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Personality Traits of Russians from the Observer's Perspective
Abstract
Data were collected by the members of the Russian character and personality survey from 39 samples in 33 administrative areas of the Russian Federation. Respondents (N = 7065) identified an ethnically Russian adult or college-aged man or woman whom they knew well and rated the target using the Russian observer rating version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, which measures neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Factor analyses within samples showed that the factor structure of an international sample combining data from 50 different cultures was well replicated in all 39 Russian samples. Sex differences replicated the known pattern in all samples, demonstrating that women scored higher than men on most of the neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness facet scales. Cross-sectional analyses demonstrated consistent age differences for four factors: Older individuals compared to younger ones were less extraverted and open but more agreeable and conscientious. The mean levels of traits were similar in all 39 samples. Although in general personality traits in Russians closely followed the universal pattern, some reliable culture-specific effects were also found that future studies can help interpret. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... Presidential elections and found that states high in openness to experience and low in conscientiousness had higher percentages of votes for Democratic candidates, whereas states low in openness to experience and high in conscientiousness had higher percentages of votes for Republican candidates. Second, regional personality distributions are strongly associated with regional human capitals (Rentfrow et al., 2008, economic development (Allik et al., 2009;Yang and Lester, 2016), entrepreneurship rates (Obschonka et al., 2013), and other economic indicators. For instance, Obschonka et al. (2013) proposed an entrepreneurial personality profile (featured by high openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness and low agreeableness and neuroticism) and found a positive association between the entrepreneurial personality profile and entrepreneurial activity in 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. ...
... Their study found that regions that were more emotionally stable and had a higher prevalence of the entrepreneurial personality profile were more resistant to macroeconomic shocks, such as the Great Recession of 2008. Third, regional personality distributions are strongly correlated with important social indicators, such as trust (Allik et al., 2009), crime rates (Rentfrow et al., 2008, and cultural diversity (Rentfrow et al., 2008. Allik et al. (2009) undertook research in Russia and found that regional levels of trust, which is one facet of Agreeableness in NEO-PI-R, are inversely correlated with the distance between the region and the capital. ...
... Third, regional personality distributions are strongly correlated with important social indicators, such as trust (Allik et al., 2009), crime rates (Rentfrow et al., 2008, and cultural diversity (Rentfrow et al., 2008. Allik et al. (2009) undertook research in Russia and found that regional levels of trust, which is one facet of Agreeableness in NEO-PI-R, are inversely correlated with the distance between the region and the capital. In the United States, Rentfrow et al. (2008) showed that rates of robbery and murder are positively correlated with statelevel openness to experience and extraversion, and negatively correlated with state-level agreeableness. ...
Geographical psychology aims to study the spatial distribution of psychological phenomenon at different levels of geographical analysis and their relations to macro-level important societal outcomes. The geographical perspective provides a new way of understanding interactions between humankind psychological processes and distal macro-environments. Studies have identified the spatial organizations of a wide range of psychological constructs, including (but not limited among) personality, individualism/collectivism, cultural tightness-looseness, and well-being; these variations have been plotted over a range of geographical units (e.g., neighborhoods, cities, states, and countries) and have been linked to a broad array of political, economic, social, public health, and other social consequences. Future research should employ multi-level analysis, taking advantage of more deliberated causality test methods and big data techniques, to further examine the emerging and evolving mechanisms of geographical differences in psychological phenomena.
... Ideally, the informants would be of similar age, in which case age differences in response styles would be effectively controlled for. Based on this rationale, the current study will also employ the ratings of a large sample of Russian students (Allik et al., 2009), each of whom rated the FFM traits and their facets of either a young or older person they knew well. This design may also circumvent the problem of differential self-selection into studies such that older people who are willing to participate may for example, be more restricted in personality variance than younger participants who are more readily available (although this design may create a new bias-that of differential target selection). ...
... The Russian sample was based on the dataset of the Russian Character and Personality Survey (Allik et al., 2009); data for 2000 people aged between 20 and 30 years and 2250 people aged between 50 and 60 years were used (total N = 4250; 2287 men). All raters were university students who rated somebody they knew well (for details see Allik et al., 2009). ...
... The Russian sample was based on the dataset of the Russian Character and Personality Survey (Allik et al., 2009); data for 2000 people aged between 20 and 30 years and 2250 people aged between 50 and 60 years were used (total N = 4250; 2287 men). All raters were university students who rated somebody they knew well (for details see Allik et al., 2009). ...
In contrast to mean-level comparisons, age group differences in personality trait variance have received only passing research interest. This may seem surprising because individual differences in personality characteristics are exactly what most of personality psychology is about. Because different proposed mechanisms of personality development may entail either increases or decreases in variance over time, the current study is exploratory in nature. Age differences in variance were tested by comparing the standard deviations of the five-factor model domain and facet scales across two age groups (20 to 30 years old versus 50 to 60 years old). Samples from three cultures (Estonia, the Czech Republic and Russia) were employed, and two methods (self-reports and informant-reports) were used. The results showed modest convergence across samples and methods. Age group differences were significant for 11 of 150 facet-level comparisons but never consistently for the same facets. No significant age group di
... ESEM is a more flexible, less restrictive approach that allows both non-zero loadings of items and facets on non-target factors (which is common in personality data), and the assessment of fit using traditional SEM indices (Asparouhov & Muthén, 2009;Furnham, Guenole, Levine, & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2013;Marsh et al., 2010). Third, we integrate the results from Romania in the wider cross-cultural personality literature by comparing them with NEO PI-R data from other cultures (e.g., Allik & McCrae, 2004;Allik et al., 2009;Costa, Terracciano, & McCrae, 2001) ...
... To integrate the Romanian data into the wider picture of cross-cultural studies using the NEO PI-R (Allik & McCrae, 2004;Allik et al., 2009;Costa et al., 2001;McCrae et al., 1999), we conducted several exploratory analyses using the adult part of Sample 1. In terms of mean differences, compared to the U.S. normative sample (Costa & McCrae, 1992), Romanians scored higher on N (d = .15) ...
... With the exception of Allik et al. (2009), personality research has mostly ignored potential within country differences. Using the adult part (over 21 years old) of Sample 1 (n = 1,650), we conducted ANOVAs to compare the eight geographically distinct areas on the NEO Domain and facets. ...
In this study, the authors examine the generalizability of the Five-Factor Model of personality to the Romanian population by describing the translation and validation of the Romanian version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R). Using data from five samples and multiple sources (self-reports, other-reports, and school records) and over two thousand participants, they examined the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, factor structure, self-other agreement, and correlations with age, gender, education, and academic performance. Construct-related validity evidence was obtained by examining the correlations of the NEO PI-R with the Big Five Questionnaire and Big Five Adjectives. The results suggest that the Five-Factor Model generalizes to the Romanian cultural context and that the Romanian NEO PI-R has sound psychometric properties comparable with normative samples in America and elsewhere.
... Most studies of regional differences in the Big Five have focused on the United States, but a few studies have examined variation within other countries. For instance, Allik et al. (2009) examined personality variation from 39 different samples across 33 selected federal states in Russia and found subtle regional differences in mean personality scores. Rentfrow et al. (2015) examined personality differences across Great Britain and observed distinct regional clusters for agreeableness and openness. ...
... Most of the studies concerned with geographical differences in personality have focused attention on the United States. A few studies have examined non-Englishspeaking countries, including Russia (Allik et al., 2009), Germany , Switzerland (Götz et al., 2018), and China (Wei et al., 2017); the results from these non-U.S. studies reveal systematic variation in personality across regions of non-English-speaking countries. ...
There is growing evidence that psychological characteristics are spatially clustered across geographic regions and that regionally aggregated psychological characteristics are related to important outcomes. However, much of the evidence comes from research that relied on methods that are theoretically ill-suited for working with spatial data. The validity and generalizability of this work are thus unclear. Here we address two main challenges of working with spatial data (i.e., modifiable areal unit problem and spatial dependencies) and evaluate data-analysis techniques designed to tackle those challenges. To illustrate these issues, we investigate the robustness of regional Big Five personality differences and their correlates within the United States (Study 1; N = 3,387,303) and Germany (Study 2; N = 110,029). First, we display regional personality differences using a spatial smoothing approach. Second, we account for the modifiable areal unit problem by examining the correlates of regional personality scores across multiple spatial levels. Third, we account for spatial dependencies using spatial regression models. Our results suggest that regional psychological differences are robust and can reliably be studied across countries and spatial levels. The results also show that ignoring the methodological challenges of spatial data can have serious consequences for research concerned with regional psychological differences.
... Аллика с соавт. (Allik et al., 2009) было охвачено 33 региона Российской Федерации, а общее количество респондентов превысило 7 тыс., в исследовании использовалась методика NEO-PI-R. Среди множества изучаемых параметров были рассмотрены также половые различия. ...
... Перспективами дальнейших исследований может стать улучшение репрезентативности выборки: расширение возрастного диапазона и выравнивание возрастных когорт, выравнивание выборки по полу, привлечение к исследованию жителей отдаленных округов и областей, ориентация не только на интересующихся сериалом «Игра престолов». Как показывает ряд исследований, личностные особенности могут серьезно различаться не только между странами, но и между регионами одной страны (Allik et al., 2009;Sugonyaev et al., 2019). Поэтому есть смысл определить тестовые нормы не только по возрасту и полу, но также по месту проживания. ...
The article examines the relationship between characteristics of text messages, composed by users of social network (VKontakte), and intelligence. The analysis is conducted on the regional level: we compared the regional IQ with the text parameters averaged over the users living in one region. The text parameters include formal, grammatical and emotional indexes. The regional IQ is computed as an average z-score of the Unified State Examination score (high school entrants, 2018) and IQ score of the attendees to the volunteer military service. Four text parameters that can be considered as markers of the text cognitive complexity (mean word length, mean sentence length, percent of the parenthetic words and phrases, percent of the simple propositions) predicted regional IQ independently and explained 60% of its variance. Emotional index correlates with regional IQ, but does not predict regional IQ independently of cognitive complexity markers. Moreover, we revealed correlations between regional IQ and literacy of VKontakte users. The significancy of these results is creating the new IQ measure, which allows evaluating regional IQ and its dynamics by means of text analysis. The method has an advantage over the traditional psychometric IQ measures in this field of research. © 2021 National Research University Higher School of Economics. All rights reserved.
