Deck 14: Cultural Variation in Experience, Behavior, and Personality

Question 1

According to the text, which characteristic of cultures might be the most difficult to judge?

A) toughness
B) tightness
C) heart
D) complexity

Answer 1

D

Question 2

David McClelland would argue that a culture that tells stories emphasizing community and social bonds would have a high need for ________.

A) community
B) achievement
C) affiliation
D) agreeableness

Answer 2

C

Question 3

________ occurs when a child picks up the cultural influences of the place where he or she grows up.

A) Acculturation
B) Enculturation
C) Assimilation
D) Accommodation

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Concepts like amae and yuan might be ________, whereas concepts like duty and obligations to the group might be _______.

A) etic; emic
B) emic; etic
C) experience near; experience far
D) experience far; experience near

Question 5

Which of the following is NOT an important reason for identifying cross-cultural differences in experience, personality, and behavior?

A) The differences provide support for genetic explanations for personality.
B) The differences, if not understood, may cause misunderstandings.
C) Such differences tell us about variability in human experiences.
D) Cross-cultural research informs us about the generalizability of research findings.

Question 6

According to Park and Peterson (2010), which attribute is a strength of the heart?

A) mercy
B) creativity
C) curiosity
D) artistic excellence

Question 7

Psychologists who are concerned that the results of contemporary empirical research may not apply to all people everywhere are questioning the ________ of those results.

A) reliability
B) generalizability
C) cross-cultural flexibility
D) construct validity

Question 8

If members of two cultures experience the same emotions, seek the same goals, and organize their thoughts in comparable ways, then the two cultures ________.

A) are individualistic cultures
B) have collectivist construals
C) have similar experience-near constructs
D) view the world through culture-free lenses

Question 9

According to Triandis, cultures that tolerate very little deviation from cultural norms are high in ________.

A) collectivism
B) agency
C) strictness
D) tightness

Question 10

According to Cohen, Nisbett, Bowdle, and Schwartz (1996), the American South has a culture that involves elaborate displays of mutual respect. This idea is called the ________.

A) culture of obligation
B) culture of honor
C) ritualistic respect
D) customs of obligation

Question 11

________ occurs when someone moves to a new place and gradually picks up the culture of the new location.

A) Acculturation
B) Enculturation
C) Assimilation
D) Accommodation

Question 12

It has been suggested that the only way psychologists can address the generalizability issue is to ________.

A) conduct research using participants from around the world
B) limit their focus to one homogeneous sample at a time
C) subtract the effects of culture from their research findings
D) repeat their studies in carefully controlled laboratory settings

Question 13

According to the text, what term describes cultures that have only a few socially sanctioned goals and only a few ways to achieve these goals?

A) authoritarian
B) vertical
C) tough
D) stressful

Question 14

According to the textbook, what behavior led to a Danish mother's arrest in New York?

A) breast feeding in public
B) spanking her child in public
C) leaving her 14-month-old daughter asleep in a stroller
D) giving marijuana to her 16-year-old son

Question 15

Nima moved to the United States when she was 5 years old, and she gradually adopted the language, attitudes, and styles of American culture. The process through which Nima became Americanized is known as ________.

A) enculturation
B) acculturation
C) accommodation
D) assimilation

Question 16

According to the text, what two factors are hypothesized to influence whether a culture is high in tightness?

A) population density and economic conditions
B) ethnic homogeneity and economic conditions
C) ethnic homogeneity and population density
D) population density and the dominant religion

Question 17

David McClelland would argue that a culture that emphasizes children's stories such as "The Little Engine That Could" has a high need for________.

A) achievement
B) affiliation
C) appraisal
D) affluence

Question 18

Components of ideas that are particular to a specific culture are called ________, and components that are universal across cultures are called ________.

A) individualisms; collectivisms
B) emics; etics
C) cultures; values
D) etics; emics

Question 19

What term associated with Japanese culture refers to indulgence and dependence that may exist between a parent and child?

A) amae
B) anatta
C) anicca
D) amie

Question 20

If less than 2 percent of a country's population exhibits left-handedness, then cross-cultural researchers might say that this is likely a(n) ________ culture.

A) tight
B) simple
C) collectivist
D) loose

Question 21

Members of different kinds of cultures may experience emotions differently. People in ________ countries report more self-focused emotions, whereas people in ________ countries are more likely to report other-focused emotions.

A) emic; etic
B) complex; simple
C) tight; loose
D) individualistic; collectivist

Question 22

"Losing face" is a primary danger in a(n) ________ culture.

A) complex
B) individualist
C) tight
D) collectivist

Question 23

Which city in the United States had the lowest "heart" score, according to a recent survey?

