a distinctive pattern of thought, feeling, and behavior supposedly found in people raised in the same culture, largely as a result of their subjection to the same child-rearing practices. The basic personality is in turn held to be responsible for many of a culture’s distinctive institutions, such as its religion and folklore. Also called basic personality structure; basic personality type. See also cultural determinism; national character. [proposed by U.S. psychoanalyst and psychocultural theorist Abram Kardiner (1891–1981)]