... The list of samples and their administrative names and geographical regions are given inTable 1 . Details of samples and procedure were described more completely in a previous report (Allik et al., 2009). The mean age of respondents was 20.9 years (SD = 3.6), of whom 1,494 were males and 5,441 females (130 respondents did not report their sex). ...
... Older Russians might conform more to the traditional view of Russians. But if that were so, one would expect dramatic age differences between older and college-age targets in the present sample, whereas earlier analyses (Allik et al., 2009) showed that age differences in Russia closely resemble those found around the world. For example, older Russians are not Oblomov-like: They are rated higher on Conscientiousness than college-age Russians. ...
Many domestic and foreign observers have claimed that Russians have a unique constellation of personality traits that mirrors their distinctive historical and cultural experience. To examine the hypothesized uniqueness of Russian personality, members of the Russian Character and Personality Survey collected data from 39 samples in 33 administrative areas of the Russian Federation. Respondents (N = 7,065) identified an ethnically Russian adult or college-aged man or woman whom they knew well and rated the target using the Russian observer-rating version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. The mean personality profile of Russians was very similar to the international average based on 50 different countries, debunking the myth of a unique Russian soul. The small variations from world norms did not converge with depictions of Russian national character in fiction and the scholarly literature. New items intended to capture distinctive, emic aspects of Russian personality provided no new information beyond the familiar Big Five dimensions. Religion, ethnicity, and beliefs about the uniqueness of the Russian character and the malleability of personality traits had little effect on personality ratings. Perceptions of the Russian soul do not seem to be based on the personality traits of Russians.
... Аллика с соавт. (Allik et al., 2009) было охвачено 33 региона Российской Федерации, а общее количество респондентов превысило 7 тыс., в исследовании использовалась методика NEO-PI-R. Среди множества изучаемых параметров были рассмотрены также половые различия. ...
... Перспективами дальнейших исследований может стать улучшение репрезентативности выборки: расширение возрастного диапазона и выравнивание возрастных когорт, выравнивание выборки по полу, привлечение к исследованию жителей отдаленных округов и областей, ориентация не только на интересующихся сериалом «Игра престолов». Как показывает ряд исследований, личностные особенности могут серьезно различаться не только между странами, но и между регионами одной страны (Allik et al., 2009;Sugonyaev et al., 2019). Поэтому есть смысл определить тестовые нормы не только по возрасту и полу, но также по месту проживания. ...
The article is in Russian. For a related English-language paper, you may address: https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191119860901
The present article aims to assess psychometric characteristics of a Russian version of the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2). This questionnaire measures five basic personality domains, as well as three facets per domain. We collected data from an Internet sample comprised of 1,787 people (31.9% of men) aged from 14 to 54 years (M = 26.31; SD = 7.76). The study covered over ten regions of the Russian Federation. The factorial structure of the BFI-2 was examined using the principal component analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and random intercept exploratory factor analysis. The five-factor structure of the BFI-2 was confirmed both at the domain and facet levels. Strict measurement invariance was obtained across sex, making it possible to compare the questionnaire's raw scores when assessing sex differences. Sex differences obtained in this study were consistent with those published in the extant literature. Across the BFI-2 subscales, internal consistency measured by the Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega ranged from satisfactory to excellent. The Ferguson’s delta (adapted by M. Hankins) was high, showing that the Russian BFI-2 can distinguish individuals with various manifestations of a domain or facet. To summarize, the Russian version of the BFI-2 represents a reliable and valid tool for measuring the basic traits of personality.
Статья посвящена проверке психометрических характеристик русскоязычной версии методики Big Five Inventory-2. Данная методика измеряет пять черт личности, а также три аспекта (фасета) каждой черты. Сбор данных осуществлялся в сети Интернет, итоговая выборка составила 1787 человек (31.9% мужчин) в возрасте от 14 до 54 лет (M = 26.31; SD = 7.76). В ходе исследования было охвачено более десяти субъектов Российской Федерации. Структура опросника изучалась с помощью анализа главных компонент, конфирматорного факторного анализа и эксплораторного факторного анализа со случайным интерсептом (random intercept exploratory factor analysis). В результате была подтверждена структура опросника как на уровне шкал (черт), так и на уровне субшкал (аспектов черт). Оценка межгрупповой инвариантности показала, что можно говорить о строгой эквивалентности моделей в выборках по полу. Это позволяет сравнивать сырые баллы по шкалам и субшкалам опросника при оценке половых различий. Выявленные различия при сравнении по полу согласуются с имеющимися в науке данными о половых различиях в чертах. Надежность, измеренная, в частности, с помощью альфы Кронбаха и омеги Макдональда, продемонстрировала удовлетворительную, хорошую и высокую степень внутренней согласованности. Проверка дискриминативности шкал (коэффициент дельта Фергюсона в адаптации М. Хэнкинса) показала высокую степень способности опросника дифференцировать испытуемых по степени выраженности изучаемых признаков. Таким образом, русскоязычная версия опросника Big Five Inventory-2 может считаться надежным и валидным инструментом для измерения основополагающих черт личности и их аспектов.
... The purpose of this study is to identify factors that are associated with young Russians' happiness and life satisfaction. In the Russian Character and Personality Survey (RCPS; Allik et al., 2009;Allik et al., 2011), more than 10,000 participants from 40 universities or colleges from 34 federal constituents (republics and other administrative areas) contributed to the survey in 2006 to 2007. Participants were students with a mean age of around 21 years. ...
... Data were collected during the period 2006 to 2007. More precise information about RCPS can be found in our previous publications (Allik et al., 2010;Allik et al., 2009;Allik et al., 2011). ...
Participants (N = 10,672 with the mean age of 20.7 years) of the Russian Character and Personality Survey (RCPS), involving 40 universities or colleges from across the Russian Federation, rated their happiness and satisfaction with life; the ratings were combined into an index of subjective well-being (SWB). Using the National Character Survey (NCS), participants also rated their own personality characteristics as well as those of an ideal person and a typical Russian living in their own region. Only two personality (test) subscales—N3: Depression and E6: Positive Emotions—were correlated with SWB on the between-individual level of analysis. Although spiritual values associated with a negative attitude toward money are typically regarded as an essential part of the Russian national character, our results demonstrated that only satisfaction with one’s own financial situation was a reliable predictor of SWB. In those regions where people had, on average, a higher life expectancy, better education, and a higher level of wealth, individuals also tended to be happier and more satisfied with their lives.
... An alternative to the use of distinct norms in situation where normative samples do not exist for all measurement instruments and types of ratings is to choose a reference country where all ratings -on the NEO PI-R and the NCS as well as ratings of stereotypes and of real people -are available. In the Russian Character and Personality Survey ( Allik et al., 2009Allik et al., , 2010Allik et al., , 2011), approximately 11 000 Russian students rated themselves using the NCS, more than 3600 Russian students rated a typical Russian using the NCS, and more than 7000 students rated someone they knew well using the NEO PI-R. Furthermore, the normative Russian self-reported NEO PI-R data are available in the Russian NEO PI-R professional manual (Martin et al., 2002). ...
... Self-reports on the NEO PI-R were standardized using Russian norms from 1080 participants (Martin et al., 2002) and using the Ameri- can norms for the NEO PI-R self-reports (in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland) and observer ratings (in Slovakia) taken from the professional manual (McCrae, 2002). 7 Observer ratings from Slovakia on NEO PI-R were standardized using observer ratings from 7,065 Russians ( Allik et al., 2009) and 143 Americans (McCrae, 2002). ...
We compared different methodological approaches in research on the accuracy of national stereotypes that use aggregated mean scores of real people's personality traits as criteria for stereotype accuracy. Our sample comprised 16,713 participants from the Central Europe and 1,090 participants from the Baltic Sea region. Participants rated national stereotypes of their own country using the National Character Survey (NCS) and their personality traits using either the Revised NEO Personality Inventory or the NCS. We examined the effects of different (i) methods for rating of real people (Revised NEO Personality Inventory vs. NCS) and national stereotypes (NCS); (ii) norms for converting raw scores into T‐scores (Russian vs. international norms); and (iii) correlation techniques (intraclass correlations vs. Pearson correlations vs. rank‐order correlations) on the resulting agreement between the ratings of national stereotypes and real people. We showed that the accuracy of national stereotypes depended on the employed methodology. The accuracy was the highest when ratings of real people and national stereotypes were made using the same method and when rank order correlations were used to estimate the agreement between national stereotypes and personality profiles of real people. We propose a new statistical procedure for determining national stereotype accuracy that overcomes limitations of past studies. We provide methodological recommendations applicable to a wider range of cross national stereotype accuracy studies. Copyright © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology
... Interestingly, Latvia and Lithuania, two newcomers, landed on the map very close to Russia. Although in the national character stereotypes they oppose themselves to Russians (Realo et al., 2009), their objectively assessed personality traits show very little differences from the average personality traits of Russians. The personality profile of Sardinians-ITA(S)-was closer to the center of the circle than the location of other Italian samples. ...
... Besides, even experts in cross-cultural psychology were unable to judge the ranking of countries or cultures on objectively measured personality traits (McCrae, 2001). Even the collective wisdom of a large number of lay people is not helpful in this regard because national character stereotypes rarely converge with assessed personality traits (Allik, Alyamkina, & Meshcheryakov, 2015;McCrae, Terracciano, Realo, & Allik, 2007;Realo et al., 2009;Terracciano, Abdel-Khalek, et al., 2005). ...
The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and its latest version, the NEO-PI-3, were designed to measure 30 distinctive personality traits, which are grouped into Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness domains. The mean self-rated NEO-PI-R scores for 30 subscales have been reported for 36 countries or cultures in 2002. As a follow-up, this study reports the mean scores of the NEO-PI-R/3 for 71,870 participants from 76 samples and 62 different countries or cultures and 37 different languages. Mean differences in personality traits across countries and cultures were about 8.5 times smaller than differences between any two individuals randomly selected from these samples. Nevertheless, a multidimensional scaling of similarities and differences in the mean profile shape showed a clear clustering into distinctive groups of countries or cultures. This study provides further evidence that country/culture mean scores in personality are replicable and can provide reliable information about personality dispositions.