A) San Francisco
B) Washington, D.C.
C) Boston
D) New York

Question 24

Some cross-cultural researchers compare average levels of traits across cultures. For example, Chueng and Song (1989) found that Chinese participants generally described themselves as higher on ________ when compared to an American sample.

A) emotional reserve
B) extraversion
C) impulsivity
D) sensation seeking

Question 25

The United States is a(n) ________ culture.

A) tough
B) face
C) horizontal collectivist
D) dignity

Question 26

Which of the following people is likely to be the most individualistic?

A) a woman from Japan
B) a man from India
C) an African American woman
D) a European American man

Question 27

According to the text, which of the following is considered to have an individualist-horizontal society?

A) Brazil
B) Israel
C) Norway
D) France

Question 28

Cultural tightness is analogous to the personality traits of ________.

A) idiocentrism and allocentrism
B) conscientiousness and intolerance for ambiguity
C) extraversion and introversion
D) neuroticism and emotional stability

Question 29

________ cultures tend to emphasize the needs of the group.

A) Tight
B) Collectivist
C) Complex
D) Tough

Question 30

According to a recent survey, which of these countries had the highest levels of self-compassion?

A) Thailand
B) Taiwan
C) United States
D) All three countries had the same average levels of self-compassion.

Question 31

Members from which country would be most likely to self-enhance?

A) Spain
B) China
C) Germany
D) India

Question 32

The individualist versus collectivist distinction is analogous to the distinction between ________ with respect to personal values.

A) ideocentrism and allocentrism
B) conscientiousness and intolerance for ambiguity
C) extraversion and introversion
D) neuroticism and emotional stability

Question 33

What condition or conditions seem to facilitate the development of honor cultures?

A) central governments and well-established judicial systems
B) weak central governments and a lack of police
C) low population density
D) collectivist values

Question 34

Which finding has been used to support the argument that personality itself has no meaning in collectivist societies?

A) the inability of researchers to find Big Five domains in cultures outside of the United States
B) the relatively few number of trait-related words in Chinese
C) the inability of Japanese individuals to understand personality inventories
D) the lack of predictive validity of trait measures in Asian countries

Question 35

Cultural complexity is much like the individual personality trait of ________.

A) the need for cognition
B) emotional intelligence
C) cognitive complexity
D) allocentrism

Question 36

The holier-than-thou effect is most likely to occur in members from what country?

A) Spain
B) China
C) England
D) India

Question 37

According to Triandis, ________ societies assume that all persons are essentially equal.

A) vertical
B) authoritative
C) horizontal
D) nomothetic

Question 38

According to the text, which of the following is considered to have a collectivist-vertical society?

A) United States
B) Israel
C) Japan
D) China

Question 39

A culture that stresses that "tall poppies are cut first" or that "the nail that stands out gets pounded down" might be high in which cultural dimension?

A) tightness
B) collectivism
C) heart
D) toughness

Question 40

According to Triandis, ________ societies assume that individuals are importantly different from each other.

A) vertical
B) authoritarian
C) horizontal
D) idiographic

Question 41

The idea that all cultural views are equally valid and that it is ethnocentric to think otherwise is called ________.

A) the semiotic subject fallacy
B) the deconstructionist dodge
C) cultural relativism
D) semiotic pluralism

Question 42

According to recent cross-cultural research, bilingual individuals ________.

A) gave the same personality responses in both English and Spanish
B) reported less extraversion when they completed the personality measure in English
C) reported more neuroticism when they completed the personality measure in English
D) reported more conscientiousness when they completed the personality measure in English

Question 43

John argues that a particular culture's distinctive view of reality simply exists and believes that there is no way to meaningfully address the origin of cultural differences. John seems to subscribe to which philosophical tradition?

A) empiricism
B) existentialism
C) deconstructionism
D) naturalism

Question 44

Shalom Schwartz and Lilach Sagiv (1995) identified ________ as the two basic dimensions that they believe organize universal values.

A) openness to change vs. conservatism and self-transcendence vs. self-enhancement
B) openness to change vs. conservatism and agency vs. communion
C) collectivism vs. individualism and vertical vs. horizontal
D) agency vs. communion and utilitarian vs. deontic

Question 45

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to ________.

A) judge another culture from the point of view of our own
B) see members of groups to which we do not belong as all being alike
C) see members of our own ethnic group as all being very different from one another
D) limit the focus of cross-cultural research by studying one group at a time

Question 46

In Triandis's model, the distinctive tasks a culture needs to accomplish and the physical layout and resources of its land are called the culture's ________.

A) ecology
B) complexity
C) socialization processes
D) personality

Question 47

What conclusion emerges from item response theory (IRT) analyses that are used to evaluate the validity of cross-cultural comparisons of common personality measures?

