How Culture affects your Personality

Personality is more than just genes.

A large part of who we are and the decisions that we

make are influenced by the culture that we grew up in.

So, where does this influence start?

Think all the way back to when you learn manners.

You were probably scolded for engaging in behavior

that was considered rude in your culture.

Conversely,

you're probably encouraged to engage in behaviors

that are considered to be polite.

Now, as you were conditioned to engage in more polite behaviors,

you subconsciously picked up on patterns that influenced how you behave.

These patterns are highly influenced by the values of the culture

that you grew up in. But not all cultures hold the same values.

Some cultures tend to encourage behaviors that are loud,

boisterous, and competitive.

Others encourage quiet,

respectful, and more humble behaviors. Depending on the culture where you live,

you probably pick up on these values,

and they have definitely influenced your decisions

and your personality.

Researchers have been studying the connections between culture and

personality for a long time. And in this video,

I'm gonna attempt to explain two spectrums

that researchers have created to define cultures.

The culture's place on these spectrums highly influences the personality

traits and the behaviors of the people within that culture.

So, culture is not determined by borders.

As you'll see throughout the rest of this video,

people learn lessons from cultures that are created

from people within a certain country occupation,

class, gender identity, or other differences.

For example,

just because the country you live in has an individualist

culture does not mean you are bound by individualist ideas.

So, keep this in mind throughout the rest of the video.

Let's get started by talking about individual versus collectivist culture.

Individualism focuses on the individual just as the name implies.

People living in an individualist environment,

prioritize self-improvement of themselves and satisfying their own

needs before the rest of those of their community.

Why?

Well,

individualist cultures believe and teach that

if everyone takes care of themselves,

then the entire group should thrive and then become self-sufficient.

Individualist cultures put a lot of stress on independence and self-reliance.

Those that live in this type of culture tend to be very self-sufficient

and driven workers, but are weaker whenever it comes to collaboration and teamwork.

They usually struggle handing off responsibility.

Now, in general,

these people usually distance themselves psychologically

and emotionally from one another,

since working with others is more of an option

than a requirement for success. In the media,

we often see individualist characteristics associated with men,

people in urban settings, and the Western culture.

So, what about collectivist cultures?

People living in a collectivist environment are taught to focus on the

needs of the group before they focus on their own individual needs.

They associate their identity to the role and function in a larger group.

These groups can include family, teams at work, or the entire nation.

Collectivist societies teach people that everyone will benefit when

they start to look out for one another.

Harmony and interdependence between group members is highly

valued among people in this type of environment.

Now, unlike their individualist counterparts,

members of collectivist cultures tend to be extremely

close to each other psychologically and emotionally.

Now,

this can create an us versus the mindset that separates or

looks down upon people that are outside of their group.

Collectivist characteristics are generally associated with women,

people in rural settings, and Eastern culture.

So, let's look at another spectrum.

Did you grow up in an approach or an avoidance culture?

This idea was coined in 1935 to help psychologists

identify what makes some conflicts easy to resolve and

others difficult to resolve. Where you lie on this

spectrum can highly influence how you make decisions.

So, what is approach versus avoidance?

Humans typically want to approach and move towards pleasurable things, and they

typically want to avoid and move away from negative or painful things.

It's very similar to Freud's pleasure-pain

principle.

The idea of approach versus avoidance was

measured when an experiment was conducted on

rats in 1948. The rats were exposed to different positive and negative stimuli.

Researchers then measure the strength of their pull towards the stimuli.

The most interesting results from this experiment revealed that the closer the

rats were to the item that they were either approaching or avoiding,

the stronger their pull was in either direction.

Now,

this can be applied to humans and how

they make their decisions and categorize conflict.

But what does it have to do with the culture where you grew up with?

Because that's kind of the topic of this video, right? The

culture helps to teach you at a young age what to approach and what

to avoid. Culture doesn't teach you to avoid physical pain and approach food.

Those things are instinctual to all humans.

The things we learn to approach and avoid through culture, appeal to a higher need.

One example of this is something called uncertainty avoidance.

The uncertainty

avoidance of a culture is a measure of

how that culture responds to novelty and uncertainty.

How does a culture deal with ambiguity? Are changes welcome in the

nation? Does the culture approach stable traditional rules and customs?

Now, in some research,

I found that countries who generally score high

in neuroticism tend to be high in uncertainty

avoidance.

Those countries usually have a more formal system of rules that try to

minimize cultural or situational ambiguity, and the

citizens are uninterested in changing them.

These cultures tend to be more conservative,

more emotional, and usually xenophobic. Families in these cultures

tend to have more traditional gender roles too.

Schools have more structured learning, and children are taught to

trust that their teachers have all of the answers.

Children are also taught that the outside world may be a hostile place.

Religions associated with the uncertainty avoidance include Catholicism,

Islam, Judaism, and Shintoism.

Conversely,

countries low in neuroticism and low in uncertainty avoidance tend to have fewer

laws and regulations and their citizens are much more interested in politics.

These cultures are often more open to change and more tolerant of diversity.

And people within these cultures tend to suppress their emotions

more. Families in these cultures usually have looser general roles and

their schools have a more open-minded learning. As a generality,

teachers are allowed to say that they don't know

and students are encouraged to question authority.

Children are also taught that the outside world is benevolent and

that they should not persecute others based on their beliefs.

Religions associated with low uncertainty avoidance include protestantism,

Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism.

So, where do you fit in? Uncertainty

avoidance is just one concept that is influenced by a culture's personality and

how it influences the decisions and behaviors of the people within that culture.

What were you taught to avoid? What were you taught to approach?

And how does the culture where you grew up in

influence what you consider to be comfortable and uncomfortable?

I hope you guys enjoyed this video, and if you did, feel free to watch some of the

other videos in this personality series. And if you

want to learn more about your own personality,

check on my free three in one personality quiz in the description below.

What it does is it combines three of the major personality quizzes into just one

test you can take in under 10 minutes, and at the end of it,

I'm gonna try to predict some things about you, like your political stances,

your relationship style, and also your health.

I put a lot of work into it. So, I hope you guys enjoy it.

Thanks for watching, and I hope to see you in the next video.