... An alternative to the use of distinct norms in situation where normative samples do not exist for all measurement instruments and types of ratings is to choose a reference country where all ratings -on the NEO PI-R and the NCS as well as ratings of stereotypes and of real people -are available. In the Russian Character and Personality Survey ( Allik et al., 2009Allik et al., , 2010Allik et al., , 2011), approximately 11 000 Russian students rated themselves using the NCS, more than 3600 Russian students rated a typical Russian using the NCS, and more than 7000 students rated someone they knew well using the NEO PI-R. Furthermore, the normative Russian self-reported NEO PI-R data are available in the Russian NEO PI-R professional manual (Martin et al., 2002). ...
... Self-reports on the NEO PI-R were standardized using Russian norms from 1080 participants (Martin et al., 2002) and using the American norms for the NEO PI-R self-reports (in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland) and observer ratings (in Slovakia) taken from the professional manual (McCrae, 2002). 7 Observer ratings from Slovakia on NEO PI-R were standardized using observer ratings from 7,065 Russians ( Allik et al., 2009) and 143 Americans (McCrae, 2002). ...
... Figure 3 shows that in general, for adult users (18 or over) the amount of information decreased as the user got older. In fact, studies in personalities of Russian people indicated that young people (< 35 years) were more extroverted and open than older users, and this finding was cross culturally uniform (Allik et al, 2009). ...
... It appeared that age 30 was an important turning point for disclosure patterns. Perhaps this is related to the diminishing change in personality after age 30 (McCrae and Costa, 2003), a phenomenon observed in cross cultural context, including Russia (Allik et al, 2009). ...
Online social network services (SNS) provide an unprecedented rich source of information about millions of users worldwide.
However, most existing studies of this emerging phenomenon are limited to relatively small data samples, with an emphasis
on mostly “western” online communities (such as Facebook and MySpace users in Western countries). To understand the cultural
characteristics of users of online social networks, this paper explores the behavioral patterns of more than 16 million users
of a popular social network in the Russian segment of the Internet, namely, My.Mail.Ru (also known as “My World” or “Moj Mir”
in Russian). Our main goal is to study the self-disclosure patterns of the site users as a function of their age and gender.
We compare the findings of our analysis to the previous studies on Western users of SNS and discuss the culturally distinctive
aspects. Our study highlights some important cultural differences in usage patterns among Russian users, which call for further
studies in SNS in various cultural contexts.
KeywordsAge differences–Correspondence analysis–Cultural differences–Clustering–Gender differences–Information disclosure–Multidimensional scaling–Self-disclosure–Social networking sites
... Ample evidence from geographical psychology documents personality variation across macroenvironments, such as countries (e.g., McCrae & Terracciano, 2005;Schmitt et al., 2007), administrative areas (e.g., Allik et al., 2009;Ebert et al., 2021), cities (e.g., Bleidorn et al., 2016;Wei et al., 2017), and neighborhoods (e.g., Jokela, 2020;Jokela et al., 2015). What drives the formation of these patterns? ...
Objective:
Personality traits cluster across countries, regions, cities, and neighborhoods. What drives the formation of these clusters? Ecological theory suggests that physical locations shape humans' patterns of behaviors and psychological characteristics. Based on this theory, we examined whether and how differential land-usage relates to individual personality.
Method:
We followed a preregistered three-pronged analysis approach to investigate the associations between personality (N= 2,690,878) and land-usage across the United States. We used eleven land-usage categories to classify landscapes and tested their association with personality against broad physical and socioeconomic factors.
Results:
Urban areas were positively associated with openness to experience and negatively associated with conscientiousness. Coastal areas were positively associated with openness to experience and neuroticism, but negatively associated with agreeableness and conscientiousness. Cultivated areas were negatively associated with openness. Landscapes at the periphery of human activity, such as shrubs, bare lands, or permanent snows, were not reliably associated with personality traits.
Conclusions:
Bivariate correlations, multilevel, and random forest models uncovered robust associations between landscapes and personality traits. These findings align with ecological theory suggesting that an individual's environment contributes to their behaviors, thoughts, and feelings.
... Powered by the rise of big data, over the past 15 years, an emerging new literature has begun to accumulate evidence for intranational (i.e., within-country) geographical variation in diverse aspects of personality (Rentfrow et al., 2008;Götz et al., 2022). Since then, systematic spatial clustering of personality characteristics has been shown to exist in various countries around the globe, such as China (Talhelm et al., 2014), Germany , Japan (Yoshino & Oshio, 2022), Russia (Allik et al., 2009), Switzerland (Götz et al., 2018), the U.K. (Jokela et al., 2015), and the U.S. (Rentfrow, 2010). These intranational personality differences are related to a range of consequential political, economic, social, and health outcomes on both the macro-and the micro-level. ...
... There are numerous accounts of the personality traits of individuals who live in different parts of China, with some inhabitants being described as pleasant and naïve and others as rude and pushy [1]. Geographical variation of personality traits has been observed in many nations including the United States [2][3][4], Switzerland [5], the Russian Federation [6], and Great Britain [7,8]. To interpret the geographical differences in human personality, researchers have looked into various possible mechanisms, such as climate [9], selective migration [10], sociocultural legacies [11], and physical topography [2]. ...
Recent psychological research shown that the places where we live are linked to our personality traits. Geographical aggregation of personalities has been observed in many individualistic nations; notably, the mountainousness is an essential component in understanding regional variances in personality. Could mountainousness therefore also explain the clustering of personality-types in collectivist countries like China? Using a nationwide survey (29,838 participants) in Mainland China, we investigated the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and mountainousness indicators at the provincial level. Multilevel modelling showed significant negative associations between the elevation coefficient of variation (Elevation CV) and the Big Five personality traits, whereas mean elevation (Elevation Mean) and the standard deviation in elevation (Elevation STD) were positively associated with human personalities. Subsequent machine learning analyses showed that, for example, Elevation Mean outperformed other mountainousness indicators regarding correlations with neuroticism, while Elevation CV performed best relative to openness models. Our results mirror some previous findings, such as the positive association between openness and Elevation STD, while also revealing cultural differences, such as the social desirability of people living in China’s mountainous areas.
... In the US, for example, the personality trait openness is highest in Washington, DC, New York, Oregon, Massachusetts, Washington State, and California, and lowest in Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Kentucky, and Alabama. Regional personality differences have also been observed at other geographic units of analysis (e.g., counties, cities, neighborhoods) as well as within nations other than the US (Allik et al. 2009;Jokela et al. 2015;Rentfrow, Jokela, and Lamb 2015;Wei et al. 2017;Götz, Ebert, and Rentfrow 2018;Obschonka et al. 2018;Ebert et al. 2019). Crucially, regional personality differences have been linked to important regional macrolevel outcomes ranging from voting behavior (Garretsen et al. 2018a;Obschonka et al. 2018) and drug use (Harrington and Gelfand 2014) to entrepreneurship (Obschonka et al. 2015;Stuetzer et al. 2016;Tavassoli, Obschonka, and Audretsch 2021) and economic performance Garretsen et al. 2018b;Stuetzer et al. 2018). ...
Breakthrough innovations are expected to have a bigger impact on local economies than incremental innovations do. Yet past research has largely neglected the regional drivers of breakthrough innovations. Building on theories that highlight the role of personality psychology and human agency in shaping regional innovation cultures, we focus on psychological openness as a potential explanation for why some regions produce more breakthrough innovations than others do. We use a large data set of psychological personality profiles (∼1.26M individuals) to estimate the openness of people in metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the US. Our results reveal that psychological openness is strongly associated with the emergence of breakthrough innovations but not with the emergence of incremental innovations. The findings remained robust after controlling for an extensive set of predictors of regional innovation such as star inventors, star scientists, or knowledge diversity. The results held even when we used tolerance as an alternative indicator of openness. Taken together, our results provide robust evidence that openness is relevant for regional innovation performance, serving as an important predictor for breakthrough innovations but not for incremental innovations.
... There are nine key themes that defined by walkability: traversable environments, compact places, safe for walking, physically enticing environment, lively and sociable, sustainable transportation, exercise-inducing environment, proxy for better design (Claris et al., 2016). Studies on the geographical factors of personality differences have supported the presupposition of the association between individual personality and different environmental attribution of regions (Allik et al., 2009;Buecker et al., 2020;Rentfrow, 2010), cities (Bleidorn et al., 2016;Wei et al., 2017) and neighbourhoods (Jokela, 2020;Jokela et al., 2015). ...
Walkability has now been a popular policy to be adopted in the city centre as traffic congestion and inefficient public transportation have affected the mobility of the urban users prior to the pandemic. The pandemic has paved more efforts to improve the design of urban spaces to increase walkability in the cities. In the attempt to predict walking activity amongst Malaysian adults psychologically, a personality test using Big Five Aspect Scales (BFAS) was conducted in relation to individual walking frequency in urban settings. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyze the predicting capacity of personality constructs control by general intelligence in relation to walking behaviour. The results show that the higher order meta-traits of the big five personality traits which are Stability (Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) and Plasticity (Extraversion and Openness to Experience) can be used as a reliable predictor for individual walking behaviour. As hypothesized, walking behaviour amongst Malaysians was characterized by reversed Stability (r = -.58) and high Plasticity (r = .76). The implication suggested the necessity of cognitive navigability and design predictability metrics of urban design cognitive performance in influencing the psychological factor of walking behaviour
... Over the course of the past decade, personality differences within nations have received strong empirical support (Rentfrow, 2014b). While most research originates from the United States (Levine et al., 1994(Levine et al., , 2008Conway et al., 2001;Florida, 2002Florida, , 2014Park et al., 2006;Rentfrow et al., 2008;Park and Peterson, 2010;Rentfrow, 2010;Harrington and Gelfand, 2014;Graham et al., 2016;Bach et al., 2017;Chopik and Motyl, 2017;Findley and Brown, 2017), similar patterns have been observed in other countries such as Italy (Camperio Ciani et al., 2007;Camperio Ciani and Capiluppi, 2011), Japan (Kitayama et al., 2006), Russia (Allik et al., 2009), the UK , and China (Wei et al., 2017). Attesting to their realworld importance, regional personality differences have been linked to a host of critical outcomes, such as personal wellbeing (Rentfrow et al., 2009), emotional health (McCann, 2011), smoking prevalence (McCann, 2010, suicide rates (Voracek, 2009), drug use, discrimination, incarceration rates (Harrington and Gelfand, 2014), entrepreneurial activity (Obschonka et al., 2013(Obschonka et al., , 2015, patent production (Lee, 2017) and economic resilience (Obschonka et al., 2016). ...
