Interdependent Self-construals Research Articles

Rooted in Family, Exploring the World: The Integrated Identities of Advantaged Guatemalan Adolescents

Adolescents in today’s globalized world construct their identities within complex and intersecting ecologies. In majority world countries, such as Guatemala, adolescents are exposed to external influences through international media, travel, and visitors from other cultures. In this study, 131 middle and high school adolescents (53% girls, Mage = 14.5, range = 11–19) attending a bilingual school in Guatemala completed two quantitative measures (concerning local and remote acculturation and identity domain importance) and two qualitative measures (open-ended responses to the prompt “I am” and an autophotography exercise). The quantitative results showed that cultural affiliation with Guatemala was associated with a collective identity. Qualitative findings provided a deep and complex view of identity in the context of collectivism and global influences. In response to the prompt “I am,” adolescents described themselves as profoundly social, embedded in networks of nuclear and extended family and friends. They reported personal qualities that foster and maintain social bonds, including friendliness, kindness, sincerity, and a sense of humor. Reflexive thematic analysis of the text from the autophotography activity revealed participants’ interdependent self-construals and their developmental model of growth strategies and aspirations. Integration of traditional and global influences was creative and seamless for these adolescents who saw themselves as firmly embedded in family, Guatemala and its culture, while confidently growing and exploring the world. A mixed-methods approach can provide complementary findings that are more meaningful and expansive than either quantitative or qualitative methods alone.

“I’m like, whatever you want me to be. I’m the flavor of the day”: A mixed-methods study of the food dispositions and behaviors of mixed-race individuals

There is a dearth of research on how food serves a tool for the formation and enaction of the social identities of mixed-race people, how these social identities shape the unique food dispositions and behaviors of mixed-race individuals, and how, by virtue of their liminal status, mixed-race consumers are apt to blend and adapt food behaviors from their dual heritages, and subsequently diffuse these adaptations into the broader population. This mixed methods study, entailing semi-structured interviews with mixed-race individuals, followed by an international survey involving 645 mixed-race consumers living in Canada, the USA, and the UK, aims to address these knowledge gaps. Induced from the qualitative data, we disclose four overarching themes regarding the food practices and perceptions, in relation to our mixed-race informants’ identity and their position astride two cultures: (1) ‘you are what you eat’ (food as instrumental for ethnic identity), (2) ‘mixing the best of both worlds’ (integration and transmutation), (3) situational authenticity and awareness of cultural appropriation, and (4) double marginalization, denigration, and self-valorization. The quantitative findings revealed that blending cultural customs, blending food practices, and using products to express mixed-race identity, were all a positive function of the racialized-minority parent’s ethnic maintenance, as well as both independent and interdependent self-construals—demonstrating that racial and cultural blending promulgates these behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are elucidated.

Self-construal and attentional biases in cognitive processing: Insights from Chinese college students for mental health contexts

This study integrates Markus and Kitayama’s self-construal theory with the Biopsychosocial Model to examine the effects of self-construal on cognitive biases and their implications for mental health among Chinese college students. It investigates how independent (IndSC) and interdependent (InterSC) self-construals influence cognitive biases towards positive and negative stimuli, emphasizing the mediating roles of attentional control, self-esteem, cognitive reappraisal, and the need to belong. The research utilizes a hybrid sampling strategy, engaging 748 undergraduate students from diverse majors and universities in Chongqing, China. Participants completed assessments measuring self-construal, attentional control, self-esteem, cognitive reappraisal, need to belong, and cognitive biases. Employing structural equation modeling, the study uncovers that IndSC is positively associated with cognitive biases, favoring positive over negative information, with attentional control and self-esteem serving as significant mediators. InterSC, however, promotes a balanced attention to both positive and negative information, with cognitive reappraisal and the need to belong acting as mediators. These findings underscore the significant role of self-construal within the broader biopsychosocial framework in shaping cognitive processes and highlight the importance of considering these factors in mental health interventions. By leveraging a comprehensive sampling approach, the study ensures a representative sample, enhancing the generalizability of its findings to the broader Chinese college student population. This research not only contributes to the understanding of the complex interplay between cultural psychology and mental health but also suggests the need for mental health interventions that are culturally and individually tailored. Future research should extend to other cultural settings and employ longitudinal designs to further explore the dynamic interactions between self-construal, cognitive biases, and mental health from a biopsychosocial perspective.

Unveiling the Impact of Smokers’ Self-Construals on the Effectiveness of Smoking Cessation Campaigns: A Comparative Analysis of E-Cigarettes and Combustible Cigarettes

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.

