Consider whether any country has an exclusive right to knowledge and/or science. can a single nation or, for that matter, a small group of nations, stop scientific progress in other nations? on what moral and/or legal grounds can they inhibit or prohibit other countries from developing new technologies that can challenge their monopoly on these technologies? in short, shouldn’t all nations, no matter how rich or poor, have the same rights to technologically advance themselves? if not, why not?

why might it be important to consider cultural influences on personality? western ideas about personality may not be applicable to other cultures (benet-martinez & oishi, 2008). in fact, there is evidence that the strength of personality traits varies across cultures. let’s take a look at some of the big five factors (conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness, and extroversion) across cultures. as you will learn when you study social psychology, asian cultures are more collectivist, and people in these cultures tend to be less extroverted. people in central and south american cultures tend to score higher on openness to experience, whereas europeans score higher on neuroticism (benet-martinez & karakitapoglu-aygun, 2003).