The present study extended traditional nation-based research on person-culture-fit to the regional level. First, we examined the geographical distribution of Big Five personality traits in Switzerland. Across the 26 Swiss cantons, unique patterns were observed for all traits. For Extraversion and Neuroticism clear language divides emerged between the French-and Italian-speaking SouthWest vs. the German-speaking NorthEast. Second, multilevel modeling demonstrated that person-environment-fit in Big Five, composed of elevation (i.e., mean differences between individual profile and cantonal profile), scatter (differences in mean variances) and shape (Pearson correlations between individual and cantonal profiles across all traits; Furr, 2008, 2010), predicted the development of subjective wellbeing (i.e., life satisfaction, satisfaction with personal relationships, positive affect, negative affect) over a period of 4 years. Unexpectedly, while the effects of shape were in line with the person-environment-fit hypothesis (better fit predicted higher subjective wellbeing), the effects of scatter showed the opposite pattern, while null findings were observed for elevation. Across a series of robustness checks, the patterns for shape and elevation were consistently replicated. While that was mostly the case for scatter as well, the effects of scatter appeared to be somewhat less robust and more sensitive to the specific way fit was modeled when predicting certain outcomes (negative affect, positive affect). Distinguishing between supplementary and complementary fit may help to reconcile these findings and future research should explore whether and if so under which conditions these concepts may be applicable to the respective facets of person-culture-fit.
... The most striking differences in various geographical areas reveal the characteristics of "neuroticism" and "openness". In particular, a number of studies have shown differences in the expression of these characteristics between various regions in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation ( Allik et al., 2009;Gebauer, et al, 2014;Rentfrow, Gosling, Potter, 2008;Rentfrow et al., 2013;). Neuroticism tends to be high from the Mid-Atlantic region to the South, gradually declining westward. ...
The article analyses the development of environmental approach to explore personality’s wellbeing, health and happiness systems in psychology and education.
Revision of one hundred sources about the environmental approach allowed us to reveal the main trends in the development of theoretical and applied areas in psychology, psychotherapy and education. Different viewpoints on interaction mechanisms in the person-environment system in the article were examined. They are congruence theories of person-environment interaction (Kahana, 1982), “Dynamic features and person-environmental resources” conception of Moos (1991), “Four-front approach” of Wright and Lopez (2002) and “Engagement model of person-environment interaction” of Neufeld et al. (2006). The current state of the environmental approach in applied areas of psychology and education focuses on the conditions, which should provide personality’s harmonious development, and allow removing or minimization stress factors that violate personal well-being. These conditions, in general, presuppose an orientation toward the natural environment as a resource for the human psyche as well as the active inclusion of a person in the care of the environment and formation of ecological consciousness. The review of inter-level representations current state interactions in the “person-environment” system covers the fields of “intercultural psychology”, “geographical psychology”, “ecological psychology” and “environmental psychotherapy”.
In conclusion, modern person-environment system representation was shown. It contributes preservation and restoration to personality’s well-being and mental health system, assumes a person position as an active subject of interaction with environment. It is important to perceive nature as a harmony and health source for modern person who lives mostly in built environment and to develop ecological consciousness that means to take responsibility for the environment.
... Sex differences are not limited to self-reports (Costa et al., 2001); observer-ratings reveal similar patterns (Allik et al., 2009;McCrae, Terracciano, & 78 Members of the Personal Profiles of Cultures Project, 2005). Moreover, effects for N and A have been found across a range of measurement instruments including those based on the five-factor taxonomy (e.g., Revised NEO Personality Inventory [NEO-PI-R], NEO Personality Inventory-3 [NEO-PI-3], and Big Five Inventory; Benet-Martinez & John, 1998;Costa & McCrae, 1992;De Bolle et al., 2013;Goodwin & Gotlib, 2004;Lehmann, Denissen, Allemand, & Penke, 2013;McCrae, Terracciano, & 78 Members of the Personal Profiles of Cultures Project, 2005;Schmitt et al., 2008) as well as alternative models of personality (e.g., Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Temperament and Character Inventory, and International Personality Item Pool; Lippa, 2010;Lynn & Martin, 1997;Miettunen, Veijola, Lauronen, Kantojarvi, & Joukamaa, 2007). ...
Abstract
Numerous studies have documented subtle but consistent sex differences in self-reports and
observer-ratings of five-factor personality traits, and such effects were found to show welldefined
developmental trajectories and remarkable similarity across nations. In contrast, very
little is known about perceived gender differences in five-factor traits in spite of their potential
implications for gender biases at the interpersonal and societal level. In particular, it is not clear
how perceived gender differences in five-factor personality vary across age groups and national
contexts and to what extent they accurately reflect assessed sex differences in personality. To
address these questions, we analyzed responses from 3,323 individuals across 26 nations (mean
age = 22.3 years, 31% male) who were asked to rate the five-factor personality traits of typical
men or women in three age groups (adolescent, adult, and older adult) in their respective nations.
Raters perceived women as slightly higher in openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness
as well as some aspects of extraversion and neuroticism. Perceived gender differences were
fairly consistent across nations and target age groups and mapped closely onto assessed sex
differences in self- and observer-rated personality. Associations between the average size of
perceived gender differences and national variations in sociodemographic characteristics, value
systems, or gender equality did not reach statistical significance. Findings contribute to our
understanding of the underlying mechanisms of gender stereotypes of personality and suggest
that perceptions of actual sex differences may play a more important role than culturally based
gender roles and socialization processes.
520075JCCXXX10.1177/0022022113520075Journal of Cross-Cultural PsychologyLöckenhoff et al.
research-article2014
... These results may be surprising in that they imply that behavioral variation across countries is not much larger than behavioral variation within countries. However, Guillaume et al. (2016) reported, similarly, that situational experiences were only slightly more similar across individuals within countries compared to those of individuals across 20 countries (see also Allik et al., 2009;Hanel, Maio & Manstead, 2016;Tsai & Chentsova-Dutton, 2003). ...
While a large body of research has investigated cultural differences in behavior, the typical study assesses a single behavioral outcome, in a single context, compared across two countries. The current study compared a broad array of behaviors across 21 countries (N=5,522). Participants described their behavior at 7:00 p.m. the previous evening using the 68 items of the Riverside Behavioral Q-sort (RBQ). Correlations between average patterns of behavior in each country ranged from r=.69 to r=.97 and, in general, described a positive and relaxed activity. The most similar patterns were USA/Canada and least similar were Japan/UAE. Similarities in behavior within countries were largest in Spain and smallest in the UAE. Further analyses correlated average RBQ item placements in each country with, among others, country-level value dimensions, personality traits, self-esteem levels, economic output, and population. Extraversion, openness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, self-esteem, happiness, and tolerant attitudes yielded more significant correlations than expected by chance.
... dies) leave the Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Poland) to U.S., Western and Southern Europe (Robila, 2010). Furthermore the higher levels of education provide a greater capacity to speak foreign languages fluently which leads to better adjustment and greater job opportunities. Moreover, concerning personality characteristics, a study conducted by Allik et. al. (2009) on most common personality traits in Eastern European population using the Big Five Questionnaire (Allik and McCrae, 2002; Costa and McCrea, 1992) revealed Conscientiousness and Neuroticism as typical aspects of this population rather than Openness and Agreeableness. ...
... For example, if respondents were asked to describe an ideal person their ratings were highly correlated with their self-description. These descriptions were, in turn, correlated with personality descriptions attributed to the typical representative of their own nation Allik, Mõttus, et al., 2009). Thus, along with the distinctive personality traits ratings there are also components representing information about an average person and social desirability. ...
and Keywords Personality psychologists—perhaps even more than in some other disciplines—are deeply interested in what is common to personality descriptions in all cultures and societies. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the potential universality of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of general personality structure. The chapter begins with a discussion of what is meant, or should be meant, by a universal. Discussed then is the empirical support, as well as the conceptual and empirical difficulty, in establishing universality in personality structure, for the FFM as well as other dimensional models. The chapter then considers different levels of analysis (including cultural and intraindividual analyses), higher-order invariants (including sex differences, age differences, and differences in perspective), and whether mean levels are universal. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the basis for personality universals, as well as addressing the common challenges to universality.
... McCrae i in., 2005a) lub też porównywano profi le cech psychologicznych w ramach tego samego kraju, ale obliczonych dla różnych jego regionów, jak w przypadku np. Rosji (Allik i in., 2009). W badaniach, traktujących jako punkt wyjścia pięcioczynnikowy model osobowości (PMO) Costy i McCrae, przedmiotem analiz były dane pochodzące nie tylko z samoopisów (McCrae i in., 2005a), lecz także osobno przeanalizowano dane pochodzące z opisów osób znanych obserwatorowi (McCrae i in., 2005b) oraz opisy prototypowych przedstawicieli swojego narodu, które określano jako stereotypy charakteru narodowego (Terracciano i in., 2005). ...
Na podstawie agregacji danych zebranych od 279 osób w wieku 16–70 lat, które opisywały 40 krajów za
pomocą listy przymiotników dyspozycyjnych (Gorbaniuk, Omiotek, 2011), ustalono, że na poziomie indywidualnym
i kulturowym wymiary percepcji/dyferencjacji wizerunków krajów są identyczne: agresywność,
kompetencja i spontaniczność. Wyodrębniona struktura na poziomie kulturowym tłumaczy 87% wariancji
wizerunków krajów oraz 92% wariancji zagregowanej postawy wobec kraju. Wizerunki krajów skorelowano
z dostępnymi wskaźnikami makropsychologicznymi, makrospołecznymi, makrogospodarczymi oraz
ogólnoświatowymi indeksami rozwoju. Wyniki analiz na poziomie kulturowym wskazują na względnie
wysoką trafność percepcji krajów przez Polaków, co ma uzasadnienie w obiektywnych makrowskaźnikach.
