文化、人格及認知行為的關係：個人層次的探討

The authors examined whether independent or interdependent self-construals were associated with the way in which individuals pursued personal goals. Individuals with an independent self-construal orient toward personal-goal pursuit, whereas individuals with interdependent self-construal prioritize in-group goals above personal ones. The authors used a 1-week, prospective goal-setting paradigm. The present results revealed that interdependent self-construals were significantly associated with introjected reasons for pursuing goals, experiencing conflict among goals, and achieving less goal progress. Independent self-construals were significantly associated with intrinsic and identified reasons for goal pursuit and greater goal progress. There was some evidence that the relation of interdependent and independent self-construals to goal progress was mediated by goal conflict and goal intrinsic motivation, respectively. The present results also replicated previous research indicating the goal-setting benefits of intrinsic motivation, implementation intentions, and goal harmony.

Individuals can be personally affected, and motivated to empathize with victims, when viewing television coverage of natural disasters. This study examined how individuals' independent and interdependent self-construals influence how they view and respond to disaster coverage. The findings demonstrated that interdependent and independent self-construals had significant effects on individuals' self-reported psychological intrusion and concern for victims. Additionally, TV viewing motives (i.e., instrumental and ritualized) were found to mediate the relationship between interdependent self-construal and personal responses.

This study investigated the cultural influences on creative and conforming behavior. Three sets of hypotheses were developed. First, it was predicted that there was a negative association between creative and conforming behavior (Hypothesis 1). Second, it was predicted that cultural individualism-collectivism had a positive impact on independent self-construal (Hypothesis 2A) and a negative impact on interdependent self-construal (Hypothesis 2B). Third, it was predicted that independent self-construal had a positive impact on creative behavior (Hypothesis 3A) and a negative impact on conforming behavior (Hypothesis 3B) and that interdependent self-construal had a negative impact on creative behavior (Hypothesis 3C) and a positive impact on conforming behavior (Hypothesis 3D). These hypotheses were embedded in a theoretical model of behavior with cultural individualism/collectivism as the antecedent variable, independent and interdependent self-construals as the mediating variables, and creative and conforming behaviors as the outcome variables. To test this theoretical model of behavior, 158 White undergraduates from Australia (who represented individualistic members) and 186 Chinese undergraduates from Singapore (who represented collectivistic members) responded to a survey containing relevant scales to measure the constructs in this study. SEM results provided support for this theoretical model of behavior, as well as for the various hypothesized relationships embedded within it. On the basis of these significant findings, the need to consider the cultural context when promoting individual creativity was highlighted.

Several studies have found evidence that social information processing is strongly influenced by the person either primarily defining his or her self as an autonomous entity (independent self-construal) or as related to other people (interdependent self-construal). In this chapter, we describe the psychological mechanisms by which independent and interdependent self-construals affect individual experience. We propose the Semantic Procedural Interface (SPI) model of the self, which distinguishes two such mechanisms. In addition to differences in the semantic content areas from which independent and interdependent self-construals arise (semantic application mechanism), there are also different procedural modes of thinking (procedural application mechanism) associated with them. Independent self-definitions coincide with the tendency to process stimuli unaffected by the context in which they appear. Relating the self to the social contexts within interdependent self-construals facilitates context-bounded thinking (i.e., processing stimuli by paying attention to their relation to the given context). The results of several experiments attesting to the value of the differentiation between both application mechanisms are presented. We discuss how far differences in information processing between members of different cultural groups can be traced back to the mechanisms described in the SPI model.

Earlier studies on identity have reported that North Americans and East Asians have very distinct views of self. While North Americans related consistency, stability, and clarity of self to high self-esteem, good social adjustment, and strong true self, East Asians, who tended to contextualize their identity and demonstrate high inconsistency and lack of clarity, did not relate these tendencies to lack of self-esteem or true self. Markus and Kitayama (1991, 1998) explained this difference with independent and interdependent self-construals. This study extends these earlier studies by proposing and testing an alternative theoretical framework, the theory of cognitive relativity. The theory stipulates that Koreans, who hold a holistic worldview, maintain higher cognitive relativity in their self-concept than Americans, who hold an analytic worldview. The results supported the theory. Koreans showed higher relativity in all three attributes of self-concept: physical, psychological, and social. Particularly, the social attribute yielded a striking difference and the psychological attribute also showed robust differences between the two cultures. Physical attribute did not show as strong a difference, but the difference was still statistically significant. Americans and Koreans did not show statistically significant differences in independent and interdependent self-construals, while the effect of culture on cognitive relativity was significant after controlling for the effect of self-construal.

