Independent Self Research Articles

The Metamorphosis of Normative Feminism in Pride and Prejudice as Descriptive Feminism in Beloved: Inevitable Path of a Woman

Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice and Toni Morrison in Beloved view normative and descriptive feminism especially through the character analysis of Elizabeth and Sethe. Austen presents Elizabeth through the normative feminist view as a woman with the power to judge the situation, to make opinion and to take the decision according to her understanding and intelligence. In the male-oriented society, she establishes herself as an independent being and challenges the second-rate woman concept. On the other way, Toni Morrison views that Sethe moulded by normative feminist characteristics fells herself as a topic of descriptive feminist concept- woman of inherited identity who has to make herself weak and subordinate to man in every aspect. Having strong determination and capacity of getting freedom, her struggle to stand independently causes her isolation from the male-centred community which leads to her distract mentality and incapability to breathe in this society. This paper aims at presenting Elizabeth as an unequivocal voice and model of normative feminist view to exert woman as equally capable, qualified, respected and important being as man. The paper also aims at showing how Elizabeth with normative feminist quality in Pride and Prejudice has been transfigured as Sethe with descriptive feminism in Beloved, whose struggle to lead an independent self and to exercise her potentiality as woman self is hindered by male mechanism which is an inevitable path of a woman. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n13p425

The role of self-aspects in emotions elicited by threats to physical health

In two studies, we examined the relationship between self-aspects and socially engaging and socially disengaging emotions elicited by imagined and real physical health problems. In Study 1, participants imagined themselves experiencing a health problem described in a hypothetical scenario and rated the extent to which they would experience a list of emotions. The experience of socially engaging emotions such as shame and embarrassment was predicted by the endorsement of collective self. In Study 2, participants recalled a past health problem and emotions they experienced during its course. Again, collective self predicted the extent to which people mentioned socially engaging emotions in their free recall of emotions. Independent self was not related to the imagined experience of socially disengaging emotions in Study 1 or the recollection of such emotions in Study 2.

Privacidad y periodismo: el escándalo Murdoch sobre escuchas telefónicas en News of the World

La regulación de la prensa británica se halla en pleno proceso de reforma a raíz del descubrimiento en julio de 2011 del mayor escándalo de escuchas ilegales practicadas por los periodistas del tabloide News of the World. Este hallazgo ha puesto al descubierto una compleja red de conexiones entre la prensa, la policía y los políticos en Reino Unido. Tras varios meses de investigación, el Informe Leveson sobre la cultura, prácticas y ética de la prensa presenta numerosas propuestas para someter a la prensa a un nuevo mecanismo de autorregulación más independiente y garantista que comprometa a una práctica ética del periodismo así como para asegurar los derechos de las personas objeto de información en los medios.The regulation of the British press is undergoing a major process of reform after the biggest scandal of phone hacking carried out by journalists from the tabloid News of the World broke in July 2011. This finding has uncovered a complex network of connections among the press, the police and politicians in the UK. After several months of investigation, the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the press has made numerous proposals in order for the press to be covered by a new independent self— regulatory regime leading to the ethical practice of journalism and guaranteeing the rights of persons who draw the attention of the media.

