Trait and cultural psychology perspectives on cross-role consistency and its relation to adjustment were examined in two individualistic cultures, the United States (N = 231) and Australia (N = 195), and four collectivistic cultures, Mexico (N = 199), Philippines (N = 195), Malaysia (N = 217), and Japan (N = 180). Cross-role consistency in trait ratings was evident in all cultures, supporting trait perspectives. Cultural comparisons of mean consistency provided support for cultural psychology perspectives as applied to East Asian cultures (i.e., Japan), but not collectivistic cultures more generally. Some but not all of the hypothesized predictors of consistency were supported across cultures. Cross-role consistency predicted aspects of adjustment in all cultures, but prediction was most reliable in the American sample and weakest in the Japanese sample. Alternative constructs proposed by cultural psychologists-personality coherence, social appraisal, and relationship harmony-predicted adjustment in all cultures, but were not, as hypothesized, better predictors of adjustment in collectivistic cultures than in individualistic cultures. Publisher's Disclaimer:The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors disclaim any responsibility or liabilities for errors or omissions of this manuscript version, any version derived from this manuscript by NIH, or other third parties. The published version is available at http://www.apa.org/journals/psp/ NIH Public Access "…for traits to distinguish people from one another, they must display some distinctive consistency." (Johnson, 1997, p. 74) '…an implicit promise of trait theories is to account for consistency across a range of situations." (Moskowitz, 1994, p. 921) "…the functional value of consistency is less clear for East Asian selves" (Heine, 2001, p. 886) "Interdependent selves do not prescribe or require consistency [which] may reflect, not authenticity, but a lack of flexibility, rigidity, or even immaturity" (Markus & Kitayama, 1994, p. 576) As illustrated above, psychologists offer a range of views regarding trait-relevant consistency and its relation to adjustment across cultures. In discussing these differences in emphases or expectations, it is useful to distinguish trait and cultural psychology perspectives. While the trait concept implies a degree of consistency of behavior across relevant situations in all cultures, a number of cultural psychologists have predicted less consistency in collectivistic cultures, where behavior is thought to be more influenced by contextual factors such as roles and relationships (Markus & Kitayama, 1998;Suh, 2002;Triandis, 1995). Furthermore, whereas greater consistency or integration of identity has been described as an indicator of positive mental health i...

Enculturation is the degree to which a person adheres to the values and behaviors of an indigenous or ethnic culture. This study was conducted to develop the Enculturation Scale for Filipino Americans (ESFA). Items were generated from a literature review, interviews with 5 Filipino American academic experts, and a survey of 24 cultural informants. Two community samples of Filipino Americans (Ns = 281 and 269) and 1 sample of non-Filipino Americans (N = 84) completed the ESFA. The Filipino American samples also completed existing enculturation/acculturation measures for Asian Americans and measures of subjective well-being. In factor analyses, 3 general enculturation dimensions—Connection With Homeland, Interpersonal Norms, and Conservatism—replicated well across samples. Internal consistency reliability estimates for the ESFA subscales were high, and construct validity was supported by the pattern of relationships with alternative, but less culture-specific, enculturation/acculturation measures, as well as immigration, generational status, and cultural identity variables. Item response theory methods were used to develop a short form of the ESFA.

Three theoretical perspectives on cultural universals and differences in the content of self-concepts were tested in individualistic (United States, n = 178; Australia, n = 112) and collectivistic (Mexico, n = 157; Philippines, n = 138) cultures, using three methods of self-concept assessment. Support was found for both trait perspectives and the individual-self-primacy hypothesis. In contrast, support for cultural psychology hypotheses was limited because traits and other personal attributes were not more salient, or social attributes less salient, in individualistic cultures than collectivistic cultures. The salience of some aspects of self-concept depended on the method of assessment, calling into question conclusions based on monomethod studies.

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The behavioral manifestations of Big Five traits were compared across cultures using the Act Frequency Approach. American (n = 176) and Filipino (n = 195) students completed a Big Five measure and act frequency ratings for behaviors performed during the past month. Acts for specific traits cohered to an equivalent degree across cultures. In both cultures, the structure of act composites resembled the Big Five and the strength of trait-behavior relationships was very similar. Many acts were multidimensional and analyses revealed cultural commonalities and differences in the relevance and prevalence of acts for the Big Five traits. The results were more consistent with trait than cultural psychology perspectives, because traits predicted behavior equally well, on average, in the two cultures. Keywordsculture; traits; act frequency approach; Big Five Culture and the Behavioral Manifestations of Traits: An Application of the Act Frequency ApproachThe study of personality traits across cultures has expanded rapidly in the past decade (Church, 2000; McCrae, Terracciano, & 79 Members of the Personality Profiles of Cultures Project, 2005;Triandis & Suh, 2002). Thus far, trait psychologists have focused primarily on the crosscultural universality of personality trait structure. For example, researchers have found that the Five Factor Model (FFM), comprised of the "Big Five" dimensions of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, replicates well across cultures (McCrae & Allik, 2002). 1 More recently, proponents of the FFM have conducted extensive multinational comparisons of Big Five profiles and begun to infer cultural differences in personality trait levels (McCrae et al., 2005), despite the concerns of some crosscultural psychologists that scalar equivalence or full-score comparability might not be achieved in such comparisons (Poortinga, van de Vijver, & van Hemert, 2002).Equally important, but rarely investigated, is the extent to which the behavioral manifestations of traits are comparable across cultures. Such a focus would address fundamental questions Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to A. Timothy Church, Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology, Cleveland Hall, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-2136, USA, church@mail.wsu.edu. 1 Other personality structure models, such as the six-dimensional HEXACO model (Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience), have also replicated well across cultures (Ashton et al., 2004). This has raised questions about the most comprehensive or optimal model of universal personality structure. Our intent in the present article is not to advocate the superiority of the Five-Factor Model over alternative models, but to illustrate how cultural similarities and differences in the behavioral manifestations of personality dimensions can be investigated. The answers to these questions are significant for trait the...