
The Importance of Psychological Traits
A Cross-Cultural Study
Springer (Publisher)
Published on 6. December 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
XIII, 193 pages
978-1-4419-3298-3 (ISBN)
Description
All traits were not created equal. -WORCHEL AND COOPER (1983, p. 180) This book reports the findings from extensive cross-cultural studies of the relative importance ofdifferent psychological traits in 20 countries and the relative favorability of these traits in a subset of 10 countries. While the work is devoted primarily to professionals and advanced students in the social sciences, the relatively nontechnical style - ployed should make the book comprehensible to anyone with a general grasp of the concepts and strategies ofempirical behavioral science. The project grew out of discussions between the first author and third author while the latter was a graduate student at Wake Forest University, U.S.A., in 1990. The third author, a native of Chile, was studying person-descriptive adjectives composing the stereotypes - sociatedwiththe Chilean aboriginal minority knownas Mapuche (Saiz &Williams, 1992). Asweexaminedthe adjectives usedinthisstudy,it was clear that they differed in favorability and also on another dim- sionwhichwe latertermed "psychologicalimportance," i.e., the degree to which adjectives reflected more "central," as opposed to more "- ripheral,"personality characteristics.
More important descriptors were those which seemed more informative or diagnostic ofwhat a person "wasreally like"and, hence, might be ofgreater significance in und- standing and predicting an individual's behavior.
More important descriptors were those which seemed more informative or diagnostic ofwhat a person "wasreally like"and, hence, might be ofgreater significance in und- standing and predicting an individual's behavior.
Reviews / Votes
From the reviews:
"This is an important book for transcultural psychiatry. . The authors of this book summarize research over a number of years designed to determine the cross-cultural consistency of trait dimensions. . One of the unique aspects of this study concerned measures of the relative favorability and the psychological importance of traits." (Joel Paris, Transcultural Psychiatry, Vol. 41 (3), 2004)
More details
Series
Edition
1st ed. Softcover of orig. ed. 1999
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Research
Illustrations
XIII, 193 p.
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
330 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4419-3298-3 (9781441932983)
DOI
10.1007/b107732
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

John E. Williams | Robert C. Satterwhite | José L. Saiz
The Importance of Psychological Traits
A Cross-Cultural Study
Book
10/1998
Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers
€106.99
Shipment within 10-15 days
Content
Concepts and Issues Incross-Cultural Psychology.- Psychological Importance, the Five Factor Model, and Transactional Analysis Theory.- The Relative Favorability of Psychological Traits a 10-Country Study.- Psychological Importance Method and Gender Analyses.- Psychological Importance Item Level Analyses.- Psychological Importance Theory Level Analyses.- Psychological Importance Relations to Cultural Comparison Variables.- Summary and Integration of Findings.- Retrospect and Prospect a Broader View.