Great

Britain, and the United States were low in power distance.

3. Masculinity/femininity: Referring to how a culture distributes the roles played by
   men and women within the culture, this dimension varies more for the men within
   a culture than for the women. “Masculine” cultures are assertive and competitive,
   although more so for men than for women, and “feminine” cultures are more modest
   and caring. Both men and women in “feminine” countries have similar, caring values,
   but in “masculine” countries, the women are not quite as assertive and competitive
   as the men, leading to a greater difference between the sexes in masculine countries.
   Japan, Austria, Venezuela, Italy, Switzerland, Mexico, Ireland, Jamaica, the United
   States, Great Britain, and Germany were found to be masculine countries, whereas
   Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Costa Rica, Yugoslavia, Finland, Chile,
   Portugal, Thailand, and Guatemala were ranked as more feminine.


4. Uncertainty avoidance: Some cultures are more tolerant of uncertainty, ambiguity,*
   and unstructured situations. Cultures that do not tolerate such uncertainty and lack
   of structure tend to have strict rules and laws, with lots of security and safety mea-
   sures, and tend toward a philosophical/religious belief of One Truth (and “we have it!”).
   Cultures that are more accepting of uncertainty are more tolerant of different opinions
   and have fewer rules. They tend to allow many different religious beliefs to exist side by
   side and are less anxious and emotional than people in uncertainty- avoiding countries.
   Uncertainty-avoiding countries include Greece, Portugal, Guatemala, Uruguay, Bel-
   gium, El Salvador, Japan, Yugoslavia, and Peru, whereas those that are more tolerant
   of uncertainty include Singapore, Jamaica, Denmark, Sweden, Hong Kong, Ireland,
   Great Britain, Malaysia, India, Philippines, the United States, Canada, and Indonesia.
   Note that the Big Five personality dimensions of Costa and McCrae (2000) are not
   necessarily in competition with Hofstede’s dimensions. Hofstede’s dimensions are cultural
   personality traits, whereas those of the Big Five refer to individuals.

Questions for Further Discussion

1. Was your own culture listed for any of these dimensions? If so, do you agree with the
   personality dimension assigned to your culture?


2. If your culture was not listed for a personality dimension, where do you think your cul-
   ture would fall on that dimension?

*ambiguity: the quality of being uncertain and indistinct.

behavioral genetics studies how much of an individual’s personality is due to inherited traits

adoption studies of twins have confirmed that genetic influences account for a great deal

of personality development, regardless of shared or nonshared environments

identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins or unrelated people in many facets of personality

personality factors of the five-factor model have nearly a 50 percent rate of heritability across cultures;

variations in personality are about 25 to 50 percent inherited

Personality and Behavioral Genetics

Concept Map L.O. 13.12, 13.13

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