Teetering on the Edges

Teetering on the Edges Mollie Boutell (bio) Spark. Courtney Elizabeth Mauk. Engine Books. http://www.enginebooks.org. 239 pages; paper, $14.95. Courtney Elizabeth Mauk’s debut novel, Spark, teeters on edges: the edge of consistency, the edge of credibility, the edges of smoothness and tenability. Characters, too, all seem poised to fall off an emotional cliff—especially the narrator, Andrea. In less capable hands, the story could grow tiresome, but Mauk insistently pulls her readers safely back, every time, just in time. Spark is filled with so much of Andrea’s quiet drama—her pyromaniac brother, Delphie; her strained relationship with her mother; her crumbling romantic relationship; intense therapy sessions; bizarre friends; and late-night descents into New York’s underworld—that I wanted to look away. But here’s the thing: Mauk’s novel, like fire for Delphie, is seductive and mesmerizing. I couldn’t stop. This is a one-sitting, forget-to-eat kind of novel. At the start, Andrea Simon’s brother has just been released from prison after serving a twenty-year sentence for setting fire to a home and killing the family inside. Her mother (whom she distantly addresses by her first name, Jenny) pushes her to house Delphie in her tiny apartment as he transitions to normal life. This alone would be enough trouble for anybody, but Andrea also harbors unreasonable guilt about what happened. Born a bone marrow donor to cure her brother of a rare cancer, Andrea takes responsibility for Delphie’s crime. Before Delphie moves in, Andrea clears her home of matchsticks, lighters, candles—anything involving fire. After he moves in, she tries to shield him from news and images of fire. Her tranquil life—a happy marriage, a relaxed job as a dog walker—is interrupted, and Andrea is in danger of losing herself. Or so it seems. Andrea’s close friend and client, Rain—a flamboyant, aging actress with her own personal and professional drama, nudges her: “Do not lose your center. Do not lose your self.” But one question that lingers as the novel progresses is whether Andrea ever really claimed an independent self, or whether she’s always identified as a product to cure, a protector, and an essential part of Delphie. As Andrea grapples with her changing relationships and sense of self, she wanders the streets of the city, following strangers down alleyways and onto bridges. It’s less a search, however, than an escape. The city shines in this novel, particularly its inhabitants. Filled in with just a few brush strokes, the city’s people are vibrant and yet completely unreachable to Andrea. She watches distantly as children play, well-heeled women chat, and the throngs of normal people commute to normal jobs. Andrea is not among them, but her alienation does not concern her—in fact, it barely registers. Readers might want to make meaning out of the people who fade into and out of view, but Andrea simply lets them glide by. The narrator does find a new friend in one of the city’s people—Sally, a vodka-swilling, night-owl goth, found on her first late-night roam. Andrea’s attraction to Sally is almost (but not quite) erotic; what Andrea seems to want is for Sally to take care of her, guide her, and perhaps mold her. Create Andrea’s self for her. Sally is enigmatic to both Andrea and the reader; she appears at the right moments, never sleeps, works in and frequents secret places. Sally seems to have answers (and questions) for Andrea, but it is unclear whether she is entirely real: Wait. I will wait. But if I wait, she will not come. Like Santa Claus or the tooth fairy, Sally has to be dreamt first. Sally’s realness is not that important, though—the extent to which Sally is Andrea’s projection of another life and a new beginning matters less than the simple fact that Andrea eventually recognizes she has a shot at a new beginning at all. And beginnings, in the end, are at the heart of this story. Early on, Andrea’s mother makes a powerful, if vague, claim: when Delphie set...

Erratum.

Boiger, M., Mesquita, B., Uchida, Y., & Barrett, L. F. (2013). Condoned or Condemned: The Situational Affordance of Anger and Shame in the United States and Japan. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(4), 540-553. doi: 10.1177/0146167213478201 This article contained the following errors that were introduced during the production process. Below is how these sentences should have appeared: On page 544, instead of "the relationship between of the actors involved," the sentence should read: "the relationship between the actors involved" On page 545, instead of "and the positive association between power and likelihood of occurrence was stronger for shame situations from Japan (b = .07, Z = 2.00, p = .04) than shame situations from Japan (b = -.02, Z = 0.71, p = .47) from the U.S., χ2(1) = 4.16, p = .04.," the sentence should read: "and the positive association between power and likelihood of occurrence was stronger for shame situations from Japan (b = .07, Z = 2.00, p = .04) than from the U.S. (b = -.02, Z = 0.71, p = .47), χ2(1) = 4.16, p = .04." On page 550, instead of "Americans perceived situations in which their personal flaws were revealed as more shameful, whereas Japanese perceived situations that implied a loss of public face as more shameful χ2(1) = 6.26, p = .01 Japanese and American students also differed substantially in terms of the source of agency eliciting shame: Americans perceived situations in which others' actions caused them to feel shame as more shameful, while Japanese perceived situations in which they themselves were responsible as more shameful χ2(1) = 51.33, p = .001.," the sentence should read: "Americans perceived situations in which their personal flaws were revealed as more shameful, whereas Japanese perceived situations that implied a loss of public face as more shameful, χ2(1) = 38.86, p < .001. Japanese and American students also differed substantially in terms of the source of agency eliciting shame: Americans perceived situations in which others' actions caused them to feel shame as more shameful, while Japanese perceived situations in which they themselves were responsible as more shameful, χ2(1) = 51.33, p = .001." On page 551, instead of "In both cultures, it were interactions with close others that made people particularly angry involved interactions with close others.," the sentence should read: "In both cultures, it were interactions with close others that made people particularly angry." On page 551, instead of "Thus, angering situations in the United States are promoted in line with the necessary concerns and tasks of an independent self that needs to cultural negotiate personal autonomy within close relationships.," the sentence should read: "Thus, angering situations in the United States are promoted in line with the cultural tasks of an independent self that needs to negotiate personal autonomy within close relationships."

