Introduction
Personality characteristics are described as individual variances in the tendency to demonstrate persistent series of beliefs, emotions, and behaviors. According to McCrae (2017), a specific cultural nature is vital in shaping an individual’s personality depending on the surrounding practices. In this context, culture denotes society’s values, art, practices, and customs. Culture is taught to individuals through language and the practice of culturally permissible actions that are acknowledged and penalized by a recognized authority (McCrae, 2017). Therefore, this paper aims to overlay specific cultural effects on individual behavior factors using African American and Asian cultures by focusing on the Big-Five personality model score (OCEAN). In this regard, personality is influenced by incongruent aspects; for instance, culture, whose viewpoint has been visible in molding an individual’s personality.
Discussion
The racial prejudice African American people experienced enhanced them to be bold. As a result, it made African Americans exhibit an extraversion trait. In this sense, extraversion is a personality trait defined by excitation, friendliness, talkativeness, boldness, and a high level of emotional openness, among other characteristics. The adversities of African American people enabled them to fight for their grievances; as a result, it coerced them into public speaking forums; hence they are frank and jovial in most cases (Vella & Mills, 2017). In this sense, people with high levels of extraversion are outgoing and tend to acquire energy when they are in social circumstances. As Crawford & Brandt (2019) underscored, for most African American people, their extroversion trait ensures they get more stimulated and thrilled when they are in the company of other people. At the same time, introverted people are more restrained and have less energy to burn in social situations than extroverted people. Such people may be exhausted from attending social gatherings, and they often want a time of alone and silence to recharge. Hence, other ethnic groups felt, unlike African American people, do not like being the center of attraction.
Moreover, the fact that African American people’s identity was established predominantly during the slavery period fueled them to be neurotic. Neuroticism is a personality characteristic characterized by feelings of sorrow, irritability, and emotional instability. The character manifests in African American people in that when they are elevated, they are more likely to suffer mood swings, anxiety, irritability, and depression. For example, the atrocities from slavery and related abuses attributed them to be more stable and emotionally resilient. Further, the Neuroticism trait has been linked to feelings of anxiety and discontent. African American people with high levels of neuroticism are more likely to be unhappy with themselves and their life as compared to those with lower levels of neuroticism.
Additionally, neurotic individuals are more prone to report minor health concerns and experience overall uneasiness in various scenarios than the general population. Due to their past challenges, African American people who experience neurotic tendencies were more likely to experience unpleasant emotions such as anxiety, melancholy, wrath, and guilt (Russell et al., 2018). According to empirical investigations, excessively high degrees of neuroticism are related to persistent and widespread suffering in both neurotic persons and those near them. However, this can be seen as the opposite of other cultures that did not experience slavery. In this regard, the individuals exhibited opposite traits of positive neuroticism; for example, such people were emotionally steady and dealt well with pressure and adversity. Further, they are seldom unhappy or melancholy and have no reason to be concerned.
The African American culture of ritual and ceremony enabled them to have conscientious personality traits. This dimension is characterized by high degrees of thinking, strong impulse control, and goal-directed activities, to name a few characteristics. African American people who are very conscientious tend to be well-organized and meticulous in their attention to detail. They prepare ahead of time, consider how their actions may affect others, and are conscientious of deadlines. As a result, it encourages people to spend more time planning and appreciating having a defined routine. Furthermore, conscientious individuals in their work and studies are likely to be high performers in academics and professional life. They make more money, have better connections with their coworkers, are more satisfied at their jobs, and feel more accomplished when they are at their best. Furthermore, those that are diligent tend to get promoted to higher levels of leadership.
The culture of spirituality among African American people made them experience the trait of openness. Thence, this can be underscored by the fact that characteristics such as inventiveness and insight are included in this personality trait, therefore, welcoming them towards being creative by accepting new ideas. According to Mousavi (2017), it is also common for people with high levels of this feature to have diverse interests. African American people are genuinely interested in the world and other people; they are ready to learn new things and take pleasure in new experiences. Nonetheless, they tend to be more adventurous and innovative in their pursuits. On the same note, people that score poorly on this feature tend to be much more conventional in their thinking and may have difficulty with abstract reasoning. Similarly, other races have the personality of openness; for example, the European culture of welcoming new ideas has ensured they can tackle new ideas, hence their robust technological advancement.
However, the idea of agreeableness has manifested among African American people. Based on Tackett (2019), since time immemorial, the trait can be deduced that African American individuals have shown glimpses of trust due to their devotion to a supreme supernatural being that ensures their nature is bridled (Mousavi, 2017). Further, this personality dimension encompasses characteristics such as trust, generosity, friendliness, love, and other interpersonal interactions, amongst other things. African American people’s agreeable trait is associated with more cooperation, while the competitiveness trait is associated with greater competition and, in certain cases, manipulative behavior.
From the Asian perspective, they are hellbent on religious culture; as a result, agreeableness traits are apparent in their lifestyle. In this regard, they demonstrate trust, selflessness, friendliness, and love (Song & Shi, 2017). Moreover, due to this trait, they are likely to be prosocial, implying they assist others (Bulmer et al., 2017). Asian people’s religion has ensured they share, console, and cooperate. Furthermore, their agreeableness nature has rendered them to exhibit empathy for others. However, this can be contrasted with atheists who do not have distinct religious activities manifested by disagreeableness and behaves differently. Thus, they possess and exhibit socially unappealing behavior qualities (Song & Shi, 2017). Manipulation and hostility towards others, a lack of care or compassion, and a lack of interest in other people’s issues are all fairly prevalent.
