Analyzing Personality and Individual Differences Across Cultures

This essay delves into the influence of culture on personality traits, contrasting individualistic and collectivist societies. It begins by examining the role of emotional intelligence (EI) and its connection to the dark triad of personality traits, including narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and everyday sadism. The essay then explores various personality theories, such as Freud's theory, the Tripartite Theory, Eysenck's Personality Theory, Cattell's 16PF, and Allport's Trait Theory, to provide a comprehensive understanding of personality. The core of the essay focuses on the differences between individualistic and collectivist cultures, highlighting how these cultural orientations shape individual behavior, values, and social interactions. Individualistic cultures emphasize independence and self-reliance, while collectivist cultures prioritize group harmony and interdependence. The essay concludes by emphasizing that personality traits differ across cultures and that cultural context significantly impacts how individuals perceive themselves and interact with others.

PERSONALITY & INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
AUSTRALIA
[DATE]
[Company name]
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The culture is something that can influence and motivate all the individuals to get
themselves fit into a group. So through this essay, the presumptions will be made upon the
difference between the personality trait across the individualistic as well as the collectivist
cultures the differentiation will be done taking into consideration all the references dealing with
the psychological theory and the related research. The essay will begin reflecting the basic
relationship between emotional intelligence along with the dark traits of the personality traits.
The term emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the capability of an individual for
managing and controlling his or her emotions and thus possesses the ability to control its own
emotions as well as that of the others also. EI is considered one of the very essential skills in
managing leadership. This trait also is comprised up of five main elements i.e. awareness
regarding one own self, imposing regulation on oneself, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
For example, it helps the people with low EI to stay calm, confident and optimistic during the
tough times which can provoke the presence of anger, fear, anxiety as well as taking over with
the emotions. Whereas the people having high EI helps others to manage their emotions
(Schermer, Petrides, Vernon, & Veselka, 2011).
The results of EI can be seen across the firm level as well as that of the individual level
and this is due to this popularity which has acknowledged the EI as the hardcore pillar of
emotions that can deal with both the psychology as well as the management. The rebutting
relationship is very clearly reflected in between the EI and myriad prosaically such as the
satisfaction of job, performances of the wellbeing jobs, organizational citizenship behavior,
commitments from the organization, resources of health and job (Petrides, et al., 2016).
The EI individuals can regulate their emotions and remain optimistic and also
enthusiastic and reduce their negative feelings occurred in the workplace and this can thus result

in satisfaction in working, this results in reducing the productivity of workers. Individuals with
greater EI can facilitate greater and effective social exchanges with all the supervisors and also
the peer groups. Though the emotional intelligence can influence the styles and behavior of the
individual or the group but it also has a dark side. For example, people with high EI can use this
trait for fabricating favorable impressions for themselves and can fulfill their self-interest and
welfare at other's expenses. They can very easily utilize their intelligence and strategically
influence their targets in any disputing matter. By displaying minimal emotions they can very
easily attain a huge gain for themselves and manipulate others via misattributions and other
means (Pappas, 2017).
The personality traits such as the Machiavellianism and psychopathy very smartly can
reflect all the negative results or the dark traits related to or resulting in troublesome EI’s. Four
kinds of dark personality traits can reflect the self-centered and socially offensive nature of the
people and those are first, Narcissists, the second one is Machiavellians, third is Nonclinical
Psychopaths, and the last one is Everyday Sadists. These types of humans are confused in nature
and also tend high Callousness i.e. lack of empathy for other peoples (Mõttus, Kandler, Bleidorn,
Riemann, & McCrae, 2017).
Narcissists are those individuals who promote one own self and busy in craving the
attention of others. Machiavellians are those individuals who can also be considered as masters
in manipulation. Psychopaths are known for their argumentative and malevolent behavior, they
usually tend to score high on the measures of callousness, impulsivity and thus can be considered
as dark across the board. Everyday Sadists are those individuals who are employed by cruelty
(Miao, Humphrey, Qian, & Pollack, 2019).