Association Between Self-Construals, Social Pain Sensitivity, and Gender in Young Adults

We experience pain in response to negative, unwanted social interaction with others (e.g., social rejection), and this type of pain is termed as social pain in the recent literature. While sensitivity to social pain may be beneficial to increase a chance for survival, social pain sensitivity could also be detrimental to elevate the risk of various health issues. Such opposing natures of social pain sensitivity warrants research to better identify factors that are linked to social pain sensitivity. Self-construals show perspectives on how to view oneself in relations to others, characterized as independent and interdependent self-construals, and may be linked to social pain sensitivity. Additionally, pervious data have indicated gender differences in social pain sensitivity, but it is unclear if self-construals explain gender differences in social pain sensitivity. Therefore, this study examined if self-construals were associated with social pain sensitivity, and gender differences in social pain sensitivity were accounted for by self-construals. The participants were 148 college students who completed several self-report questionnaires to evaluate self-construals and social pain sensitivity. The results indicated that interdependent tendency, which showed higher interdependent self-construal than independent self-construal, was associated with social pain sensitivity. While gender differences in social pain sensitivity were confirmed, gender differences in social pain sensitivity were not accounted for by interdependent tendency. The results suggest that interdependent tendency is associated with social pain sensitivity, but is not involved in gender differences in social pain sensitivity.

The impact of marketing appeals on consumer willingness to participate in virtual CSR co-creation

PurposeThis study explores how businesses can effectively market functional and emotional benefits through virtual corporate social responsibility co-creation (VCSRC) initiatives. The aim is to enhance customer engagement through these initiatives.Design/methodology/approachThe initial phase of this study involved recruiting 185 Chinese university students as participants. These individuals were randomly distributed into four distinct experimental groups, each designed to investigate the influence of varied marketing appeals and common in-group identity (CIGI) on consumer engagement willingness. This phase also sought to elucidate the mediating role of CSR associations in these dynamics. Following this, the second study engaged 570 individuals, recruited through “Credamo,” for a group-based experiment. This subsequent phase was intended to validate the findings of the preliminary study and explore the varying intensities of interaction between different marketing appeals and CIGI, with a particular focus on the dichotomy of independent and interdependent self-construals.FindingsThe study delineates a detailed relationship between consumers' willingness to participate in VCSRC, marketing appeals, and common in-group identity, revealing that strong common in-group identity correlates with a preference for functional appeals, while a weaker in-group identity inclines towards emotional appeals. Notably, interdependent self-construal significantly influences consumer responses, intensifying the interaction between in-group identity and marketing appeal and thereby influencing participation willingness. Moreover, CSR associations emerge as key mediators in this interaction, underscoring their role in enhancing the effectiveness of VCSRC strategies. These insights provide a new understanding of the crucial impact of consumer identity traits on marketing strategy efficacy.Originality/valueThis research stands as a trailblazing endeavor in evaluating the effects of varied advertising appeals under the VCSR paradigm. It probes into the foundational mechanisms, leveraging insights from interaction alignment theory and persuasion theory to elucidate the processes involved.

Parental psychological control and emotional well-being among emerging adults: The moderating role of parent-oriented self-construals

It has been well documented that parental psychological control is detrimental to child and adolescent development. Yet, when entering emerging adulthood, the centrality of relationships with parents in youth’s lives may differ across individuals as well as cultures, making both cross- and within-cultural variations in the implications of parental psychological control for emerging adults’ emotional well-being worth exploration. Therefore, this research examined the relations from parental psychological control to youth’s emotional well-being among emerging adults from two cultures, and the moderating role of youth’s parent-oriented interdependent self-construals (i.e., the extent to which youth view their relationships with parents as self-defining) in these relations within each culture. A cross-cultural study was conducted among European American and Hong Kong Chinese college students in the United States and China, respectively (N = 276; 68.1% females; mean age = 20.39 years, SD = 1.33). It was found that youth’s perceived parental psychological control related to their dampened emotional well-being to a similar extent in both cultures. Moreover, these relations were moderated by youth’s parent-oriented self-construals similarly in both cultures, such that the negative associations between youth’s perceived parental psychological control and their emotional well-being were significant only among youth with high (vs low) levels of parent-oriented self-construals. The findings demonstrate the negative implications of parental psychological control for youth’s emotional well-being during emerging adulthood, and suggest that youth’s parent-oriented self-construals may amplify such implications.

