Personality and Social Psychology Review current issue

Measuring Culture Outside the Head: A Meta-Analysis of Individualism--Collectivism in Cultural Products

Morling, B., Lamoreaux, M. — 2008-07-18

Although cultural psychology is the study of how sociocultural environments and psychological processes coconstruct each other, the field has traditionally emphasized measures of the psychological over the sociocultural. Here, the authors call attention to a growing trend of measuring the sociocultural environment. They present a quantitative review of studies that measure cultural differences in "cultural products": tangible, public representations of culture such as advertising or popular texts. They found that cultural products that come from Western cultures (mostly the United States) are more individualistic, and less collectivistic, than cultural products that come from collectivistic cultures (including Korea, Japan, China, and Mexico). The effect sizes for cultural products were larger than self-report effect sizes for this dimension (reported in Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2002). In addition to presenting this evidence, the authors highlight the importance of studying the dynamic relationships between sociocultural environments and psyches.

Narrative and the Cultural Psychology of Identity

Hammack, P. L. — 2008-07-18

This article presents a tripartite model of identity that integrates cognitive, social, and cultural levels of analysis in a multimethod framework. With a focus on content, structure, and process, identity is defined as ideology cognized through the individual engagement with discourse, made manifest in a personal narrative constructed and reconstructed across the life course, and scripted in and through social interaction and social practice. This approach to the study of identity challenges personality and social psychologists to consider a cultural psychology framework that focuses on the relationship between master narratives and personal narratives of identity, recognizes the value of a developmental perspective, and uses ethnographic and idiographic methods. Research in personality and social psychology that either explicitly or implicitly relies on the model is reviewed.

Personality and Prejudice: A Meta-Analysis and Theoretical Review

Sibley, C. G., Duckitt, J. — 2008-07-18

Despite a substantial literature examining personality, prejudice, and related constructs such as Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), there have been no systematic reviews in this area. The authors reviewed and meta-analyzed 71 studies (N = 22,068 participants) investigating relationships between Big Five dimensions of personality, RWA, SDO, and prejudice. RWA was predicted by low Openness to Experience but also Conscientiousness, whereas SDO was predicted by low Agreeableness and also weakly by low Openness to Experience. Consistent with a dual-process motivational model of ideology and prejudice, the effects of Agreeableness on prejudice were fully mediated by SDO, and those of Openness to Experience were largely mediated by RWA. Finally, the effects of Agreeableness and Openness to Experience were robust and consistent across samples, although subtle moderating factors were identified, including differences in personality inventory (NEO Personality Inventory—Revised vs. Big Five Inventory), differences across prejudice domain, and cross-cultural differences in Conscientiousness and Neuroticism. Implications for the study of personality and prejudice are discussed.

Toward a Unifying Model of Identification With Groups: Integrating Theoretical Perspectives

Roccas, S., Sagiv, L., Schwartz, S., Halevy, N., Eidelson, R. — 2008-07-18

Building on the contributions of diverse theoretical approaches, the authors present a multidimensional model of group identification. Integrating conceptions from the social identity perspective with those from research on individualism—collectivism, nationalism— patriotism, and identification with organizations, we propose four conceptually distinct modes of identification: importance (how much I view the group as part of who I am), commitment (how much I want to benefit the group), superiority (how much I view my group as superior to other groups), and deference (how much I honor, revere, and submit to the group's norms, symbols, and leaders). We present an instrument for assessing the four modes of identification and review initial empirical findings that validate the proposed model and show its utility in understanding antecedents and consequences of identification.

Announcement: The Society for Personality and Social Psychology's Student Publication Award

2008-07-18