On the same note, Asian people are culturally active in sporting activities that modify their behavior. For instance, Asian people possess extraversion as a personality trait; hence, sporting actions improve their expression. Therefore, they tend to be talkative, and aggressive, have high levels of emotion, and have desirably made extroverted persons easily identifiable after many years of social engagement. Therefore, it can be attributed to their passion for supporting their teams during sporting events such as football events such as the world cup. The opposite of other extroverts is someone we may know, an introvert. They have less energy in social circumstances and prefer seclusion.
Similarly, the Asian peoples’ culture of festivals and celebrations has made them behave with conscientiousness, a personality attribute characterized by high levels of deliberation, substantial impulse control, and goal-directed actions. This planned and organized approach is common among those who work in research and even high-end retail finance, where attention to detail and organization are needed skill sets. As a result, Asian shows a high level of conscientiousness; thence, they will often plan and evaluate their behavior to determine how it impacts others. For example, Asians’ nature of conscientiousness ensures they are individuals who would constantly prepare events in prior.
Imagination and perception are components of the trait of openness. In this sense, the trait of openness in Asian civilizations has underscored the value of families being tremendous. Thus, Asian people are ingrained in the culture of educating their children that family is their primary source of safety and personality. They anticipate their children to be loyal, parents establish the law, and children are supposed to abide by it. This is known as filial piety, which is reverence for someone’s family members. This characteristic values the world, and other people, and the eagerness to understand and discover new things. It leads to having a wide variety of passions and being more daring when making decisions. Innovation also plays a significant role in the attribute of openness, leading to a larger comfort zone on abstract and creative thought perspectives. Those with a low level of this feature tend to take a more conventional approach to life and may struggle with solving problems beyond their safe environment.
In addition, martial arts culture plays a fundamental role in influencing the behaviors of Asian descent. The critical practice in many Asian civilizations and the oldest documented remnants of martial arts are from the Xia Empire of Chinese Civilization. In this regard, it has made Asian people develop neuroticism. The character has marked Asian people as melancholic, irritable, and emotionally unstable. Moreover, it is a physical and emotional reaction to stress and perceived dangers in everyday life. It is sometimes misinterpreted as antisocial behavior or a larger psychiatric disorder. Hence, Asians with high degrees of neuroticism are more likely to suffer changes in mood, stress, and irritation. Some persons who undergo dramatic character changes daily may be very neurotic and react to high amounts of stress in their personal and professional life. Anxiety, a significant component of neuroticism, relates to an individual’s capacity to deal with stress and anticipated danger. Neurotic individuals overthink many circumstances and find it challenging to calm even in their environment.
Nonetheless, the traits can be assessed differently in these cultures. For example, the inquiry into the link between personality and bias in African American culture. Thenceforth, the latter has been enhanced by the establishment of a more dependable framework of personality, specifically the Big Five. Numerous studies have indicated that the Big Five describes most individual variations in personality; its agenda is African American perspective; it enables them to express their inner desires (Widiger, 2017). Similarly, it has been shown that African Americans with greater agreeableness ratings are more inclined to assist victims. They inhibit negative emotions toward conventional objects of racism and positively judge interactions with others. In response to inhibition, commitment to achieving, and choice for compliance and safety, diverse personality traits are characterized by conscientiousness.
Additionally, African American people with higher results on contentiousness have more cautious, are more likely to retain team-proposed policies, and are less likely to support favorable feelings toward immigrants or minority constitutional protections. Individuals with more openness to knowledge are less vulnerable to social danger, display more forgiving racial views toward blacks, and are more likely to interact with blacks and perceive such experiences positively—the link between openness to experience and bias (Han & Pistole, 2017). Extraversion and psychological resilience are largely uncorrelated to discriminatory sentiments.
On the other hand, Asian people’s characters can be expressed differently by universal traits. For example, from the atheist viewpoint, Asian people are adamant about religious culture and exhibit characteristics of the universal trait (Oshio et al., 2018). As a result, they exhibit different qualities, such as taking little interest in others and being indifferent to how others feel. They have limited concern for the issues of others, insult and degrade others, and manipulate people to obtain what they want. Furthermore, they have high levels of antisocial behavior and are thus more likely to be loners, which suggests that they are more unwilling to aid others in their endeavors. Unpleasant personality types are characterized by traits such as egocentric, uncomforting, and non-cooperating with others.
Conclusion
Culture has played a pivotal role in influencing traits people possess; therefore, it can be deduced that the ethnic background from which such individuals hail creates room for culture incongruent. In this way, African American people’s past influences their culture, which modifies their big five traits. On the other side, Asian people’s nature of life has influenced their traits. Hence from nature and nurture through age and development, the big five qualities have been extensively researched, allowing us to discover how they affect a person’s behavior and character and what factors influence them. Personality has often been hypothesized to be a result of either nurture or nature, depending on the effect of one’s environment. Thus, they now possess distinctive traits, such as the black people of the United States or Asians, for example.
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