Culture and Personality

Personality Boas and Benedict According to Franz Boas, pioneer of Psychological Anthropology or the study of the relationship mingled with polish and personality, personality is obtained thru culture and not biology. His theory called Cultural Relativism gives a comprehensive understanding of the key relationship between culture and personality. Boas student Ruth Benedict expounded the research on the effect of culture to personality through studying cultural various patterns and themes.Although she admitted that the global cultural diffusion has made the cultural patterns of civilized societies are difficult to trace, primitive societies located at the remote areas have preserved their shared out personalities through their values, beliefs and rituals. When Benedict wrote her book Patterns of Culture, she custodytioned her comparison of the cultural patterns of two different northern American Indian groups as well as an Indian group located off-coast of Papua New Guinea.In he r study, she found out that although they are from similar genetic collection, these groups have significant differences in their respective value systems. For instance, one tribes idea of a good man differentiates to that of another. Her book, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword Patterns of Japanese Culture, included a detailed verbal description of Japanese belief and value system as well as a hypothesis on the reason behind the actions of the Japanese during World War II. PERSONALITY MARGARET MEAD Arguably, Margaret Mead was one of the leading anthropologists of the 20th century.Being a student of Boas, Mead extended the schools knowledge in culture and personality as she focussed from the American culture to the whole Western World. She travelled to Samoa and she found out that the societies there have resembling value systems, and thus, they share common personality traits. In the culture of Samoan tribes, it was noted that until individuals reach the advance of 15- 16, when they are to be subjected to marital rituals, they do not have significant roles in terms of amicable life. In fact, children are ignored by their parents and the rest of the society until after they reach puberty.Girls are taught to suppose boys as their enemies. The effect of this portion of the Samoan culture is that children tend to be either aggressive to net income attention, or passive due to the lack of affection and love from their significant others. SEX? DIFFERENCES AND PERSONALITY growing and genetics are believed to have brought about differences in personality traits as determined by the biologic sex of a person. As explained by the Theory of Sexual Selection, males compete to attract females, so men are to a greater extent likely to be aggressive and competitive than women.However, nowadays we may see that more and more women become aggressive in competing against other women for a man. Our culture greatly contributes to the development of our beliefs and values. For this reason, both cultural psychologists and social anthropologists believe that culture affects ones personality. In addition, gender differences also twine the personality traits a person possesses. Read more Does culture affect our personality? Individual Traits and Culture.