Where are Race, Ethnicity, and Culture in Personality Research?

In recent years personality research has re-affirmed its status as what Revelle famously termed “the last refuge of the generalist.” Conceptualizing personality as consisting of traits, characteristic adaptations, and life stories, all of which must be understood in the context of biological and cultural foundations, provides a “big tent” to integrate nearly any aspect of psychology. And yet, this big tent has seemingly had little room for scholarship focused on race, ethnicity, and culture. This paper includes a brief discussion of five reasons why this has been the case: a) overstating the universality of traits, b) overstating the genetic basis of personality, c) hyper-focusing on dispositions, d) a compromising association with social psychology, and e) a weak approach to examining group differences. The paper concludes with some ideas for constructing a bigger, more inclusive tent.