personality is more than just genes a
large part of who we are and the
decisions that we make are influenced by
the culture that we grew up in so where
does this influence start think all the
way back to when you learn manners
you were probably scolded for engaging
in behavior that was considered rude in
your culture conversely you're probably
encouraged to engage in behaviors that
are considered to be polite now as you
were conditioned to engage in more
polite behaviors you subconsciously
picked up on patterns that influenced
how you behave these patterns are highly
influenced by the values of the culture
that you grew up in but not all cultures
hold the same values some cultures tend
to encourage behaviors that are loud
boisterous and competitive others
encourage quiet respectful and more
humble behaviors depending on the
culture where you live you probably pick
up on these values and they have
definitely influenced your decisions and
your personality researchers have been
studying the connections between culture
and personality for a long time and in
this video I'm gonna attempt to explain
two spectrums that researchers have
created to define cultures the cultures
place on these spectrums highly
influences the personality traits and
the behaviors of the people within that
culture so culture is not determined by
borders as you'll see throughout the
rest of this video people learn lessons
from cultures that are created from
people within a certain country
occupation class gender identity or
other differences for example just
because the country you live in has an
individualist culture does not mean you
are bound by individualist ideas so keep
this in mind throughout the rest of the
video let's get started by talking about
individual versus collectivist culture
individualism focuses on the individual
just as the name implies people living
in an individualist environment
prioritize self-improvement of
themselves and satisfying their own
needs before the rest of those of their
community why well individualist
cultures believe and teach that if
everyone takes care of themselves then
the entire group should thrive and then
become self-sufficient individualist
cultures put a lot of stress on
Independence and self-reliance those
that live in this type of culture tend
to be very self-sufficient and driven
workers but are weak or whenever it
comes to collaboration and teamwork they
usually struggle handing off
responsibilities now in general these
people usually distance themselves
psychologically and emotionally from one
another since working with others is
more of an option than a requirement for
success in the media we often see
individualist characteristics associated
with men people in urban settings and
the
culture so what about a collectivist
cultures people living in a collectivist
environment are taught to focus on the
needs of the group before they focus on
their own individual needs they
associate their identity to the role and
function in a larger group these groups
can include families teams at work or
the entire nation collectivist societies
teach people that everyone will benefit
when they start to look out for one
another
harmony and interdependence between
group members is highly valued among
people in this type of environment now
unlike their individualist counterparts
members of collectivist cultures tend to
be extremely close to each other
psychologically and emotionally
now this can create and us-versus-them
mindset that separates or looks down
upon people that are outside of their
group collectivist characteristics are
generally associated with women people
in rural settings and Eastern culture so
let's look at another spectrum did you
grow up in an approach or an avoidance
culture this idea was coined in 1935 to
help psychologists identify what makes
some conflicts easy to resolve and
others difficult to resolve where you
lie on this spectrum can highly
influence how you make decisions so what
is approach versus avoidance humans
typically want to approach and move
towards pleasurable things and they
typically want to avoid and move away
from negative or painful things it's
very similar to Freud's pleasure pain
principle the idea of approach versus
avoidance was measured when an
experiment was conducted on rats in 1948
the rats were exposed to different
positive and negative stimuli
researchers then measure the strength of
their pull towards the stimuli the most
interesting results from this experiment
revealed that the closer the rats were
to the item that they were either
approaching or avoiding the stronger
their pool was in either direction now
this can be applied to humans and how
they make their decisions and categorize
conflict but what does it have to do
with the culture where you grew up with
because that's kind of the topic of this
video right the culture helps to teach
you at a young age what to approach and
what to avoid culture doesn't teach you
to avoid physical pain and approach food
those things are instinctual to all
humans the things we learn to approach
and avoid through culture appeal to a
higher need one example of this is
something called uncertainty avoidance
the uncertainty avoidance of a culture
is a measure of how that culture
responds - novelty and uncertainty how
does the culture deal with ambiguity our
change is welcomed in the nation or does
the culture approach stable traditional
rules and customs now in some research I
found that countries who
generally score high in neuroticism tend
to be high in uncertainty avoidance
those countries usually have a more
formal system of rules that try to
minimize cultural or a situational
ambiguity and the citizens are
uninterested in changing them these
cultures tend to be more conservative
more emotional and usually xenophobic
families in these cultures didn't have
more traditional gender roles two
schools have more structured learning
and children are taught to trust that
their teachers have all of the answers
children are also taught that the
outside world may be a hostile place
religions associated with the
uncertainty avoidance include
Catholicism Islam Judaism and Shintoism
conversely countries low in neuroticism
and low and uncertainty avoidance tend
to have fewer laws and regulations and
their citizens are much more interested
in politics these cultures are often
more open to change and more tolerant of
diversity and people within these
cultures tend to suppress their emotions
more families and these cultures usually
have looser gender roles and their
schools have a more open-minded learning
as a generality teachers are allowed to
say that they don't know and students
are encouraged to question authority
children are also taught to the outside
world as benevolent and that they should
not persecute others based on their
beliefs religions associated with low
uncertainty avoidance include
Protestantism Buddhism Taoism
and Hinduism so where do you fit in
uncertainty avoidance is just one
concept that is influenced by a cultures
personality and how it influences the
decisions and behaviors of the people
within that culture what were you taught
to avoid what were you taught to
approach and how does the culture where
you grew up in influence what you
consider to be comfortable and
uncomfortable I hope you guys enjoyed
this video and if you did feel free to
watch some of the other videos in this
personality series and if you want to
learn more about your own personality
check out my free three-in-one
personality quiz in the description
below what it does is it combines three
of the major personality quizzes
introduced one test you can take in
under 10 minutes and at the end of it
I'm gonna try to predict some things
about you like your political stances
your relationship style and also your
health I'll put a lot of work into it so
I hope you guys enjoy it thanks for
watching and I hope to see you in the
next video