Ciao again!
For this blog post I
will talk about Italian culture and personality. According to Allport (1936),
personality is usually considered as, “a set of relatively enduring behavioral
and cognitive characteristics, traits, or predispositions that people take with
them to different situations, contexts, and interactions with others, and that
contribute to differences among individuals.” When speaking of personality from
a cross-cultural psychological viewpoint, the dominant view is the Five-Factor
Model and the traits associated with that model are: neuroticism, extraversion,
openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness (Matsumoto & Juang, 2013).
However, here in Italy, the research I found is more supportive of the Big Three
or the Three-factor solution labeled conscientiousness, extraversion and
agreeableness (Di Blas & Forzi 1998). An example of Italian personality in
action came from a study where some specific personality profiles correlated
with preferences to two political coalitions and that voting serves as an
expressive function for Italians (Caprara, Schwartz, Capanna, Vecchione, &
Barbaranelli, 2006).
According
to Di Blas, Forzi, and Peabody (2000), the five large characteristics of lexical
approach in American English are: ‘extraversion’ or ‘surgency’,
‘agreeableness’, ‘conscientiousness’, ‘emotional stability’, and ‘intellect’.
However, Italians fit better in the “Big Three” which are the first three
personality factors of: extraversion or surgency, agreeableness and
conscientiousness (Di Blas, Forzi, & Peabody, 2000). According to Di Blas
and Forzi (1998), neither Intellect nor Neuroticism was found in the
five-factor solution in Italians because they were under-represented in
comparison to the other personality dimensions. In my family, there is a lot of
public embracing and kissing upon greeting people, touching people on the arms
when talking, and looking people in the eyes (Salamone). This type of behavior
is falls under the general “agreeableness” which are variables that correspond
to the favorable pole and there is no separate factor corresponding to
emotional stability (Di Blas, Forzi, & Peabody, 2000). On the other spectrum, variables that
correspond to emotional instability tend to appear in the extraversion
factor (Di Blas, Forzi, &
Peabody, 2000). Also, the negative pole of “Extraversion” had neurotic traits
and “Agreeableness” was positive with items signifying sensitiveness,
understanding and kindness (Di Blas & Forzi 1998).
Next
year I will be able to vote because the voting age here in Italy is 18 but I
still will not be able to vote for the Senatorial elections until I am 25
(Italy). Italy has undergone a lot of political changes since the early 1990s
and specific personality profiles from the Big Five have correlated
specifically with preferences for the two political coalitions, on the
right-left political continuum, in a study of over 2000 Italian voters in 1994
(Caprara, Schwartz, Capanna, Vecchione, & Barbaranelli, 2006). With that being
said, personality profiles of voters tended to match the personality profile of
their coalition’s leader projects and with the political priorities of the
coalition (Caprara, Schwartz, Capanna, Vecchione, & Barbaranelli, 2006).
For example, the center-right mostly campaigned entrepreneurship and business
freedom and identified this leader with energy. The center-left mostly
campaigned for solidarity, social welfare, education, and tolerance for
diversity and identified this leader with friendliness and openness (Caprara,
Schwartz, Capanna, Vecchione, & Barbaranelli, 2006). Italy has many
political parties with the main ones being: Olive Tree, Freedom Pole, Northern
League, Communism Refoundation, Italian Social Movement, Pannella–Sgarbi's
List, Italian Socialist, Autonomous List, and Southern Tyrol's List (Salamone).
Because of the many parties, voting serves as an expressive function for voters
by voting for programs and ideals that are similar to their own actual and
ideal personality traits (Caprara, Schwartz, Capanna, Vecchione, &
Barbaranelli, 2006). According to the study done by Caprara et al. (2006), the
impact of personality on vote choice is very large.
References
Allport, G. W. (1936). Personality: A Psychological
Interpretation. New York: Holt.
Caprara, G. V., Schwartz, S., Capanna, C., Vecchione, M.,
& Barbaranelli, C. (2006). Personality and Politics: Values, Traits, and
Political Choice. Political Psychology, 27, 1-28.
Di Blas, L., Forzi, M., & Peabody, D. (2000).
Evaluative and descriptive dimensions from Italian personality factors. European
Journal Of Personality, 14, 279-290.
Di Blas, L., & Forzi, M. (1998). An alternative
taxonomic study of personality-descriptive adjectives in the Italian language. European
Journal Of Personality, 12(2), 75-101.
Italy. Life in Italy. Retrieved from http://www.lifeinitaly.com/culture/italy.asp
Matsumoto,
D., & Juang, L. (2013). Culture and Psychology (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Jon-David Hague.
Salamone,
Frank A. Countries and Their Cultures. In Every Culture. Retrieved from http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Italy.html#b
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