Various theories which can influence the traits of personality are as follows, firstly it's the
Freud's Theory which included the factors such as relating to food, sex, aggression, and early
childhood influences, etc. The second one is the Tripartite Theory of Personality which deals
with the id, ego as well as superego. The next one is Eysenck's Personality Theory which is
based on the biological factors of the personality. Cattell's 16PF Trait Theory is the next one
which used the T data and Q data system technique etc. next is the Allport's Trait Theory which
focuses on the uniqueness of individuals and their motivators etc. (Cherry, Individualistic
Cultures and Behavior, 2019)
Culture can be determined as that factor that can influence the ways as well as the
thinking procedures of the people. According to the psychologists around, there may be several
similarities as well as the differences between the individualistic culture and collectivist culture.
Individualistic cultures focus or put stress on the needs of the individuals much more than that of
the group as a whole (Dang, Faff, & Luong, 2019). Here an individual is seen as independent and
autonomous. It is the social behavior that tends to dictate the attributes and preferences of all the
individuals. The North American and western European culture is considered an individualistic
culture. Some of the common characteristics of individualistic culture are firstly the rights of the
individual takes a center stage, then the independence is highly valued, people here are very self-
reliant and the rights of the people take up higher precedence, etc. (Miao, Humphrey, Qian, &
Pollack, 2019)
On the other hand, the collectivist culture gives importance to the group as a whole and
also to the social cooperation, individualism prizes such as Uniqueness the Eysenck's Personality
Theory can also be referred here, Autonomy, Independence and lastly self-sufficiency. Here the
people are more likely to turn for support during the tough time, towards their friends and

families, whereas the people living in individualistic cultures tend to tackle them all alone. They
are also taught to solve all their problems or fight and reach the desired goals on their own, they
must not rely on others for their assistance. This tendency which focuses upon personal identity
and autonomy which tends to become the persuasive part that may influence the functioning of
the society. Whereas in the collectivist culture people are ready to sacrifice their lives for
comfort and creating a greater good for the others (McLeod, 2017).
In the individualistic culture, the people have the tendencies to care for themselves only
without depending upon the assistance of others as referred in Tripartite Theory of Personality.
In contrast, the collectivist culture emphasizes the sharing of the burden of care with the group as
a whole. Some of the common traits of the collectivist culture include the essentiality of working
as a group and support others at the time of need, people are basically encouraged to do the
things which are good for the society as a whole, the central role here is given to the family and
friends, and lastly the rules of selflessness and worrying about the needs of society above one
own self is emphasized highly here (Jauk, Freudenthaler, & Neubauer, 2016).
In accordance with the Trait Theory the collectivism throws light on giving importance to
society or the community as a whole, on the other hand, individualism focuses on the rights and
concerns of each individual. Collectivism values unity and selflessness, whereas independence
and self-identity are highly stressed in individualism as referred in Tripartite Theory of
Personality. Some essential examples which can reflect the basic difference between the
individualist and collectivists include how the people shop, dress, learn and conduct with their
business (Hopper , 2015). Maintaining the harmony within all the interpersonal relationship are
given the utmost importance in the collectivist culture. According to psychologists, there is no
single definition of the term personality. Some define it as those characteristics pattern which is

related to that of the thoughts, feelings, and behavior which can help a man to be unique
(Galinha, Garcia-Martin, Oishi, Wirtz, & Esteves, 2016). In short, personality is something that
can make an individual. Some of the basic characteristics of working of the personality include it
is organized and consistent, even after its stability it can influence the world at a large, all the
changes occurring in the behaviors may be the result of the personality. Personality can be tested
or tested through the experimental methods, case study, and self-reporting methods, clinical
research methods, etc. (Cherry, Understanding Collectivist Cultures, How Culture Can Influence
Behavior, 2019)
Personality can also be considered as that basic difference in thinking, feeling and
behaving patterns in between the individuals. The most widely and commonly used or accepted
personality traits are Openness to face new experiences, Conscientiousness provides a strong
sense of duty, Extraversion is the ones who have recognizable personality traits, Agreeableness
is the one filled up of warmth and kindness and lastly Neuroticism are the ones who are very
stable and compassionate towards others. According to a psychologist Mr. Allport the
personality is considered as those dynamic organizations within the individual of the
psychophysical system that could very well define its characteristics or behaviors (Cherry,
Theories and Terminology of Personality Psychology, 2019).
Thus to conclude it can be determined that according to psychological theories and
research, the traits of personality do differ across the individualistic as well as collectivist
culture. Therefore to end up with the above essay it can be said that it is the personality whose
traits can create differentiation among the people of the various cultures. Individualistic are
mostly considered as independent beings and here all the individuals view themselves separate
from each other. On the other hand, the people who belong to or consider themselves as the

collectivists are likely to have interdependent nature and views themselves as connected to others
or in relationship with each other. In an individualistic culture, the relationship is considered
voluntary and they chose relationships that can bring them benefit. Whereas in the collectivist
culture relationships are given more importance and are to be considered as stable and also needs
to be permanent.

References
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