... For example, state-level Openness is related to liberal public opinion, human capital, and economic prosperity [4,8,31,32]; Agreeableness is linked to economic equality, social capital, and low crime [6,33]; and Neuroticism is related to various indicators of poor health [4,[34][35][36]. There is also evidence for regional personality differences across the Russian Federation, which showed links between high Openness and economic prosperity [37]. The associations between aggregate-level personality traits and PESH outcomes indicate that the psychological characteristics that are prevalent in a region are associated with a range of important macro-level indicators, from voting patterns and academic achievement to crime and mortality. ...
Recent investigations indicate that personality traits are unevenly distributed geographically, with some traits being more prevalent in certain places than in others. The geographical distributions of personality traits are associated with a range of important political, economic, social, and health outcomes. The majority of research on this subject has focused on the geographical distributions and macro-level correlates of personality across nations or regions of the United States. The aim of the present investigation was to replicate and extend that past work by examining regional personality differences in Great Britain. Using a sample of nearly 400,000 British residents, we mapped the geographical distributions of the Big Five Personality traits across 380 Local Authority Districts and examined the associations with important political, economic, social, and health outcomes. The results revealed distinct geographical clusters, with neighboring regions displaying similar personality characteristics, and robust associations with the macro-level outcome variables. Overall, the patterns of results were similar to findings from past research.
... In particular, our own sample, diverse as it is, lacks participants from Central and South America, India, and the Middle East. In addition, important cultural variation often can be found within nations (e.g., Allik et al., 2009;Tsai & Chentsova-Dutton, 2003). ...
Objective: The purpose of this research is to quantitatively compare everyday situational experience around the world.
Method: 5447 members of college communities in 20 countries, recruited by local collaborators, provided data via a website in 14 languages. Using the 89 items of the Riverside Situational Qsort (RSQ), participants described the situation they experienced the previous evening at 7pm.
Results: Correlations among the average situational profiles of each country ranged from r = .73 to r = .95; the typical situation was described as largely pleasant. Most similar were USA/Canada; least similar were South Korea/Denmark. Japan had the most homogenous situational experience, South Korea, the least. The 15 RSQ items varying the most across countries described relatively negative aspects of situational experience; the 15 least varying items were more positive. Further analyses correlated RSQ items with national scores on six value dimensions, the Big Five traits, economic output, and population. Individualism, Openness and Gross Domestic Product yielded more significant correlations than expected by chance.
Conclusion: Psychological research traditionally has paid more attention to the assessment of persons than of situations, a discrepancy that extends to cross‐cultural psychology. The present study demonstrates how cultures vary in situational experience in psychologically meaningful ways.
... There is a substantive literature on mean-level personality development, with numerous crosssectional [1][2][3][4][5] and longitudinal [6,4,7] studies being available. Most recent of the studies have been based on the Five-Factor Model of personality (FFM) [8], which describes personality differences using five broad trait domains: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness (to Experience), Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. ...
The study investigated differences in the Five-Factor Model (FFM) domains and facets across adulthood. The main questions were whether personality scales reflected coherent units of trait development and thereby coherent personality traits more generally. These questions were addressed by testing if the components of the trait scales (items for facet scales and facets for domain scales) showed consistent age group differences. For this, measurement invariance (MI) framework was used. In a sample of 2,711 Estonians who had completed the NEO Personality Inventory 3 (NEO PI-3), more than half of the facet scales and one domain scale did not meet the criterion for weak MI (factor loading equality) across 12 age groups spanning ages from 18 to 91 years. Furthermore, none of the facet and domain scales met the criterion for strong MI (intercept equality), suggesting that items of the same facets and facets of the same domains varied in age group differences. When items were residualized for their respective facets, 46% of them had significant (p textless 0.0002) residual age-correlations. When facets were residualized for their domain scores, a majority had significant (p textless 0.002) residual age-correlations. For each domain, a series of latent factors were specified using random quarters of their items: scores of such latent factors varied notably (within domains) in correlations with age. We argue that manifestations of aetiologically coherent traits should show similar age group differences. Given this, the FFM domains and facets as embodied in the NEO PI-3 do not reflect aetiologically coherent traits.
... Sex differences are not limited to self-reports (Costa et al., 2001); observer-ratings reveal similar patterns (Allik et al., 2009;McCrae, Terracciano, & 78 Members of the Personal Profiles of Cultures Project, 2005). Moreover, effects for N and A have been found across a range of measurement instruments including those based on the five-factor taxonomy (e.g., Revised NEO Personality Inventory [NEO-PI-R], NEO Personality Inventory-3 [NEO-PI-3], and Big Five Inventory; Benet-Martinez & John, 1998;Costa & McCrae, 1992;De Bolle et al., 2013;Goodwin & Gotlib, 2004;Lehmann, Denissen, Allemand, & Penke, 2013;McCrae, Terracciano, & 78 Members of the Personal Profiles of Cultures Project, 2005;Schmitt et al., 2008) as well as alternative models of personality (e.g., Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Temperament and Character Inventory, and International Personality Item Pool; Lippa, 2010;Lynn & Martin, 1997;Miettunen, Veijola, Lauronen, Kantojarvi, & Joukamaa, 2007). ...
Numerous studies have documented subtle but consistent sex differences in self-reports and observer-ratings of five-factor personality traits, and such effects were found to show well-defined developmental trajectories and remarkable similarity across nations. In contrast, very little is known about perceived gender differences in five-factor traits in spite of their potential implications for gender biases at the interpersonal and societal level. In particular, it is not clear how perceived gender differences in five-factor personality vary across age groups and national contexts and to what extent they accurately reflect assessed sex differences in personality. To address these questions, we analyzed responses from 3,323 individuals across 26 nations (mean age = 22.3 years, 31% male) who were asked to rate the five-factor personality traits of typical men or women in three age groups (adolescent, adult, and older adult) in their respective nations. Raters perceived women as slightly higher in openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness as well as some aspects of extraversion and neuroticism. Perceived gender differences were fairly consistent across nations and target age groups and mapped closely onto assessed sex differences in self-and observer-rated personality. Associations between the average size of perceived gender differences and national variations in sociodemographic characteristics, value systems, or gender equality did not reach statistical significance. Findings contribute to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of gender stereotypes of personality and suggest that perceptions of actual sex differences may play a more important role than culturally based gender roles and socialization processes. 520075J CCXXX10.1177/0022022113520075Journal of Cross-Cultural PsychologyLöckenhoff et al.
... The second group of participants from each sample were asked to identify an ethnically Russian adult or a college-aged man or woman whom they knew well and rate the target using the observer rating version of the Russian NEO-PI-R [31]. For details about the procedure and results, see the other study [5]. Overall, the second group of participants included 7,157 students (78% women) with the mean age of 20.9 ± 3.6 years (see Table 1). ...
... This conceptualization, in turn, provides a certain justification for the adequacy of two-culture comparisons, one culture typically from the affluent West (United States or Canada), the other from East Asia, typically represented by China (most often Hong Kong), Japan, or Korea. In some cases, this conceptualization serves as a good excuse for avoiding more informative but less accessible comparisons to, say, African cultures (Rossier, Dahourou, & McCrae, 2005;Rossier, Rigozzi, & Personality Across Culture Research Group, 2008) or cultures populating other non-Western countries such as the Russian Federation (Allik et al., 2009. In fact, assessing cultural differences more accurately and with a larger set of indicators is one of the major goals we must strive to achieve to significantly improve cross-cultural research in the near future (Duarte & Rossier, 2008). ...
A review of nearly three decades of cross-cultural research shows that this domain still has to address several issues regarding the biases of data collection and sampling methods, the lack of clear and consensual definitions of constructs and variables, and measurement invariance issues that seriously limit the comparability of results across cultures. Indeed, a large majority of the existing studies are still based on the anthropological model, which compares two cultures and mainly uses convenience samples of university students. This paper stresses the need to incorporate a larger variety of regions and cultures in the research designs, the necessity to theorize and identify a larger set of variables in order to describe a human environment, and the importance of overcoming methodological weaknesses to improve the comparability of measurement results. Cross-cultural psychology is at the next crossroads in it’s development, and researchers can certainly make major contributions to this domain if they can address these weaknesses and challenges. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Culture-and-personality studies were central to social science in the early 20th century and have recently been revived (as personality-and-culture studies) by trait and cross-cultural psychologists. In this article we comment on conceptual issues, including the nature of traits and the nature of the personality-and-culture relationship, and we describe methodological challenges in understanding associations between features of culture and aspects of personality. We give an overview of research hypothesizing the shaping of personality traits by culture, reviewing studies of indigenous traits, acculturation and sojourner effects, birth cohorts, social role changes, and ideological interventions. We also consider the possibility that aggregate traits affect culture, through psychological means and gene flow. In all these cases we highlight alternative explanations and the need for designs and analyses that strengthen the interpretation of observations. We offer a set of testable hypotheses based on the premises that personality is adequately described by Five-Factor Theory, and that observed differences in aggregate personality traits across cultures are veridical. It is clear that culture has dramatic effects on the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from which we infer traits, but it is not yet clear whether, how, and in what degree culture shapes traits themselves.
Objective:
One large focus of personality psychology is to understand the biopsychosocial factors responsible for adult personality development and well-being change. However, little is known about how macro-level contextual factors, such as rurality-urbanicity, are related to personality development and well-being change.
Method:
The present study uses data from two large longitudinal studies of U.S. Americans (MIDUS, HRS) to examine whether there are rural-urban differences in levels and changes in the Big Five personality traits and well-being (i.e., psychological well-being, and life satisfaction) in adulthood.
Results:
Multilevel models showed that Americans who lived in more rural areas tended to have lower levels of openness, conscientiousness, and psychological well-being, and higher levels of neuroticism. With the exception of psychological well-being (which replicated across MIDUS and HRS), rural-urban differences in personality traits were only evident in the HRS sample. The effect of neuroticism was fully robust to the inclusion of socio-demographic and social network covariates, but other effects were partially robust (i.e., conscientiousness and openness) or were not robust at all (i.e., psychological well-being). In both samples, there were no rural-urban differences in Big Five or well-being change.
Conclusions:
We discuss the implications of these findings for personality and rural health research.
