Personality, Values, Culture
Personality, Values, Culture
Humans are complex social beings. To understand human behaviour, an integrated perspective is required - one which considers both what we regularly do (our personality traits) and what motivates us (our values). Personality, Values, Culture uses an evolutionary perspective to look at the similarities and differences in personality and values across modern societies. Integrating research on personality and human values into a functional framework that highlights their underlying compatibilities (driven by shared genetic and brain mechanisms), Fischer describes how personality is shaped by the complex interplay between genes and the environment, both over the course of human evolution and within the lifespan of individuals. He proposes a gene-culture coevolution model of personality and values to explain how and why people differ around the world and how genes, economics, social conditions, and climate jointly shape personality.
- Proposes a new, integrated approach to personality and culture research which studies both personality traits and values
- Explains cultural diversity in human personality from an evolutionary perspective
- Links social psychology and personality research to genetics and neuroscience
Reviews & endorsements
'Personality traits and value orientations have been studied in separation. Ronald Fischer overcomes this separation and demonstrates convincingly how much these two strands of scholarship can learn from each other. He synthesizes a vast multi-disciplinary literature in a most competent way. This book is a new classic in cross-cultural psychology.' Christian Welzel, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Germany
'Ronald Fischer, a giant in the field of cross-cultural psychology, has produced an intellectual masterpiece. Drawing on fields as diverse as genetics, neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, he provides a marvelous integration of research on personality, values and culture, tackling age-old questions and identifying new frontiers along the way. This book is a must for anyone interested in understanding human behavior.' Michele J. Gelfand, University of Maryland
'This is a rich and erudite work that covers key concepts in the history of psychological thought and supports the author's arguments regarding a model of gene-culture coevolution. Psychologists, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates interested in personality, culture, and evolutionary psychology will want to read this book.' D. S. Dunn, Choice
Product details
September 2019Paperback
9781107451933
280 pages
228 × 152 × 14 mm
0.4kg
22 b/w illus. 8 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction: the quest to understand the person
- 2. Everything is change: a primer to evolution
- 3. The big five personality traits and human values
- 4. Examining the common structure of traits and values
- 5. Explaining personality structures: the relative importance of genetic
- 6. Searching for the underlying mechanisms in the brain and the situation and cultural differences in values and traits
- 7. Is the personality world two-dimensional? The (in)stability of the trait-value structure across cultures
- 8. Understanding structural variation: resources, threats and the power of the situation
- 9. Values and traits as adaptive strategies
- 10. Traits and values across the lifespan
- 11. Evolutionary genetics of personality
- 12. Why should we care about personality, culture and evolution?
