1

Psychology 307: Cultural Psychology

Lecture 12

2

Scoring Your Questionnaire

In order to score your questionnaire, you must compute 5 scores.

Score 1: Sum items 1, 6, 11, 16, 21

Score 2: Sum items 2, 7, 12, 17, 22

Score 3: Sum items 3, 8, 13, 18, 23

Score 4: Sum items 4, 9, 14, 19, 24

Score 5: Sum items 5, 10, 15, 20, 25

3

Reminder

The midterm exam will test material from Chapters 1-6 of the textbook and all material discussed in class through to the end of class on Monday, February 8th.

4

Personality

1. Do trait theories adequately describe personality in non-Western cultures? (continued)

5

● Two types of trait theories exist—those developed on the basis of pre-existing theories and those developed on the basis of empirical research.

Do trait theories adequately describe personality in non-Western cultures?

6

1. Eysenck’s (1967, 1975) Trait Theory of Personality

In his original theory, Eysenck suggested that there are 2 basic dimensions of personality:

Eysenck developed his theory of personality on the basis of pre-existing theories—specifically, theories proposed centuries earlier by Hippocrates and

Galen.

7

Extraversion: Reflects a desire for social interaction, excitement, and activity. Encompasses traits such as lively and sociable vs. passive and quiet.

Emotional Instability: Reflects a tendency to experience unstable emotions. Encompasses traits such as anxious and moody vs. calm and even-tempered.

Using these two dimensions, Eysenck identified 4 personality types:

8

High Emotional InstabilityLow Emotional

Instability

High Extraversion

The unstable extravert: Active, aggressive,

changeable, excitable, impulsive, optimistic,

restless, touchy

The stable extravert: Carefree, easygoing,

lively, leaderly, outgoing responsive, sociable,

talkative

Low Extraversion

The unstable introvert: Anxious, moody, pessimistic, quiet,

reserved, rigid, sober, unsociable

The stable introvert: Calm, careful, controlled, even-tempered, passive,

peaceful, reliable, thoughtful

Eysenck’s (1975) Personality Typology

9

Eysenck, Eysenck, and Barrett (1985) developed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised (EPQ-R) to assess extraversion, emotional instability, and psychoticism. The EPQ-R is a 48-item measure that employs a “yes/no” response format.

On the basis of subsequent research, Eysenck identified a third personality dimension:

Psychoticism: Reflects a psychological detachment from others. Encompasses traits such as tough-minded and impersonal vs. tender-minded and sympathetic.

10

The EPQ-R(Eysenck, Eysenck, & Barrett, 1985)

Score 1: Psychoticism

Score 2: Extraversion

Score 3: Emotional Instability

11

Personality Dimension

Maximum Possible Score

Mean Score for Males

Mean Score for Females

Psychoticism 12 3.6 2.6

Extraversion 12 7.4 7.6

Emotional Instability

12 5.2 5.9

The EPQ-R: Statistics for a British Sample(Eysenck, Eysenck, & Barrett, 1995)

12

In light of the popularity of Eysenck’s theory, cultural psychologists have examined its universality across cultures.

Barrett et al. (1998) administered Eysenck’s measure to participants in 34 countries (e.g., Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Uganda, US). Consistent with

Eysenck’s theory, they found that each of the 3 dimensions could be reproduced in all of the countries surveyed.

13

Similarly, Lynn and Martin (1997) administered a modified version of Eysenck’s measure to

participants in 37 countries (e.g., Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Egypt, Finland, Iran, Japan, Nigeria, Russia, Uganda, Yugoslavia) and found that each of the 3 dimensions could be reproduced in all of the countries surveyed.

14

Personality Dimension

Highest Scoring Countries

Lowest Scoring Countries

PsychoticismCzechoslovakia, India,

YugoslaviaSpain, Portugal,

Norway

ExtraversionIsrael, United States,

Puerto RicoRussia, Iran,

China

Emotional InstabilityGreece, Russia,

EgyptNorway, Nigeria,

Israel

Countries High and Low on Psychoticism, Extraversion, and Emotional Instability (Lynn & Martin, 1997)

15

Personality Dimension

Maximum Possible

Score

Average Score for

Males

Average Score for Females

Canada’s Score for

Males

Canada’s Score for Females

Psychoticism 30 5.3 4.1 4.7 3.8

Extraversion 30 18.9 18.1 18.3 17.8

Emotional Instability

30 13.0 15.7 11.5 14.0

Canada’s Scores on Psychoticism, Extraversion,and Emotional Instability (Lynn & Martin, 1997)

16

Consistent with the results obtained for Canada, Lynn and Martin (1997) found that:

(a) in 36 of the 37 countries surveyed, men obtained higher means than women on psychoticism.

(c) in all of the countries surveyed, men obtained lower means than women on emotional instability.

(b) in 30 of the 37 countries surveyed, men obtained higher means than women on extraversion.

17

In contrast to these findings, van Hemert et al. (2002) administered Eysenck’s measure to participants in 24 countries (e.g., Bangladesh, Chile, China, Germany, Iran, Ireland, Nigeria, Russia) and found that only 2 of the dimensions could be reproduced in all of the countries surveyed: extraversion and emotional instability.

Thus, at this point, only 2 of Eysenck’s dimensions—extraversion and emotional instability—may be of universal importance in describing personality.

18

Personality

1. Do trait theories adequately describe personality in non-Western cultures? (continued)