Interdependent Self-concept Research Articles

Self-Concept and Social Integration

This article evaluates the credo ‘integration while maintaining one’s identity’ with the help of psychological arguments. First, it explores the requirements of being a good citizen in a liberal democracy. Following Rawls, we state that justice is the cardinal liberal virtue and that this virtue includes having the disposition to respect the rights of all citizens equally. It then investigates psychological theories about identity and the relation between culture and identity. We focus on the distinction between collectivistic cultures and an interdependent self-concept on the one hand and individualistic cultures and an independent self-concept on the other. We come to the conclusion that the development into a good citizen of a liberal democracy cannot be combined with the full preservation of an interdependent self-concept. Further, we argue that the state has the right and the duty to offer civic education to all pupils, even if this means that the development of an inter-dependent self-concept of children from particular immigrant groups will be hampered.

Self-Concept, Aspirations, and Weil-Being in South Korea and the United States

The authors examined the similarities and differences between 3 dimensions that represent people's focus on self vs. other: individualistic vs. collectivistic nations, independent vs. interdependent self-concepts, and intrinsic vs. extrinsic aspirations. In samples of South Korean and U.S. college students, the authors found that each of these dimensions was interrelated in expected ways and that each also was independently associated with different aspects of participants' self-report of their own well-being (i.e., self-actualization, vitality, happiness, anxiety, and physical manifestations). The authors concluded that environmental circumstances and personality characteristics that focus on personal needs are more likely to provide experiences supportive of psychological well-being.

Individual-level Predictors of Public Outspokenness: A Test of the Spiral of Silence Theory in Singapore

Individual-level Predictors of Public Outspokenness: A Test of the Spiral of Silence Theory in Singapore

Culture and Self in South Africa: Individualism-Collectivism Predictions

People from collectivist cultures may have more concrete and interdependent self-concepts than do people from individualist cultures (G. Hofstede, 1980). African cultures are considered collectivist (H. C. Triandis, 1989), but research on self-concept and culture has neglected this continent. The authors attempted a partial replication in an African context of cross-cultural findings on the abstract-concrete and independent-interdependent dimensions of self-construal (referred to as the abstract-specific and the autonomous-social dimensions, respectively, by E. Rhee, J. S. Uleman, H. K. Lee, & R. J. Roman, 1995). University students in South Africa took the 20 Statements Test (M. Kuhn & T. S. McPartland, 1954; Rhee et al.); home languages were rough indicators of cultural identity. The authors used 3 coding schemes to analyze the content of 78 protocols from African-language speakers and 77 protocols from English speakers. In accord with predictions from individualism-collectivism theory, the African-language speakers produced more interdependent and concrete self-descriptions than did the English speakers. Additional findings concerned the orthogonality of the 2 dimensions and the nature and assessment of the social self-concept.

The Relationship Between Independent and Interdependent Self-Concepts and Reasons for Purchase

SUMMARY This article applies theory from cross-cultural psychology to identify several factors that are related to a consumer's reasons for planned and impulsive purchase decisions. At the country level, this study found that people from more collectivist countries (Malaysia and Singapore) had more strongly correlated independent and interdependent self-concepts than people from more individualist countries (USA and Australia). At the individual level, across all countries, a person's independent self-concept was positively related to purchase reasons associated with uniqueness, but not with group affiliation. In contrast, a person's interdependent self-concept was positively related to purchase reasons that depicted group affiliation and, to a lesser extent, uniqueness.

Effects of Cultural Tightness and Collectivism on Self-Concept and Causal Attributions

Previous research investigating the influence of cultural variables on the psychological constructs of self-concept and causal attributions has employed responses of individuals within cultures. In the present research, ethnographies of 16 cultures were examined using the CD-ROM version of the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF). As predicted, self-concept was related to both cultural tightness and collectivism. Specifically, interdependent self-concepts were more likely to occur in tight and collective cultures, whereas independent self-concepts occurred in individualistic and loose cultures. Causal attributions for failure were found to be more external for more collective cultures, but no relation between failure attributions and cultural tightness was obtained. Causal attributions for success were not systematically related to either cultural tightness or collectivism. Additional variables that are speculated to influence attributions, in conjunction with culture, are proposed for future research. The usefulness of the CD-ROM version of the HRAF for addressing psychological questions is discussed.

Defining and Measuring Harmony Control

This study proposes a new control construct, harmony control (HC), inspired by a reanalysis of Rothbaum, Weisz, and Snyder's (1982) primary and secondary control constructs. Traditional primary control, and its supporting construct secondary control, affirm the Western cultural emphasis on an agentic self that separates positively from others. Harmony control reflects an interdependent self-concept. In HC, people are flexible and adjusting, and they recognize the agency that resides in spiritual and social forces. Guided by culturally informed views of the interdependent self and previously defined categories of secondary control, the present research develops an individual difference measure of HC framed independently of traditional primary and secondary control. Results from over 2300 community and student participants show that the scale meets traditional psychometric standards for reliability and predictive validity. As predicted, HC correlates with interdependence and collectivism and is orthogonal to two measures of traditional primary control. HC is uncorrelated with self-esteem, suggesting that harmony control may not engage self-efficacy because the social context is more in focus than the self. Women and Hispanics, two groups for whom role requirements and cultural background emphasize interdependence and harmony, score higher than men and Anglos, respectively. In a laboratory study, people higher in HC were more likely to transfer decision power to another person or to chance.

A Comparison of Independent vs. Interdependent Self-Concepts : 8-Year-Old Japanese and German Girls.

A Comparison of Independent vs. Interdependent Self-Concepts : 8-Year-Old Japanese and German Girls.