Factors Affecting Enterepreuerial Orientation Level of Business Women: The Case of Gambela Region of Ethiopia

It is widely accepted that the Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) sectors have the potential to provide a livelihood for a considerably large number of people in least developed countries such as Ethiopia. African women entrepreneurship development is generally inadequate and beset with numerous constraints and challenges, which have to do with culture, entrepreneurial orientations and their total perceptions in entrepreneurship. This study is therefore to examine women entrepreneurial orientation, determine factors affecting entrepreneurial orientation Level of business women. The result indicated that the levels of EO of business women were in low to medium level of category. The result also showed that number of business, age, level of education, prior experience, the size of the business, business age since its establishment, need of independence motivational factors, self achievement, social network, and market availability (compete) are significantly associated with entrepreneurial orientation. Among the socio-economic variables, diversification of businesses or the tendency to own more than one business has been found to be positively related with the entrepreneurial orientation of women.

Self-Identity and Consumer Behavior Dissociative versus Associative Responses to Social Identity Threat: The Role of Consumer Self-Construal Self-Affirmation through the Choice of Highly Aesthetic Products It's Not Me, It's You: How Gift Giving Creates Giver Identity Threat as a Function of Social Closeness Identifiable but Not Identical: Combining Social Identity and Uniqueness Motives in Choice The Signature Effect: Signing Influences

Consumer researchers have recognized for a long time that people consume in ways that are consistent with their sense of self (Levy 1959; Sirgy 1982). Important thought leaders in our field have described and documented that consumers use possessions and brands to create their self-identities and communicate these selves to others and to themselves (e.g., Belk 1988; Fournier 1998; McCracken 1989). Although early research tended to focus on broad conceptual issues surrounding consumers and their sense of self, recent research takes a more granular approach, breaking down the relationship between identity concerns and consumption to look at the effects of specific self-related goals and of different aspects of self-identity on consumer behavior. For example, why would someone drive his Prius to work but drive his BMW to a blind date? Impression management? Value expression? Need for affiliation? The current collection of articles on self-identity and consumer behavior (appearing over the last two years) complements and adds to a growing body of work that has already appeared in JCR. Five of these six articles focus on specific relationships between self-identity-related goals and consumer behavior, exploring needs such as affiliation and distinctiveness, self-verification, and self-affirmation. The sixth paper explores the effect of identity activation on memory. The experiments in these articles fall into two paradigms. First, researchers threaten an aspect of self-identity to investigate how consumers engage in restorative behavior. In this paradigm, researchers may also allow consumers to bolster an aspect of selfidentity to mitigate the need for self-repair. Second, researchers measure or manipulate (prime) a particular aspect of self-identity or a particular identity-related goal to examine the effect on subsequent consumer behavior. Taken altogether, the papers in this collection provide us with a more nuanced understanding of consumer behavior as it relates to self-identity. While this collection of recent articles moves us forward, the wide variety of self-identity goals and countless aspects of self-identity make this an extremely fruitful area for future research. The first article, by White, Argo, and Sengupta, finds that consumers respond differently to self-threats depending on their self-construal. When independent selves are salient, a threat to the self activates the need to bolster self-worth through dissociation from identity-linked products, lowering preferences for such products. When interdependent selves are active, self-threat activates the need to belong, which manifests itself in an increased association with identity-linked products, enhancing product preferences. These findings persist across many different operationalizations of self-construal. Thus, how consumers restore their sense of self after a threat depends on which self-goal is activated, which in turn depends on the consumers’ self-construal. Next, the article by Townsend and Sood explores how the choice of an aesthetically pleasing product can affirm a consumer’s threatened sense of self. Rather than identify a specific social identity, the researchers link aesthetics to personal values. The choice of a highly aesthetic product can boost one’s self-esteem by confirming one’s value for beauty. The researchers show that the choice of a highly aesthetic product meets consumers’ needs to self-affirm after a self-threat by replicating the positive effects of selfaffirmation on a variety of downstream variables established in psychological research. For example, choosing a well-designed product increased openness to counterarguments and reduced commitment toward a failing course of action. The third article, by Ward and Broniarczyk, also falls into the self-threat paradigm. Here, the threat arises from a naturally occurring consumer setting: gift giving. Identity-incongruent gifts to close friends threaten consumers’ sense of self, while incongruent gifts to distant friends do not. Close friends are

