<p>The active syndrome and the passive syndrome are presented as explana­tory constructs for the study of the effect of culture on personality and the study of cross-cultural differences. These constructs are mediated by socio-cultural premises that are, in simplest terms, culturally significant statements held by a majority of the members of a society. In order to demonstrate the use of these constructs the United States was chosen as an "active” culture and Mexico as a "passive” culture. A series of 112 statements, dichotomized on the active-passive dimension, were presented to graduate students in the two countries. The results showed 101 of the state­ments to have high interjudge reliability and differential face validity.</p><p> </p>