A grounded theory study on Korean doctoral students’ shame experiences in the U.S.: Exploring the role of cultural self-construals

In this grounded theory study, we explored the influence of cultural self-construals on shame experiences among Korean doctoral students in the U.S. By conducting and analyzing in-depth interviews, we developed a theoretical framework to clarify the factors that triggered participants’ shame, with a particular emphasis on students’ dual self-construals (independent and interdependent self-construals), and the outcomes of shame experiences. The findings highlighted the influence of students’ dual self-construals on different types of self-discrepancies that caused subsequent shame experiences. Additionally, academic cultural differences and amplifying factors, such as students’ shame-proneness, perfectionism, and social comparisons, deepened our understanding of students’ shame experiences. Although instances of experienced shame contributed to students’ cumulative burden of shame, when students used adaptive emotion regulation strategies, they were able to recover and enhance their resilience. This study offers a valuable perspective on the interplay between cultural self-construals and shame experiences, particularly among Korean doctoral students in the U.S., a population that has received limited empirical attention.

Consumers’ evaluation of ethical luxury advertisements: the roles of ethical consumer guilt and self-construal

PurposeThe authors investigated the factors influencing consumer evaluations of advertisements for ethical luxury products that incorporate animal rights and protection concerns. The authors empirically examined how ethical messages influence advertisement persuasiveness through ethical consumer guilt and positively impact consumer evaluations of ethical luxury products. Furthermore, the authors explored the moderating role of consumers’ independent versus interdependent self-construals.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted four experimental studies on the interplay among ethicality, luxury brand positioning and self-construal. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that moral emotions were responsible for the effect of ethical luxury advertisements that address animal welfare on brand attitude.FindingsAdvertisement messages signaling a luxury brand’s ethical efforts increase empathy through ethical consumer guilt, thereby generating favorable attitudes toward luxury products. However, this effect is limited to consumers with independent self-construal in South Korea and the United States of America.Originality/valueThe authors offer novel insights into the roles of ethical consumer guilt and empathy in the positive effects of ethical messages from luxury brands. Furthermore, the authors identified brand type and self-construal as boundary conditions for the effects observed across different consumer groups and markets.

Relationship between Personality Traits and Subjective Well-Being in Emerging Adulthood: Moderating Role of Independent and Interdependent Self-Construal.

During emerging adulthood, individuals' subjective well-being declines owing to challenges regarding identity, work, and romantic relationships. Although the relationships among personality traits, self-construal, and well-being have been examined, studies have focused on personal rather than relational subjective well-being. Furthermore, self-construal's moderating effect on the relationship between personality traits and subjective well-being remains unclear. Therefore, this study examined the relationships among the Big-five personality traits and subjective well-being (life satisfaction, happiness, and interdependent happiness) and the moderating effect of self-construal among 1548 Japanese emerging adults (Mage = 22.24, SD = 1.01). Regression analysis indicated that all aspects of subjective well-being were negatively associated with neuroticism and positively associated with extraversion, independent and interdependent self-construal. Further, agreeableness was positively associated with personal and relational well-being. Independent or interdependent self-construal can moderate the relationships between neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness and subjective well-being. Overall, these findings provide valuable insights for improving Japanese emerging adults' well-being.

Self-construals and health communications: The persuasive roles of guilt and shame

We investigate the roles of guilt and shame appeals in health communications depending on recipients’ self-construal. Although guilt and shame are negative self-conscious emotions, we hypothesize that guilt appeals are more effective in leveraging compliance among recipients with independent self-construals, whereas shame appeals are more persuasive among recipients with interdependent self-construals. The findings across four experimental studies are consistent with this hypothesis, with guilt (shame) appeals motivating participants with independent (interdependent) self-construals in domains of eating healthy, responsible drinking, quitting smoking, and staying-at-home intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, we provide evidence that challenge (threat) appraisal mediates the effect of guilt (shame) appeals among independents (interdependents). These findings have meaningful implications, more broadly in the use of emotions in health communications, and offer social marketers, government officials, and policymakers a better recognition of how to persuade individuals to improve their own and society’s well-being.

Self-construal modulates context-based social comparison preferences in outcome evaluations

Self-construal (SC) describes how people perceive the relationship between themselves and others and is usually divided into interdependent and independent types. Several studies have been conducted on how people with independent and interdependent SC process their own and others’ outcomes. However, few studies have investigated the influence of SC on outcome evaluation in a social comparison context. To explore this, we randomly assigned participants to interdependent and independent SC priming groups and analyzed the affects and electrophysiological responses generated when they played gambling games with two pseudo-players. The results showed that self-gambling state, SC, and social comparison interacted to influence feedback-related negativity (FRN). In the self-win condition, performances that differed from others elicited more negative FRN than evenness for both the interdependent and independent groups. In the self-loss condition, this effect was only found in the independent group. These results suggest that the outcome evaluation patterns in social contexts are not fixed but vary according to self-gambling state and SC.