Who Serves the Self From the Seat of Power? Predicting Self-Interested Leader Behavior

Why do some leaders use their position of power to amass personal prestige and resources, and others to benefit the group or society as a whole? This paper synthesizes new, cross-disciplinary research demonstrating that self-serving (versus group-serving) behavior by leaders and powerholders is predictable rather than mysterious. I demonstrate a clear pattern of specific dispositional and situational factors that predict leaders’ self-interested actions: (a) a distinct set of personality characteristics (e.g., low Agreeableness), values (e.g., self-enhancement values or low moral identity), and a sense of independence from others (e.g., individualism or an independent self- construal) and (b) threats to the leader’s power, either of internal (e.g., self-doubts) or external (e.g., positional instability) origin. These ideas have important implications for both our basic understanding of when power corrupts and for organizational efforts to identify candidates for leadership who will enhance group performan...

The Nonself of Girard

The Nonself of Girard Samuel Buchoul (bio) Girard and Philosophy According to René Girard, mimetic theory and philosophy cannot go together; mimetic theory must go beyond philosophy. More than an ideological disagreement, there is here an actual methodological divergence. Philosophy, he argues, tends to remain at the superficial level of pure intellectual understanding, whereas other human faculties must be accessed to overcome the illusions of an independent desire: In reality, no purely intellectual process and no experience of a purely philosophical nature can secure the individual the slightest victory over mimetic desire and its victimage delusions. Intellection can achieve only displacement and substitution, though these may give individuals the sense of having achieved such a victory.1 Furthermore, Girard relates the impossibility of philosophy’s real progress to its incapacity to question the ultimate levels of introspection, namely, “ego,” “personality,” or “temperament”: For there to be even the slightest degree of progress, the victimage delusion must be vanquished on the most intimate level of experience; and this triumph, if it is not to remain a dead letter, must succeed in collapsing, or at the very least shaking to their foundations, all the things that are based upon our interdividual oppositions—consequently, [End Page 101] everything that we can call our ‘ego,’ our ‘personality,’ our ‘temperament,’ and so on.2 In other words, Girard affirms that philosophy has always been biased by the romantic axiom par excellence: the existence of an autonomous self. However, one may argue that not all philosophical traditions of the world repeat this faith in the independence of the self. Buddhism is one of them, and it actually fulfils both of the aforementioned requisites of Girard’s theory.3 Buddhism, too, argues that a purely intellectual inquiry, without the practice of morality (Sīla), concentration (Samādhi), and wisdom (Prajñā), cannot suffice to reach the truth. Furthermore, Buddhism also refutes the hypothesis of an independent self; fighting this belief is actually the central element of the Buddhist path to liberation. Although Girard does not directly address ethics, we can gain much by extending his reflections into this realm. Doing so, we can discover certain values that may be common to Girard and Buddhism and that naturally point to the same conclusion: the need to forsake the romantic lie of the autonomy and independence of human beings in favor of a deep awareness of the interdependence in human life and all worldly phenomena. This awareness is the starting point and essential precondition to a new understanding of what an ethical life is.4 In this essay, I shall attempt to highlight some of the common features and possible meeting points of mimetic theory and Buddhist philosophy. This will be done on the basis of the Buddhist notion of Anattā, nonself, which