Some metropolitan areas (e.g., Berlin, New York) have a cosmopolitan culture. That is, they serve as centers of economic development and value diversity, creativity, and equality. These areas offer economic and creative opportunities that are open to anyone willing to take a risk. Therefore, such cities may attract people who are high in risk-taking. We first showed that real-world risk-taking is more common in cities with a more cosmopolitan culture (Study 1). Second, we found that people who are more prone to risk-taking as measured by self-report (Studies 2a and 2b) and observed behavior (Study 3, preregistered) have greater preferences for cosmopolitan cities as residential destinations. Third, we tested a causal link between risk-taking and preference for cosmopolitan cities. Inducing a prevention focus (known to inhibit risk-taking) reduced people's desire to settle in cosmopolitan cities (Study 4). We discuss implications for economic growth and migration to cosmopolitan cities.
Geographical personality differences robustly predict diverse consequential outcomes. However, comparatively little is known about the factors that create such differences, in particular the role of the built environment. To bridge the gap, the present study used a socioecological approach to examine the relationship between walkability and personality. Walkability reflects the degree to which urban areas are easily walkable and accessible for pedestrians. As such it is considered a defining feature of people's living environments. We utilized a large sample from the Data Sharing for Psychology in Japan (DSPJ) project, which assessed the Big Five personality traits of 5,141 Japanese residents. Walkability estimates were extracted from Walk Score, an established online platform, based on individuals' place of living. Building on prior research, we hypothesized that walkability would be positively linked to Agreeableness and Extraversion due to increased opportunities for social interactions and selective migration. Multiple regression analyses showed that walkability was positively related to Extraversion (B = 0.033; 95%CI [.019, .047]; β = 0.066), but not to Agreeableness. This pattern persisted in the presence of a conservative set of individual and socioecological controls. Taken together, our research suggests that walkable urban environments may be conducive to a more animated and lively social climate which is reflected in heightened extraversion among residents of such areas. As such it advances psych-geographical theory and our understanding of the role of the built environment in the emergence of geographical personality differences.
Geographical psychology is an area of research aimed at mapping the spatial organization of psychological phenomena, identifying the mechanisms responsible for their organization, and understanding how individual characteristics, social entities, and physical features of the environment contribute to their organization. Investigations of geographical variation in personality have revealed geographical differences in personality between and within nations. Three mechanisms that contribute to geographical variation are selective migration, social influence, and ecological influence. Results from studies in North America and Europe indicate that regional differences in personality are linked to political, economic, and health indicators. More work is necessary to understand the causal nature of the links between personality and macro-level outcomes, as well as the scale and impact of person-environment associations over time.
Juri Allik was born on March 3, 1949 in Tallinn, Estonia. He began his study of psychology at the University of Tartu in Estonia and received Ph.D. degrees from the University of Moscow in 1976 and the University of Tampere in Finland in 1991. He has taught at the University of Tartu throughout his career, and is now professor of psychology and chair of the Department of Psychology. He is a foreign member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters and a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. He served as president of the Estonian Psychological Association and is a recipient of the Estonian National Science Award in the Social Science category.
Anu Realo was born in Estonia and received her Ph.D. degree in psychology at the University of Tartu in 1999, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Research Group on Quantitative Psychology and Individual Differences at the University of Leuven in Belgium.
Do others perceive the personality changes that take place between the ages of 14 and 29 in a similar fashion as the aging person him- or herself? This cross-sectional study analyzed age trajectories in self- versus other-reported Big Five personality traits and in self-other agreement in a sample of more than 10,000 individuals from the myPersonality Project. Results for self-reported personality showed maturation effects (increases in extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and emotional stability), and this pattern was generally also reflected in other-reports, albeit with discrepancies regarding timing and magnitude. Age differences found for extraversion were similar between the self- and other-reports, but the increase found in self-reported conscientiousness was delayed in other-reports, and the curvilinear increase found in self-reported openness was slightly steeper in other-reports. Only emotional stability showed a distinct mismatch with an increase in self-reports, but no significant age effect in other-reports. Both the self- and other-reports of agreeableness showed no significant age trends. The trait correlations between the self- and other-reports increased with age for emotional stability, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness; by contrast, agreement regarding extraversion remained stable. The profile correlations confirmed increases in self-other agreement with age. We suggest that these gains in agreement are a further manifestation of maturation. Taken together, our analyses generally show commonalities but also some divergences in age-associated mean level changes between self- and other-reports of the Big Five, as well as an age trend towards increasing self-other agreement.
Do others perceive the personality changes that take place between the ages of 14 and 29 in a similar fashion as the aging person him- or herself? This cross-sectional study analyzed age trajectories in self- versus other-reported Big Five personality traits and in self-other agreement in a sample of more than 10,000 individuals from the myPersonality Project. Results for self-reported personality showed maturation effects (increases in extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and emotional stability), and this pattern was generally also reflected in other-reports, albeit with discrepancies regarding timing and magnitude. Age differences found for extraversion were similar between the self- and other-reports, but the increase found in self-reported conscientiousness was delayed in other-reports, and the curvilinear increase found in self-reported openness was slightly steeper in other-reports. Only emotional stability showed a distinct mismatch with an increase in self-reports, but no significant age effect in other-reports. Both the self- and other-reports of agreeableness showed no significant age trends. The trait correlations between the self- and other-reports increased with age for emotional stability, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness; by contrast, agreement regarding extraversion remained stable. The profile correlations confirmed increases in self-other agreement with age. We suggest that these gains in agreement are a further manifestation of maturation. Taken together, our analyses generally show commonalities but also some divergences in age-associated mean level changes between self- and other-reports of the Big Five, as well as an age trend towards increasing self-other agreement.
There is geographical variation in the ways in which people think, feel, and behave. How are we to understand the causes and consequences of such variation? Geographical psychology is an emerging subarea of research concerned with the spatial organization of psychological phenomena and how individual characteristics, social entities, and physical features of the environment contribute to their organization. Studies at multiple levels of analysis have indicated that social influence, ecological influence, and selective migration are key mechanisms that contribute to the spatial clustering of psychological characteristics. Investigations in multiple countries have shown that the psychological characteristics common in particular regions are respectively linked to important political, economic, and health indicators. Furthermore, results from large multilevel studies have shown that the psychological characteristics of individuals interact with features of the local environment to impact psychological development and well-being. Future research is needed to better understand the scale and impact of person-environment associations over time.
How culture and personality are interconnected is not a completely innocent question. Wars have been fought in science in favour and against whether genes or education and culture form a person's character and tendencies to think, feel or act in a certain particular way. On the background of these scientificwars, we provide an overview of what the cultural determination of a personality might mean. Everything seems to indicate that there cannot be a very rigid connection between culture and personality. It is not warranted to seek the influenceofcultureon personality everywhere; rather, one should look where it is to be most expected. For instance, there can be native attributes of personality that are inherent to only one culture yet are not found in others. The discovery of the effect of culture on personality in the course of acculturation is what is hoped for the most. Similarly, culture can use language to affect the attributes of personality. Ultimately, every generation describes the attributes of its own or someone else's personality a little bit differently. Unfortunately, all examples of such influencearenotparticularlyconvincing. All attempts thus far to ascertain whether culture affects personality or vice versa - if personality can affect culture - have not been particularly fruitful, primarily because there is no answer at such a general level, or that answer is not interesting.
I present a very broad overview of what I have learned about personality trait assessment at different levels and offer some views on future directions for research and clinical practice. I review some basic principles of scale development and argue that internal consistency has been overemphasized; more attention to retest reliability is needed. Because protocol validity is crucial for individual assessment and because validity scales have limited utility, I urge combining assessments from multiple informants, and I present some statistical tools for that purpose. As culture-level traits, I discuss ethos, national character stereotypes, and aggregated personality traits, and summarize evidence for the validity of the latter. Our understanding of trait profiles of cultures is limited, but it can guide future exploration.
Besides establishing national IQ levels, Richard Lynn also started and inspired studies attempting to find out regularities behind the national differences in personality. Recent large-scale collaborative projects involving hundreds of psychologists from about 50 countries allowed for determination of the aggregate national scores of personality for the most popular personality models, including the Big Five. These studies have already revealed several universal and geographically regular patterns in the global personality trait distributions. The area of the study of national differences in personality has arguably matured to a level where it can start to help solving fundamental problems such as the relationship between genes, culture, and personality.
Introduction. Stable individual differences in personality traits have well-documented associations with various aspects of health. One of the health outcomes that directly depends on people's behavioral choices, and may therefore be linked to personality traits, is having a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
Aim. The study examines the associations between a comprehensive set of basic personality traits and past STD history in a demographically diverse sample.
Methods. Participants were 2,110 Estonians (1,175 women) between the ages of 19 and 89 (mean age 45.8 years, SD = 17.0). The five-factor model personality traits (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) and their specific facets were rated by participants themselves and knowledgeable informants. Sex, age, and educational level were controlled for.
Main Outcome Measure. History of STD diagnosis based on medical records and/or self-report.
Results. History of STD diagnosis was associated with higher Neuroticism and lower Agreeableness in both self- and informant-ratings. Among the specific personality facets, the strongest correlates of STD were high hostility and impulsiveness and low deliberation.
Conclusions. Individual differences in several personality traits are associated with a history of STD diagnosis. Assuming that certain personality traits may predispose people to behaviors that entail a higher risk for STD, these findings can be used for the early identification of people at greater STD risk and for developing personality-tailored intervention programs. Mõttus R, Realo A, Allik J, Esko T, and Metspalu A. History of the diagnosis of a sexually transmitted disease is linked to normal variation in personality traits. J Sex Med 2012;9:2861–2867.
Participants were asked to assess personality traits of a typical individual with high or low academic or practical abilities. Opinions about the perceived relationships between personality and intelligence strongly converged. A typical intelligent person was believed to be emotionally stable, extraverted, open to new experiences, and conscientious, differing on these traits diametrically from a typical individual endowed with low abilities. The perceived associations between ability and personality traits contrast with the typically weak correlations found between psychometrically measured intelligence and personality. Despite a considerable overlap between ability-related personality stereotypes and social desirability ratings of the personality traits, there was a discrepancy in the attitudes towards agreeableness. Although the facets of agreeableness were regarded as socially advantageous, participants did not believe that trust, straightforwardness and altruism are necessarily characteristic of a smart person.
a b s t r a c t In this study, 3705 participants from across the Russian Federation were asked to rate their own person-ality traits, those of a typical Russian living in their region, and those of an ideal person, using the National Character Survey (NCS). Another large group of participants (N = 3537) was asked to identify an ethnically Russian college-aged man or woman whom they knew well and rate this target using the NEO PI-R. The mean personality profiles of the typical Russian converged significantly with self-rated personality traits (r = .63, p < .01), but not with observer-ratings (r = .33, p = .08). However, the former correlation lost its significance when the mean ratings of an ideal person ratings were controlled for (r = .35, p = .06). The mean ratings of a typical Russian converged even more substantially with the per-sonality profile of an ideal person (r = .71, p < .001). Overall, the results suggest that the portrait of a typ-ical Russian may to some extent be based on actual personality dispositions of Russians, but it is more likely that this portrait reflects socially desirable personality traits that have been attributed to a typical Russian. The results extend previous findings by demonstrating the importance of using multiple rating conditions at the same time.
