Culture and Social Behavior

The Ontario Symposium, Volume 10

Richard M. Sorrentino, Dov Cohen, James M. Olson, Mark P. Zanna

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9781135617905
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Cross-cultural differences have many important implications for social identity, social cognition, and interpersonal behavior. The 10th volume of the Ontario Symposia on Personality and Social Psychology focuses on East-West cultural differences and similarities and how this research can be applied to cross-cultural studies in general. Culture and Social Behavior covers a range of topics from differences in basic cognitive processes to broad level cultural syndromes that pervade social arrangements, laws, and public representations. Leading researchers in the study of culture and psychology describe their work and their current perspective on the important questions facing the field. Pioneers in the field such as Harry Triandis and Michael Bond present their work, along with those who represent some newer approaches to the study of culture. Richard E. Nisbett concludes the book by discussing the historical development of the field and an examination of which aspects of culture are universal and which are culture-specific. By illustrating both the diversity and vitality of research on the psychology of culture and social behavior, the editors hope this volume will stimulate further research from psychologists of many cultural traditions.Understanding cultural differences is now more important than ever due to their potential to spark conflict, violence, and aggression. As such, this volume is a "must have" for cultural researchers including those in social, cultural, and personality psychology, and interpersonal, cultural, and political communication, anthropology, and sociology.

Chapter 1

Two Dimensions of Political Attitudes and Their Individual Difference Correlates: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Michael C.Ashton, Brock University

Henry A.Danso, Wesleyan University

Gregory R.Maio, Cardiff University

Victoria M.Esses, The University of Western Ontario

Michael Harris Bond, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Doris Ka Yi Keung, Chinese University of Hong Kong

People commonly describe variation in political attitudes in terms of a single broad dimension known as the left versus right political spectrum. In some countries, the “left” end of this dimension is known as liberalism, and the “right” end is known as conservatism. Although the attitudes defining each pole of this dimension are not clearly delineated, most people have an intuitive understanding of what each end of the dimension represents.

Despite the popularity of the left-right political spectrum, however, it is not at all clear that the variation among individuals in their attitudes toward political issues can be adequately summarized in terms of this single broad dimension. Indeed, it is not difficult to think of persons, or even political parties, whose attitudes seem to include a mixture of left- and right-wing positions. For example, one could view Pope John Paul II as leftwing, in terms of his opposition to the death penalty and to certain aspects of capitalism, or as right-wing, in terms of his opposition to abortion and to homosexuality. Similarly, one could view Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura as left-wing, in terms of his favorability toward the legalization of prostitution and of certain drugs, or as right-wing, in terms of his opposition to various aspects of the welfare state. Examples such as these raise the possibility that there might exist two or more major dimensions of attitudes toward political issues, rather than just a single general factor of political attitudes. In addition, it is possible that these dimensions of political attitudes are relatively invariant across cultures, though the specific issues that define these dimensions may vary. To examine this topic, then, it is necessary to examine the structure of political attitudes in a variety of cultural settings.

The aim of this chapter is to describe our investigation of the structure of attitudes toward political issues in several cultures. In particular, we examine the crosscultural generalizability of a two-dimensional structure of political attitudes in a number of countries, including the United States, Canada, Wales, Hong Kong, and Ghana. We also relate those two dimensions to a variety of important psychological dimensions that have been proposed as important variables across cultures, including the values dimensions of Openness to Change versus Conservation and of Self-Transcendence versus Self-Enhancement, Horizontal and Vertical Individualism-Collectivism, Right-Wing Authoritarianism, and Social Dominance Orientation.

Previous Research

Interestingly, two researchers who studied the structure of political attitudes during the mid-20th century independently proposed a solution containing two dimensions. Ferguson (1939) factor-analyzed the responses of American participants to a small set of sociopolitical attitude scales, and obtained two factors that he called Religiosity and Humanitarianism. Religiosity was defined by belief in God and by opposition to birth control and the theory of evolution, whereas Humanitarianism was defined by rejection of harsh criminal punishments, including the death penalty, and by pacifism. Ferguson (1942) later added a third factor, Nationalism, which was defined by support for law, censorship, and patriotism, and by opposition to communism. However, Ferguson (1973) noted that this third factor was correlated with both Religiosity (positively) and Humanitarianism (negatively).