A) Mean level comparisons across countries and cultures are straightforward.
B) Personality variability is greater in collectivist countries as compared to individualistic countries.
C) Mean level comparisons across countries might be difficult due to item-responding differences.
D) Most people use personality items in the same way regardless of culture.

Question 48

Several studies have examined whether certain Big Five traits apply universally across cultures. As it stands, which trait does NOT appear to be truly universal?

A) agreeableness
B) extraversion
C) conscientiousness
D) openness

Question 49

Cross-cultural psychology has examined differences in the way that members of various cultures think. Some research suggests that people from collectivist cultures think more ________ than those from individualistic cultures.

A) holistically
B) logically
C) creatively
D) intelligently

Question 50

Studies of cross-cultural gender differences in the Big Five tend to find that ________.

A) few Big Five gender differences replicate across societies
B) the size and direction of gender differences on these traits are the same in all societies
C) although the direction of gender differences is similar, the size of the gender differences is larger in more-developed societies than in less-developed societies
D) the direction and size of gender differences on these traits fluctuate widely across societies

Question 51

One of the two aspects of the measure of bicultural identity integration (BII) is the degree to which bicultural individuals ________.

A) see their two cultures as distant from each other
B) enjoy their two cultures
C) respect their two cultures
D) understand their two cultures

Question 52

Extraversion, openness, and sociosexuality might be lower in countries near the equator because low levels of these traits ________.

A) facilitate greater group cooperation
B) reduce interpersonal contact and disease risk
C) promote psychological well-being in warm climates
D) facilitate hunting in complicated ecological systems

Question 53

The tendency to see members of your own group as very different from one another but the members of groups to which you do not belong as very similar to each other is called the ________.

A) ethnocentric error
B) in-group favoritism bias
C) bicultural contrast error
D) outgroup homogeneity bias

Question 54

We are most likely to commit ethnocentrism when the "real" nature of the situation ________.

A) is difficult to understand
B) directly affects us
C) seems very obvious
D) does not involve us

Question 55

One reason Europeans were able to colonize and dominate other cultures was that they ________.

A) never needed to develop metal-based tools for agriculture
B) lived close together in cities and thereby developed immunities to certain diseases
C) gathered food rather than hunting or farming
D) failed to appreciate the importance of their local geography

Question 56

Individuals from which country would be the least willing to describe themselves in contradictory terms?

A) China
B) Japan
C) India
D) United States

Question 57

According to the ecological approach, differences in ecology generate differences in ________, which in turn shapes ________.

A) socialization; culture
B) personality; culture
C) culture; socialization
D) behavior; personality

Question 58

Which value would most likely be associated with a collectivist culture?

A) liberty
B) reciprocity
C) rights
D) freedom

Question 59

Countries with low average levels of self-esteem also tend to have high rates of ________.

A) narcissism
B) locus of control
C) violence
D) suicide

Question 60

Studies of endogenous personality descriptors in China and Spain seem to suggest that there are ________ factors in each lexicon.

A) three
B) five
C) six
D) seven

Question 61

On average, Americans are fonder of tranquility than are Chinese individuals.

Question 62

Buddhist countries might be higher in self-compassion than Confucianist countries.

Question 63

Singapore is both ethnically heterogeneous and culturally tight.

Question 64

There are about 557 trait words in the Chinese language.

Question 65

Judgments of cultural complexity are fairly straightforward.

Question 66

The universal components of an idea are called emics.

Question 67

Although seven personality dimensions emerge from an analysis of the Spanish and Chinese lexicon, the seven dimensions are somewhat different.

Question 68

Some research suggests that thinking in Asians as opposed to European Americans is more disrupted by talking.

Question 69

The American South has a separate "culture of honor," distinct from the rest of the United States, which requires members to be more tolerant of insults.

Question 70

The ecological approach attempts to find geographical reasons for cross-cultural differences.

Question 71

Members of Asian cultures find it more acceptable to deal with controversial issues in large public meetings than do individuals from the United States.

Question 72

A child learns about his or her native culture through the process of acculturation.

Question 73

Research suggests that Americans may be more likely to recall the larger context of pictures as compared to individuals from Japan.

Question 74

About 25 percent of the population should be left-handed.

Question 75

Indians (individuals from India) prefer to place an X next to the part of the form that does NOT apply.

Question 76

Vertical societies tend to believe that individuals are importantly different from each other.

Question 77

Self-enhancement is more common in individualist than in collectivist cultures.

Question 78

Women in the United States are not more collectivist than men.

Question 79

All languages have terms for traits such as talkative, timid, and diligent.

Question 80

The outgroup homogeneity bias refers to the tendency to view one's own group as having members that differ widely from each other while believing individuals from other groups are "all the same."