Prior cross-cultural dissonance research has relied on cultural stereotypes and assumed that participants from Western cultures are individualistic and have independent self-construals while participants from Asian cultures are collectivistic and have interdependent self-construals. The present article provides a critique of the theory of independent and interdependent self-construals as well as prior cross-cultural research on dissonance, and suggests using self-construal priming to avoid relying on cultural stereotypes in accounting for differences in dissonance experienced. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Interdependent self-construal predicts increased gray matter volume of scene processing regions in the brain

The present studies demonstrated the moderation of self-construal orientation on mimicry. Recent research has indicated that an interdependent self-construal is associated with assimilation of the other to the self whereas an independent self-construal is associated with minimizing the influence of others on the self (H. R. Markus & S. Kitayama, 1991; D. Stapel & W. Koomen, 2001). Therefore, the authors hypothesized that an interdependent self-construal would be associated with more mimicry than an independent self-construal. When self-construal orientations were experimentally primed, as in Studies 1 and 2, independent self-construals produced less nonconscious mimicry than interdependent self-construals. When self-construals were examined as cultural differences with either a chronically dominant independent (Americans) or interdependent (Japanese) construal of the self, these results were replicated.

Humans are motivated by a quest for significance that is threatened by the inevitability of death. However, individuals with interdependent self-construals, self-representations that reflect embeddedness with and connection to others, are able to extend themselves through time and space through their linkage to a larger social group. The present set of 5 experiments tested the hypotheses that individuals primed with an interdependent self-construal would fear death less and would be more willing to face harm for the sake of the group than individuals with an independent self-construal, that is, self-representations that reflect autonomy and independence from others ("I have self-control"). The results show that interdependent self-construals, compared to independent self-construals, attenuate death anxiety, reduce the avoidance of death, increase the approach to death-related stimuli, induce a greater willingness to become a martyr, and induce a greater willingness to sacrifice the self for other members of important groups.

East Asians and Asian-Americans tend to allocate relatively greater attention to background context compared to European Americans across a variety of cognitive and neural measures. We sought to extend these findings of cultural differences to affective stimuli using the N400, which has been shown to be sensitive to deep processing of affective information. The degree to which Asian-Americans and European Americans responded to semantic incongruity between emotionally expressive faces (i.e., smiling or frowning) and background affective scenes was measured. As predicted, Asian-Americans showed a greater N400 to incongruent trials than to congruent trials. In contrast, European Americans showed no difference in amplitude across the two conditions. Furthermore, greater affective N400 incongruity was associated with higher interdependent self-construals. These data suggest that Asian-Americans and those with interdependent self-construals process the relationship between perceived facial emotion and affective background context to a greater degree than European Americans and those with independent self-construals. Implications for neural and cognitive differences in everyday social interactions, and cultural differences in analytic and holistic thinking are discussed.

This study examined the extent to which independent and interdependent self-construals were related to counsellor trainees' multicultural case conceptualization ability (i.e., ability to conceptualize clients from a multicultural perspective). Results revealed that, after accounting for race or ethnicity and prior multicultural training, counsellor trainees' self-construal scores were significantly predictive of their ability to conceptualize clients from a multicultural perspective. Specifically, independent self-construal scores were negatively related to trainees' ability to conceptualize clients from a multicultural perspective, whereas interdependent selfconstrual scores were positively associated with multicultural case conceptualization ability. Future research directions are offered.

Research on the leisure of racial and ethnic groups has recently been criticized for a variety of different reasons. In response to some of these concerns, this article examines the motivations of outdoor recreationists who identify themselves as being Chinese ( n = 53); it compares their motivations with those of Euro-North Americans ( n = 180) at the same outdoor setting; and it does so using the construct of self-construal as an intervening variable between ethnicity, acculturation, and motivations for outdoor recreation. According to Markus and Kitayama (1991), individuals with independent self-construals value being unique, expressing themselves, and promoting their own goals, whereas individuals with interdependent self-construals value belonging, fitting in, and promoting others' goals. Furthermore, although people in or from Western Europe and North America are more likely to have independent self-construals, people in or from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Southern Europe are more likely to hold interdependent self-construals. On the basis of the above, a series of regressions were conducted. Results suggest that (a) ethnicity does affect both types of self-construal; (b) ethnicity does affect four outdoor recreation motivations directly, although this relationship is usually, but not always, mediated by self-construal; (c) ethnicity does affect four other recreation motivations indirectly, either through the interdependent self-construal or through both types of self-construal; and (d) with Chinese respondents, acculturation did affect one recreation motivation directly and, through the independent self-construal, two other motivations indirectly.

