Abstract
In this chapter, two kinds of cross-cultural differences in the structure of personality traits are discussed. In Study 1, following preliminary findings that the position of the axes that define the interpersonal circumplex is related to the culture’s position on the individualism-collectivism dimension (Kallasmaa et al., 2000a), our research addressed the questions of whether the angle of rotation is related (a) to any other country-level indices apart from individualism-collectivism across cultures (intercultural analysis) or (b) to the mean level of collectivism across various samples within a culture (intracultural analysis). At the intercultural level of analysis, significant correlations were found between the absolute angle of rotation and indices of life satisfaction and subjective well-being (negative) and a composite T-score of Neuroticism (positive). The results of Study 1 also suggested that the intercultural relationship between the orientation of varimax axes in the interpersonal plane and individualism-collectivism may also exist at the intracultural level. Study 2 was designed to address the question of the meaning of different degrees of association between Impulsiveness and two broad personality factors (Extraversion and Conscientiousness) in different cultures. In the intercultural part of the study, the relationship between Impulsiveness and Extra version was found to be stronger in cultures scoring low in Conscientiousness, and high in individualism and Openness to Experience. In the intracultural part, we found that Conscientiousness moderated the relationship between Impulsiveness and Extra version in two Russian samples, but not in the Estonian samples. In the latter, instead, Neuroticism was found to be a moderator variable.
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Konstabel, K., Realo, A., Kallasmaa, T. (2002). Exploring the Sources of Variations in the Structure of Personality Traits Across Cultures. In: McCrae, R.R., Allik, J. (eds) The Five-Factor Model of Personality Across Cultures. International and Cultural Psychology Series. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0763-5_3
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