This perspective can show how personality can be misinterpreted when viewed from a different cultural context, and it can show how to use the cultural context to get a more accurate reading of the person.

More accurate: I am more outgoing than most people I know.

Not:  All Asians are shy, all Euro-Americans are loud and rude.

Example from student, previous quarter:

In her family, there is lots of talk, quick, overlap from one person to the next. Her uncle married a Native American woman. At first the family thought she was slow or shy

In each box is how the behavior may be interpreted in the cultural context.

Note: A, D, behavior matches context

	Behavior
Cultural Context	waiting to talk	lots of interrupting, peppering..
Native American	A average respectful, thoughtful	B rude, insensitive, shallow
African American	C slow, shy, retiring, perhaps nervous aloof, no opinion	D average engaged, involved/connected

keys:

1. have to judge person's behavior relative to the pattern they grew up in.

e.g. someone who interrupts some, waits some may be either....

very excitable/outgoing person from Native American culture or

shy/quiet person from very "peppery" culture

2. making personality judgments without knowing cultural background, often make mistakes.

her family did C

Tarimah: you adjust to the environment:

yes, but it takes a while, and it's easier, in this example, for B to adjust (be quiet) than for C to adjust.

What does the pattern look like? For B, C, if they are considered rude or slow, they may be treated in ways (ignored, talked down to) that change the direction of the relationship.