Leo D. Lefebure already noted as offering a deep conceptual compatibility with the theory of mimetic desire.5 I will try to go further and present some initial arguments in favor of a more ambitious hypothesis: that mimetic theory could finally find, with Buddhism, support from a major philosophical tradition. This short article is intended as a speculative and provocative introduction to an intellectual encounter that deserves greater academic attention. In addition to advancing some preliminary arguments that will be developed further in subsequent works, the present essay, taken alone, still serves an important purpose: to introduce parts of Buddhist terminology that will be relevant for future philosophical and ethical studies of Girard’s work.6 Anattā: Nonself Anattā is one of the unique contributions of Sakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism who lived in the fifth-century BCE in India. Along [End Page 102] with his rejection of the caste system and the practice of sacrifice, Buddha questioned the existence of the Ātman (Sanskrit) or Atta (Pāli), the self or soul7 widely accepted in Brāhmaṇism. The Ātman concept is similar to the idea that each person or thing has an independent self, a view that is shared by several main families of Western philosophy, from the Greek era to the Enlightenment. Walpola Rahula recalls that, in the Brāhmaṇical tradition, it was believed that “in man there is a permanent, everlasting...

Culture and Coping: Anglo- and Greek-Australian Parents of Children with a Disability

This cross-sectional study informed by the Lazarus and Folkman (1984) model of stress and coping and Triandis' (1995) theory of individualism/collectivism, aimed at exploring the ways of coping of 31 Anglo- and Greek-Australian parents with a child with a disability using a mixed methods research design. Independent sample t-test analyses revealed cultural differences in the way of coping between the fathers in the sample. Greek-Australian fathers selected more wishful thinking and avoidance strategies where as Anglo-Australian fathers selected more problem focused coping. No differences in ways of coping between Anglo-and Greek-Australian mothers were found. Deductive content analyses revealed culturalised differences in terms of interdependent and independent self construals. Greek-Australian parents differed from their Anglo-Australian counterparts in reference to family role and responsibility, as well as perception of stigma. Anglo-Australian parents differed from their Greek-Australian counterparts in relation to work, social networks and marital relationship. Overall the study highlights the presence of culture specific (emic) responses that need to be considered in research dealing with parents of children with a disability from diverse cultural contexts.

Construal Level and Ingroup Bias

The causal relationship between mental construal level and ingroup bias remains elusive. This paper uncovers a boundary condition and a mechanism underlying the relationship. We predict and find support for our hypotheses in four experiments conducted in East Asian and Western cultures. Data showed that a high- (vs. low-) level construal activated state belongingness, but had no effect on state rejection, state self-esteem, positive emotion, or negative emotion in participants from Korea (Experiment 1) and Australia (Experiment 3). Moreover, a high- (vs. low-) level construal triggered greater ingroup bias for Koreans (Experiment 2) and Australians (Experiment 3) primed with a relational self, but not for those primed with an independent self. This construal level effect on ingroup bias was eliminated when belongingness was primed at both a high- and a low-level construal; instead, relationals under a low-level construal were more ingroup-biased when they were primed with a belongingness (vs. baseline) condition (Experiment 4). These findings highlight that the relational self is a boundary condition for the construal level-ingroup bias link; belongingness explains the relationship.