Many domestic and foreign observers have claimed that Russians have a unique constellation of personality traits that mirrors their distinctive historical and cultural experience. To examine the hypothesized uniqueness of Russian personality, members of the Russian Character and Personality Survey collected data from 39 samples in 33 administrative areas of the Russian Federation. Respondents (N = 7,065) identified an ethnically Russian adult or college-aged man or woman whom they knew well and rated the target using the Russian observer-rating version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. The mean personality profile of Russians was very similar to the international average based on 50 different countries, debunking the myth of a unique Russian soul. The small variations from world norms did not converge with depictions of Russian national character in fiction and the scholarly literature. New items intended to capture distinctive, emic aspects of Russian personality provided no new information beyond the familiar Big Five dimensions. Religion, ethnicity, and beliefs about the uniqueness of the Russian character and the malleability of personality traits had little effect on personality ratings. Perceptions of the Russian soul do not seem to be based on the personality traits of Russians.
Secondary analyses of Revised NEO Personality Inventory data from 26 cultures (N = 23,031) suggest that gender differences are small relative to individual variation within genders; differences are replicated across cultures for both college-age and adult samples, and differences are broadly consistent with gender stereotypes: Women reported themselves to be higher in Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Warmth, and Openness to Feelings, whereas men were higher in Assertiveness and Openness to Ideas. Contrary to predictions from evolutionary theory, the magnitude of gender differences varied across cultures. Contrary to predictions from the social role model, gender differences were most pronounced in European and American cultures in which traditional sex roles are minimized. Possible explanations for this surprising finding are discussed, including the attribution of masculine and feminine behaviors to roles rather than traits in traditional cultures.
The Big Five Inventory (BFI) is a self-report measure designed to assess the high-order personality traits of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness. As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, the BFI was translated from English into 28 languages and administered to 17,837 individuals from 56 nations. The resulting cross-cultural data set was used to address three main questions: Does the factor structure of the English BFI fully replicate across cultures? How valid are the BFI trait profiles of individual nations'? And how are personality traits distributed throughout the world? The five-dimensional structure was robust across major regions of the world. Trait levels were related in predictable ways to self-esteem, sociosexuality, and national personality profiles. People from the geographic regions of South America and East Asia were significantly different in openness from those inhabiting other world regions. The discussion focuses on limitations of the current data set and important directions for future research.
The performance of five methods for determining the number of components to retain (Horn's parallel analysis, Velicer's minimum average partial [MAP], Cattell's scree test, Bartlett's chi-square test, and Kaiser's eigenvalue greater than 1.0 rule) was investigated across seven systematically varied conditions (sample size, number of variables, number of components, component saturation, equal or unequal numbers of variables per component, and the presence or absence of unique and complex variables). We generated five sample correlation matrices at each of two sample sizes from the 48 known population correlation matrices representing six levels of component pattern complexity. The performance of the parallel analysis and MAP methods was generally the best across all situations. The scree test was generally accurate but variable. Bartlett's chi-square test was less accurate and more variable than the scree test. Kaiser's method tended to severely overestimate the number of components. We discuss recommendations concerning the conditions under which each of the methods are accurate, along with the most effective and useful methods combinations.
This study reports on the development of the Spiritual Transcendence Scale, a measure designed to capture aspects of the individual that are independent of the qualities contained in the Five-Factor Model of Personality (FFM). Using 2 separate samples of undergraduate students including both self-report (
Ns = 379 and 356) and observer data (
N = 279), it was shown that Spiritual Transcendence: (a) was independent of measures of the FFM; (b) evidenced good cross-observer convergence; and (c) predicted a wide range of psychologically salient outcomes, even after controlling for the predictive effects of personality. Given the long theoretical pedigree of Transcendence in the psychological literature, it was argued that Spiritual Transcendence represents a broad-based motivational domain of comparable breadth to those constructs contained in the FFM and ought to be considered a potential sixth major dimension of personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Data from three normal samples were used to examine links between personality disorder scales and measures of the five-factor model of personality. In the first study, self-reports, spouse ratings, and peer ratings on the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI), a measure of the five basic factors of personality, were correlated with MMPI personality disorder scales in a sample of 297 adult volunteers. In the second study, self-reports on the NEO-PI were correlated with Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-I) scales in a sample of 207 adults; self-reports on the MCMI-II were examined in a sample of 62 students. Results generally replicated the findings of Wiggins and Pincus (1990), suggesting that the five-factor model encompasses dimensions of both normal and abnormal personality. Distinctions between the MMPI, MCMI-I, and MCMI-II scales are examined in light of the model, and suggestions are made for integrating traditional personality trait models with psychiatric conceptions of disorder.
Most people hold beliefs about personality characteristics typical of members of their own and others' cultures. These perceptions of national character may be generalizations from personal experience, stereotypes with a "kernel of truth," or inaccurate stereotypes. We obtained national character ratings of 3989 people from 49 cultures and compared them with the average personality scores of culture members assessed by observer ratings and self-reports. National character ratings were reliable but did not converge with assessed traits. Perceptions of national character thus appear to be unfounded stereotypes that may serve the function of maintaining a national identity.
The Big Five Inventory (BFI) is a self-report measure designed to assess the high-order personality traits of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness. As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, the BFI was translated from English into 28 languages and administered to 17,837 individuals from 56 nations. The resulting cross-cultural data set was used to address three main questions: Does the factor structure of the English BFI fully replicate across cultures? How valid are the BFI trait profiles of individual nations? And how are personality traits distributed throughout the world? The five-dimensional structure was robust across major regions of the world. Trait levels were related in predictable ways to self-esteem, sociosexuality, and national personality profiles. People from the geographic regions of South America and East Asia were significantly different in open- ness from those inhabiting other world regions. The discussion focuses on limitations of the current data set and important directions for future research.
Anxiety and depression are dimensions of emotional state that can be validly assessed with self-report measures. This article introduces a new self-report questionnaire for depression and anxiety (Emotional State Questionnaire (EST-Q)) and presents data on its reliability and validity. The items of the EST-Q were derived from diagnostic criteria of DSM-IV and ICD-10. Thirty-three items were rated on a five-point frequency scale. The questionnaire was administered to 194 inpatients with depressive and anxiety disorders and to a population sample of 479 subjects. According to the results of factor analysis, five subscales were formed: Depression, Anxiety, Agoraphobia-Panic, Fatigue, and Insomnia. EST-Q and sub- scales showed acceptable internal consistency (a 0.69-0.88). Significant differences in sub- scales between patients and population and across diagnostic groups confirmed the discriminant validity of the instrument. Depression, Anxiety, and Agoraphobia-Panic sub- scales distinguished corresponding diagnostic groups. Fatigue and Insomnia appeared to assess nonspecific psychopathology dimensions characteristic of several psychiatric disorders. • Agoraphobia, Anxiety, Depression, Questionnaires.
The factor analysis literature includes a range of recommendations regarding the minimum sample size necessary to obtain factor solutions that are adequately stable and that correspond closely to population factors. A fundamental misconception about this issue is that the minimum sample size, or the minimum ratio of sample size to the number of variables, is invariant across studies. In fact, necessary sample size is dependent on several aspects of any given study, including the level of communality of the variables and the level of overdetermination of the factors. The authors present a theoretical and mathematical framework that provides a basis for understanding and predicting these effects. The hypothesized effects are verified by a sampling study using artificial data. Results demonstrate the lack of validity of common rules of thumb and provide a basis for establishing guidelines for sample size in factor analysis.
The present study explored genetic and environmental contributions to personality in a sample of twins participating in the Adult Russian Twin Study (ARTS). Subjects included 79 monozygotic (MZ) and 51 dizygotic (DZ) twin-pairs residing in the metropolitan Moscow area, Russia (mean age 42.2 years). Twins completed self-report questionnaires assessing the personality dimensions of neuroticism, extraversion, monotony avoidance, and impulsivity. For all four dimensions, model-”tting analyses yielded estimates of heritability consistent with previous behavioural genetic findings (h2 ranging from .49 to .59). Also consistent with previous research is the finding that shared environmental variance is negligible for each dimension. These results suggest that the factors that influence individual differences in personality in the Russian culture do not substantially differ from those that influence personality in more Western cultures.
Many social scientists have predicted that one inevitable consequence of modernization is the unlimited growth of individualism, which poses serious threats to the organic unity of society. Others have argued that autonomy and independence are necessary conditions for the development of interpersonal cooperation and social solidarity. We reanalyzed available data on the relationship between individualism-collectivism and social capital within one country (the United States) and across 42 countries. In America, the states with a high level of social capital (higher degree of civic engagement in political activity, where people spend more time with their friends and believe that most people can be trusted) were found to be more individualistic. A correspondingly strong association between individualism and social capital was observed in the comparison of different countries. These results support Durkheim’s view that whenindividualsbecomemoreautonomous and seemingly liberated from social bonds, they actually become even more dependent on society.
Stereotype research emphasizes systematic processes over seemingly arbitrary contents, but content also may prove systematic. On the basis of stereotypes' intergroup functions, the stereotype content model hypothesizes that (a) 2 primary dimensions are competence and warmth, (b) frequent mixed clusters combine high warmth with low competence (paternalistic) or high competence with low warmth (envious), and (c) distinct emotions (pity, envy, admiration, contempt) differentiate the 4 competence-warmth combinations. Stereotypically, (d) status predicts high competence, and competition predicts low warmth. Nine varied samples rated gender, ethnicity, race, class, age, and disability out-groups. Contrary to antipathy models, 2 dimensions mattered, and many stereotypes were mixed, either pitying (low competence, high warmth subordinates) or envying (high competence, low warmth competitors). Stereotypically, status predicted competence, and competition predicted low warmth.