ObjectiveThis research conducted two studies in South Korea to explore the relationship between smokers’ self-construals and the types of cigarettes they use, emphasizing their combined effects on cessation campaign effectiveness.MethodsStudy 1 explored how smokers’ self-construals influenced their intentions to quit smoking or vaping, considering their primary cigarette usage. Study 2 further investigated this relationship within cessation campaigns, employing messages framed by both self-construal (independent vs. interdependent) and cigarette type (combustible vs. electronic).ResultsThe results of Study 1 showed that individuals with a strong interdependent self-construal were more likely to express intentions to quit smoking or vaping when using e-cigarettes compared to combustible cigarettes. Similarly, Study 2 demonstrated that cessation messages for e-cigarettes were more effective in eliciting intentions to quit when presented with an interdependent self-construal frame, while messages for combustible cigarettes showed greater effectiveness with an independent self-construal frame.ConclusionCampaigns solely focused on independent self-construals might not effectively persuade e-cigarette users to quit, as they may prioritize communal wellbeing over individual benefits. Adapting anti-e-cigarette campaigns to align with the values of interdependent self-construals could yield better outcomes in promoting cessation among e-cigarette users.

Individual differences in relatedness and individuality: An exploration of two constructs

The impact close relationships have on development, functioning, and wellbeing makes its research important in enriching understanding about the social conditions that support better socio-emotional functioning. While the literature has seen voluminous research on close relationships, cross-cultural research on the topic has received relatively less attention. This dissertation addresses this literature gap by studying close relationships across two cultures, using attachment theory as the theoretical framework. A review of available adult attachment studies between Western and East Asian populations show that: 1) East Asians typically score higher culture level means in attachment insecurity (i.e., attachment anxiety and avoidance) on survey measures, and 2) attachment insecurity appears to more strongly predict worse psychological functioning among East Asians, than Westerners. These differences have been largely attributed to East-West differences in individualism and collectivism levels or related reasons, which are often vaguely defined and not systematically evaluated in existing studies. Current crosscultural studies also almost overwhelmingly examine individual differences but not attachment normative processes. These findings informed two cross-cultural, crosssectional studies that sampled college students from Western (Australian) and Eastern/Asian (Singaporean) backgrounds to examine if attachment differences are associated with individualism and collectivism at the individual level. The first study assessed participants’ (Australian n = 143; Singaporean n = 146) personal endorsement of individualism and collectivism, their associations with attachment orientation, and their roles in moderating the relation between attachment and psychological outcomes (i.e., attachment-psychological outcomes link). It also compared the attachment networks and transfer between Singaporeans and Australians. The second study (Australian n = 206; vii Singaporean n = 322) used two complementary approaches to assess culture to tease apart the separate associations of personal endorsement and perceived norms of individualism and collectivism with attachment, and assessed the moderating role of person-culture fit in the attachment-psychological outcomes link. Results showed that, across two studies using different attachment scales, the two populations did not score reliably differently in their culture level means of individualism and collectivism or attachment constructs. The two studies corroborated results showing that individual differences in personal endorsement of individualism and collectivism (also perceived norm of collectivism) were associated with individual differences in avoidance, in directions consistent with their conceptual definitions. However, personal endorsement and perceived norm of individualism and collectivism showed non-significant associations with attachment anxiety. At the individual level, there was qualified support that personal endorsement of individualism and collectivism and person-culture fit moderated the attachment-psychological outcomes association. Comparisons of attachment network and transfer showed that Singaporean and Australian late adolescents/young adults showed typical sequential attachment transfer. Romantic partners appeared to play a central role as attachment figures among individuals in a romantic relationship. Entering a romantic relationship seemed to accentuate differences in young adults’ preferences towards different relationship targets as attachment figures between cultures. Overall, results highlighted more similarities than differences in attachment patterns between the cultures examined. It is argued that cultural influences on attachment is better understood through directly examining associations between them rather than comparisons of culture level means. Implications of results, limitations of studies, and future directions for research are discussed.