In the 1950s, Eysenck (1954) conducted a large-scale exploratory factor analysis of the responses of English participants to 40 political attitude items, and found two factors that he left in unrelated form. The first unrelated factor, which he called Conservatism versus Radicalism, was a broad dimension defined positively by items involving capitalist economic policy, religious morality, punitiveness, militarism, and racism or ethnocentrism, and negatively by items involving socialism, secularism, leniency, racial egalitarianism, and pacifism. The second unrotated factor, which he called Toughmindedness versus Tendermindedness, was defined positively by religious morality but also by pacifism and leniency, and negatively by secularism but also by racism and punitiveness. If Eysenck’s factors were rotated 45 degrees, they would closely resemble Ferguson’s Religiosity and Humanitarianism dimensions (Rokeach & Hanley, 1956): One factor would contrast religious morality with secularism, and the other would contrast racism, militarism, and punitiveness with racial egalitarianism, pacifism, and leniency.

Several researchers have rejected Eysenck’s psychological interpretation of the Toughmindedness-Tendermindedness factor and his attempt to relate the two factors to Fascism and Communism (e.g., Altemeyer, 1981; Christie, 1956; Rokeach & Hanley, 1956). Nevertheless, the finding that Eysenck’s set of political attitudes defined a two-dimensional space was not disputed. On the basis of further analyses involving a larger number of issues, Eysenck (1975) later added a third factor, called Politico-Economic Conservatism versus Socialism.

Related Domains

During the later decades of the 20th century, there was relatively little interest in the structure of attitudes toward political issues, and no systematic attempts were undertaken to resolve the problem. (One notable exception is the work of Boski, 1993, who found that political attitudes in Poland could be organized in terms of two orthogonal factors corresponding to religious versus secular attitudes and capitalist versus socialist attitudes.) In retrospect, this lack of interest in what must be considered the fundamental question of political psychology is quite surprising, especially in light of the increasing popularity of that branch of psychological research. Nevertheless, the last quarter of the 20th century did witness the intensive investigation of several domains of psychological variation that overlap conceptually with political attitudes. These domains include the areas of social values, cultural variation, and broad social and political ideologies.

Research by Schwartz and colleagues has suggested that social values—the abstract goals that serve as guiding principles in people’s lives—can be summarized in terms of a two-dimensional structure (Schwartz, 1992, 1994, 1996; Schwartz & Bilsky, 1987; Schwartz & Sagiv, 1995). One of the two dimensions, named Openness to Change versus Conservation, is described by Schwartz (1996, p. 6) as “a conflict between emphases on own thought and action and favoring change versus submissive self-restriction, preservation of traditional practices, and protection of stability.” The other dimension, named Self-Transcendence versus Self-Enhancement, is described by Schwartz (1996, p. 6) as “a conflict between acceptance of others as equals and concern for their welfare versus pursuit of one’s own relative success and dominance over others.”

In the domain of cultural variation, Triandis (1995; Singelis et al., 1995; Triandis & Gelfand, 1998) has identified four varieties of cultures, whose characteristics are summarized in terms of these horizontal and vertical varieties of individualism and collectivism. Horizontal Collectivist cultures emphasize egalitarianism and cooperation, whereas Vertical Individualist cultures emphasize status-seeking and competition; Vertical Collectivist cultures emphasize the subordination of one’s own goals to those specified by in-group authorities, whereas Horizontal Individualist cultures emphasize individual uniqueness. Thus, one can view these four constructs as occupying the poles of two axes within a two-dimensio...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Ontario Symposium on Personality And Social Psychology
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Two Dimensions of Political Attitudes and Their Individual Difference Correlates: A Cross-Cultural Perspective
• Chapter 2: A Cultural-Psychological Model for Explaining Differences in Social Behavior: Positioning the Belief Construct
• Chapter 3: Insider and Outsider Perspectives on the Self and Social World
• Chapter 4: Culture and Relationships: The Downside of Self-Contained Individualism
• Chapter 5: Constructing Good Selves in Japan and North America
• Chapter 6: Culture and Lay Theories of Change
• Chapter 7: Interdependent Agency: An Alternative System for Action
• Chapter 8: Language, Culture, and Conceptions of the Self
• Chapter 9: Uncertainty Orientation and Social Behavior: Individual Differences Within and Across Cultures
• Chapter 10: Issues in Individualism and Collectivism Research
• Chapter 11: The Dialectical Self: Contradiction, Change, and Holism in the East Asian Self-Concept
• Chapter 12: The Ghosts of Cultural Psychology