Although most manuals for psychopathology inventories suggest a minimal level of reading ability necessary for valid administration, supporting data are not always provided. To establish guidelines for clinical use of commonly used psychopathology inventories, this study examined the text and vocabulary complexity of 4 tests: MMPI-2, Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II), Basic Personality Inventory, and Personality Inventory Assessment. Analysis of the complexity of complete item sets showed that the inventories had overall reading levels at the 5th grade or lower, but measures of the difficulty of individual scales and vocabulary difficulty of the entire inventories showed that the 6th-grade level is a better estimate. Guidelines are given for testing Ss of various levels of education.
Across two Meta-analyses, American women's assertiveness rose and fell with their social status from 1931 to 1993. College women and high school girls' self-reports on assertiveness and dominance scales increased from 1931 to 1945, decreased from 1946 to 1967, and increased from 1968 to 1993, explaining about 14% of the variance in the trait. Women's scores have increased enough that many recent samples show no sex differences in assertiveness. Correlations with social indicators (e.g., women's educational attainment, women's median age at first marriage) confirm that women's assertiveness varies with their status and roles. Social change is thus internalized in the form of a personality trait. Men's scores do not demonstrate a significant birth cohort effect overall. The results suggest that the changing sociocultural environment for women affected their personalities, most likely beginning in childhood.
The contemporary theoretical-methodological approaches to studying values in cross-cultural psychology are analyzed. The data obtained in research of values in two groups of Ss (students and teachers) by Schwartz' method are exposed. The analyses of the most prefered values allowed the block of basic values of Russian culture to be distinguished (Conservatism and Harmony values, according Schwartz) as well as the tendences of motivation's transformation: Conservatism, Egalitarianism and Harmony values decrease and Mastery, Hierarchy, Intellectual and Affective Autonomy values increase among young generation. Factor analyses snowed that the main two factors which determine the semantic space of value-motivational structure in both groups are the factors of Culture and Egocentrism. The data of Russian phylosophy, ethnography and literature are involved into disscussion of results also. The new approaches and perspectives of researches and consideration of values in collectivist cultures are presented in the conclusion.
This year Krasnodar institute of physical culture celebrates its 45th anniversary since its foundation on the basis of the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 32 of December 31, 1969. In 1993 it was transformed into Kuban state academy of physical education, and in 2003 - into Kuban state university of physical education, sport and tourism (KSUPhEST). Being one of the leaders of the Russian branch "Physical culture and sporf in the context of training of highly skilled professional personnel, the university is rightly considered as a leading higher professional educational institution in the Southern federal district. During all the years of its existence the faculty, students, postgraduate students and the staff of the university have achieved considerable success in improvement of teaching and training process, research, sports work and other areas of professional activity. The names of its graduates are known far outside Kuban and the Russian Federation. During the five years that have passed since its 40th anniversary, the university has been developing dynamically. So we can look forward with optimism. The university administration pays considerable attention to improvement of teaching and training processes of highly skilled specialists in physical culture and sport. They are being trained in seven integrated groups of specialities (specializations), including twenty five educational programs of higher and three programs of secondary professional education, as well as programs for postgraduate and additional education. One of the main objectives of the university is to improve teachers' professional level. Courses intended at improvement and mastering of new competences on different programs are annually conducted at the faculty of professional development and retraining.
Personnel selection research provides much evidence that intelligence (g) is an important predictor of performance in training and on the job, especially in higher level work. This article provides evidence that g has pervasive utility in work settings because it is essentially the ability to deal with cognitive complexity, in particular, with complex information processing. The more complex a work task, the greater the advantages that higher g confers in performing it well. Everyday tasks, like job duties, also differ in their level of complexity. The importance of intelligence therefore differs systematically across different arenas of social life as well as economic endeavor. Data from the National Adult Literacy Survey are used to show how higher levels of cognitive ability systematically improve individual's odds of dealing successfully with the ordinary demands of modern life (such as banking, using maps and transportation schedules, reading and understanding forms, interpreting news articles). These and other data are summarized to illustrate how the advantages of higher g, even when they are small, cumulate to affect the overall life chances of individuals at different ranges of the IQ bell curve. The article concludes by suggesting ways to reduce the risks for low-IQ individuals of being left behind by an increasingly complex postindustrial economy.
This personal historical article traces the development of the Big-Five factor structure, whose growing acceptance by personality researchers has profoundly influenced the scientific study of individual differences. The roots of this taxonomy lie in the lexical hypothesis and the insights of Sir Francis Galton, the prescience of L. L. Thurstone, the legacy of Raymond B. Cattell, and the seminal analyses of Tupes and Christal. Paradoxically, the present popularity of this model owes much to its many critics, each of whom tried to replace it, but failed. In reaction, there have been a number of attempts to assimilate other models into the five-factor structure. Lately, some practical implications of the emerging consensus can be seen in such contexts as personnel selection and classification.
Items from personality questionnaires have long been the butt of humorists and jaded graduate students. What makes these satirical items so funny is that they are instantaneously recognizable as having the correct form and yet their content is patently absurd. The fact that these items succeed as jokes suggests that at least for those familiar with personality scales there are some standard forms for items. This chapter describes three sets of formal item characteristics and demonstrates that the psychometric quality of personality items depends not only on content but also on form.
Russian schoolchildren (N = 480) 8-10 years old were rated by their teachers on 60 scales drawn from 3 sources: The temperament literature, studies of child personality, and Russian educators. Analysis of 21 temperament scales produced 4 meaningful components: sociability, anger, impulsivity, and fear. Component scores formed from these scales were then analyzed in the context of the remaining scales, leading to a solution that demonstrated the usefulness of the Big Five for the organization of personality characteristics in the Russian language and culture. The high degree of relation between the temperament dimensions and 4 of the 5 personality dimensions supports the view of many developmentalists that temperament not only is a major component of personality but may be the foundation of personality.
This chapter reviews the development, revision, and use of the Russian-language version of the NEO-PI-R. Particular attention is given to items and facets that have proved least adaptable to the Russian context. Potential explanations for these difficulties are identified in Russian culture and in the current atmosphere of social, economic and political flux. Data on factor structure, cross-language equivalence, cross-observer validity, and one-year stability are reported.
This chapter presents reanalyses of data originally reported in McCrae (2001) in an enlarged sample of cultures. Analyses of age and gender differences, the generalizability of culture profiles across gender and age groups, and culture-level factor structure and correlates are replicated after the addition of 30 new subsamples from 10 cultures. Cross-cultural variations in the standard deviations of NEO-PI-R scales are also examined. Standardized factor- and facet-level means are provided for use by other researchers.
Being an only child is popularly regarded as a handicap. During the 1970s, analyses appeared showing an intellectual advantage for only children relative to those from most other family-size/birth-order statuses. As for whether only children are spoiled and maladjusted, research by Claudy, Farrell, and Dayton finds strikingly positive personality and adjustment values for single children, as well as clear intellectual superiority. The author's own analysis, using adults of all sibsizes in the General Social Survey, indicates that only children are educationally and occupationally achieving, count themselves happy and satisfied with important aspects of life, are not politically and socially alienated, do not have disruptive family lives, and are unlikely to require public assistance. Only children also prefer to have, and do have, smaller size families than do respondents from any other sibsize. The performance of only children belies the prejudice.
The sterotypes of Americans and Russians held by American and Russian students were compared by using three measurement techniques: checklist, percentage, and diagnostic ratio. Two additional techniques were used with American samples: prototype and pathfinder. The high level of agreement that was obtained for the checklist, percentage, diagnostic ratio, and prototype techniques suggests that the same type of cognitive processing was elicited by all of these techniques. The pathfinder technique showed that American students' stereotypes of Russians have a more complex structure than their stereotypes of Americans. Russians and Americans generally agreed on the stereotypes of Americans, but differed on the stereotypes of Russians. The stereotypes of both nationalities were predominatly favorable.
Why are individuals from the same family often no more similar in personality than those from different families? Why, within the same family, do some children conform to authority whereas others rebel? The family, it turns out, is not a "shared environment" but rather a set of niches that provide siblings with different outlooks. At the heart of this pioneering inquiry into human development is a fundamental insight: that the personalities of siblings vary because they adopt different strategies in the universal quest for parental favor. Frank J. Sulloway's most important finding is that eldest children identify with parents and authority, and support the status quo, whereas younger children rebel against it. Drawing on the work of Darwin and the new science of evolutionary psychology, he transforms our understanding of personality development and its origins in family dynamics.
Constructs concerning reward and threat sensitivity can be organised in several ways (along with other ideas). Which conceptual organisation is used channels interpretations of phenomena ostensibly reflecting the sensitivities. For example, a two-mode organisation in which behavioural inhibition can follow either from threat sensitivity or from effortful control (planful restraint) yields an interpretation of serotonergic function quite different from what many assume. In this view, accumulated evidence suggests that serotonergic function relates to effortful control, rather than threat sensitivity. Neurobiological tools are useful, but their usefulness often depends on psychological theory.
The Estonian version of the International Personality Item Pool NEO (IPIP-NEO; Goldberg, 1999) was administered to 297 participants in parallel with the Estonian version of the NEO-PI-R (Kallasmaa, Allik, Realo, & McCrae, 2000). On average, the EPIPNEO items were 3 words, 7 syllables, and 18 characters shorter than the NEO-PI-R items. By all relevant psychometrical properties the EPIP-NEO was comparable to the NEO-PI-R. The mean convergent correlation between the facet scales was .73. The scales with shorter and grammatically simpler items tended to have higher internal consistency. In an independent cross-validation sample the initial results were generally replicated. The scales also demonstrated an adequate cross-observer agreement. It is concluded that the EPIP-NEO, as a more readable personality inventory compared to the NEO-PI-R, is suitable for a wider range of samples with different levels of reading skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The negative stereotypes of only children are pervasive despite a growing trend toward single‐child families and evidence of the only child's strengths. People maintain definite beliefs about the characteristics of each ordinal position in a family, typically viewing only children as lonely, spoiled, and maladjusted. The author reviewed the literature to provide an accurate understanding of the stereotypes of only children, their assets, and the challenges they face. Cross‐cultural findings and implications for clinical practice with only children and their parents are discussed.