“You are no stranger to me”

“You are no stranger to me”

Effects of Self-Construals on Consumer Assertiveness/Aggressiveness

This study investigates the effects of self-construals (independent self and interdependent self) on consumers’ tendency to be assertive or aggressive in their interaction with retail sales representatives. For this, the study employs samples from the United States and Thailand and tests the hypotheses through multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and full structural equation modeling. The results indicate that independent (interdependent) self-construals had positive (negative) effects on consumer assertiveness and aggressiveness. The implications of these results and some avenues for future research are discussed.

The Interconnected Self: The Social Individual is More Than Just Social + Individual

AbstractAlthough decades of research provide consistent evidence supporting the perspective that the self is divided into social and personal components each with unique and predictable motivational associations, the current paper argues that something important has been overlooked. Specifically, what has been lost is the acknowledgment that although different components of self can be activated, and can have important implications, the two aspects of self are highly interconnected. Specifically in this paper, it is argued that (i) the independent self is affected by social motivations and (ii) the social self is affected by independent motivations. Two studies are presented in support of these hypotheses. We conclude by comparing our perspective with existing theories of the self and by discussing implications for the study of the self.

Inferring the Emotions of Friends Versus Strangers

Three studies examined cross-cultural differences in empathic accuracy (the ability to correctly infer another's emotional experience) within the context of different relationships. East-West cultural differences in self-construal were hypothesized to differentiate levels of empathic accuracy across relationship types. In contrast to the independent self prevalent among members of Western cultures, members of Eastern cultures generally view the self as interdependent with those with whom they have a relationship. Easterners, relative to Westerners, are more concerned with the thoughts or feelings of close others and less concerned with the thoughts or feelings of those with whom they have no relational link (i.e., strangers). Across three studies, the authors found that East Asians, compared with European Americans, made more accurate inferences regarding the emotions of close others (i.e., friends), but less accurate inferences regarding the emotions of strangers. Furthermore, individual differences in interdependent self-construal among East Asians predicted the degree of empathic accuracy.

Conflict Management Styles: The Role of Ethnic Identity and Self-Construal among Young Male Arabs and Americans

This cross-cultural study compared young male Arabs’ and young male Americans’ perceptions of their ethnic identity, self-construal, and conflict management styles. Findings indicated that Arabs had stronger ethnic identity than Americans. Arabs were both more independent and interdependent than American participants. Conflict style comparisons demonstrated that Americans chose the emotional expression, dominating, and neglect styles more than Arabs, and Arabs chose the integrating, third-party help, and avoiding styles more than Americans. Participants did not differ in their preference of the compromising and obliging conflict management styles. In terms of the relationships among ethnic identity, self-construal, and conflict styles, little difference was found between the two cultural groups. The integrating, compromising, avoiding, and neglect conflict management styles were predicted by both independent and interdependent self construal for both cultural groups. The obliging and third-party conflict styles were positively predicted by interdependent self-construal. The dominating style was predicted by independent self-construal and ethnic identity. The only conflict style that was predicted differently among Arab and American participants was the emotional expression style. Among American participants, interdependent self-construal and ethnic identity predicted emotional expression style. For Arabs, independent self-construal predicted the emotional expression style.

Manufacture of Lasers with Multiple Operating Modes

A two-beam pumped Ti:sapphire laser with femtosecond and picosecond cavities was manufactured. Three operating modes, independent self mode-locking, cross mode-locking and multi-pulse operating, were achieved. In the independent self mode-locking mode, femtosecond and picosecond laser pulses were generated in the two cavities, respectively. In the cross mode-locking mode, synchronized femtosecond and picosecond laser pulses were obtained in the two cavities. In the multi-pulse mode, multi-pulses were produced in the picosecond cavity. The results show that, the independent self mode-locking mode is dominated mainly by group velocity dispersion and self-phase modulation, the cross mode-locking mode is governed primarily by cross-phase modulation and the multi-pulse operating is ruled largely by self-amplitude modulation.

Cultural Variations in Motivation for Cognitive Consistency: Influences of Self‐Systems on Cognitive Dissonance

AbstractAre people always motivated to strive for cognitive consistency? Does culture influence a person’s motivation to maintain cognitive consistency between attitudes and actions or between preferences and choices? When and how do people in different cultures experience cognitive dissonance, engage in justification of their behavior, and use self‐affirmation? When and how are people with different models of agency motivated to maintain a preference‐choice consistency? In this paper, culturally variable self‐schemata and models of agency, independent self and agency dominant in North American culture and interdependent self and agency prevalent in Asian culture, are considered as the source of cultural variations in cognitive consistency. These culturally divergent self‐systems create variance in situations in which North Americans and Asians are motivated to maintain cognitive consistency. In this paper, related cross‐cultural research is reviewed. Some future research agenda are also discussed.

关系型自我构念量表中文版的信效度检验&lt;br&gt;The Reliability and Validity of the Chinese Version of the Relational-Interdependent Self-Construal Scale

本文修订并检验了中文版关系型自我构念量表的信效度。参与本研究的有效被试包括来自泸州医学院的192名大学生和来自西南大学的237名大学生。研究发现新模型适配；内部一致性系数是0.80；关系型自我构念与独立我、互依我、短版独立我、短版互依我相关显著；与自信的相关是0.33；与16PF中的恃强性，兴奋性，有恒性，实验性，感情用事与安详机警性，心理健康人格因素，内向与外向性相关显著；性别差异显著(t = 5.47, p < 0.001)。结果表明该量表具有良好的信效度。 This study investigated the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Relational-Inter- dependent Self-Construal Scale (RISCS). The effective participants of this study included 192 University students from Lu Zhou Medical College and 237 University students from SouthwesternUniversity. New model were fit. Internal consistency reliability coefficient of the scale was 0.80. The relationship between RISCS and independence self, interdependent self, short version of independent self, interdependent self were related significantly. And then, the relationship between RISCS and self-confidence was calculated as 0.33. RISCS and dominance, liveliness, persistence, openness to change, emotional reasoning, mental health, in- troverted and outgoing of 16PF were significantly correlated. The difference of sex was significant (t = 5.47, p < 0.001). The results show that this scale is a reliable and valid instrument.

Relational Buddhism: Wedding K.J. Gergen’s Relational Being and Buddhism to Create Harmony In-Between-Selves

The Psychology of Relational Buddhism is a cutting-edge practical understanding of life rooted in two trailblazing paradigms: (1) mind is not gridlocked in the skull but spaced outside the body in-between people’s interactions and (2) all that is observed in science (and noted in mindfulness) are conceptualizations which boil down to social constructions. In Dependent Origination, through parental lustful intercourse (kamadathu), sensing-emoting/thinking-talking capability is embodied. Speech gets form by the syllable during meaning-making exchange (rupadathu). As “languaging” progresses formless thoughts transform into fickle mind (arupadathu) and self-organize illusory “independent self” that fails to see inseparable “selves” spaced-in-between-people-embedded-in-culture. Thus, at bottom, to act is to inter-act and to be is to inter-be: “I am linked, therefore I am” (K.J. Gergen). Usually unbeknownst, intentional or premeditated action (karma) arises non-independently, moves Body/Speech/Mind, and could result in psychological malaise. In search for awakened mind (absolute bodhicitta), we encounter the smallest unit of experience (dharma). Relational Buddhism invites the co-creation of inter-being-in-between-selvesand of a “non-foundational morality of coordinated action” to render “team spirit for humanity” with congenial bonds as lifeline. Imbibed in-depth, this mentality (in line with the Gandavyuha Sutra) will likely enable us, whenever mind blowing AHA and HAHA transform karma. In synergy with the UN-adage “think globally, act locally”, we might want we need grass root collaborative practice toward bottom-up societal harmony by realizing awakened mind of loving-kindness (relative bodhicitta) via on-going front-burning mindfulness of speech including self-talk.