"Unpacking" cultural differences in social anxiety between Japanese and European Americans: the roles of threat appraisal and attentional bias.

Cultural differences in self-reported social anxiety between people of East Asian heritage and European heritage may be related to differences in independent and interdependent self-construals, which potentially influence the processing of social threat. We examined the roles of two different aspects of threat bias: threat appraisal (Study 1) and attentional bias (Study 2) to explain cultural group differences in social anxiety between Japanese and European American college students. Study 1 demonstrated that sequential mediations of lower independent self-construal and higher appraisal of threat among Japanese could explain their higher social anxiety compared to European Americans. However, Study 2 failed to find the relation between cultural group differences in self-construals and attentional bias. In addition, the cultural group differences in attentional bias were unexpectedly due to stronger selective attention toward neutral stimuli among European Americans, rather than bias toward social threat among Japanese. After selective attention was experimentally manipulated, there were significant cultural group differences in self-reported social anxiety and anxious behavior in a speech task. These conflicting findings suggested that an alternative theoretical framework other than the self-construal theory might be needed to fully account for cultural differences in attentional bias in explaining cultural group differences in social anxiety.

The impact of COVID-19 information overload on Vietnamese consumers' online purchase intention

PurposeUsing data from Vietnam to reveal which factors affected the impressive growth of Vietnam's e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework, the study proposed a conceptual model in which the influence of COVID-19 information overload (IO) on online purchase intention (OPI) was discovered. The authors were also interested in examining the moderator roles of self-construal (SC), perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) in inducing the intention to make an online purchase.FindingsPerceived threat (PT) and cyberchondria (C) played full mediation roles in the impact of IO on OPI. Moreover, PT was found to be a partial mediator of the relationship between IO and C. Furthermore, interdependent self-construal (IntSC) positively moderated the positive effect of IO on PT. Finally, PU and PEOU showed significant moderated moderation effects, in which PU moderated the effects of PT and C on OPI, whereas PU itself was moderated by PEOU.Research limitations/implicationsUnderstanding the positive effects of IO, C and PT on OPI can be useful for marketers. In addition, managers should improve the ease-of-use and usefulness of online stores/platforms to attract more consumers to online channels.Practical implicationsMarketers and managers should learn more about how to take advantage of IO, PT and C. For instance, to sell medical supplements, marketer should push up related-health information such as obesity, diabetics, to make consumers perceive a threat to their health and search for ways to improve their health condition. This is the time when advertisements for medical supplements bring into play. This method can be applied in many different fields. The key is that marketers should find out what is the threat that their targeted customers can perceive and then spread out a huge amount of relevant information.Social implicationsThe government should control infodemic and guide people to obtain official information. This helps to restrain the PT and C, which seriously harm people's health and affect their behaviors, such as making unusual or panicked purchases. This study also suggests a considerable concern that residents of Asian cultures, where IntSC is dominant, may perceive threat more than residents of Western cultures.Originality/valueLimited research addresses the relationship between PEOU and PU when they act as moderators. Current research not only explains the moderation effect of PU under the influence of PEOU but also suggests that PEOU may be more important than PU in emerging markets due to customers' inexperience in online markets or channels. It also explores the factors that influenced OPI in Vietnam during the COVID-19 outbreak and contributes to the scientific literature on Vietnam, especially in terms of discovering the tendency of SC, which has not been mentioned before in research about Vietnamese.

Will attitudes corrected by social norms have a more powerful impact on pro-environmental behavior? Evidence from a process model moderated by self-construal

Residents' pro-environmental behaviors are considered important for reducing carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. However, optimizing the implementation of pro-environmental behavior need to be further studied. To this end, we placed residents' recycling behavior within a socialized situation. Explored the “Attitude–Behavior intention–Behavior” intermediary path regulated by self-construal, whether and how it can more effectively promote residents to transfer recycling behavior intention as recycling behavior after joining the influence of social norms. The results showed that after considering the influence of social norms, the transformation of residents’ Habit adjustment recycling behavior (HAB) was significantly improved. Further, the masking effect of “Behavioral intention–Interpersonal facilitation recycling behavior (IFB)" in the mediation model was effectively reduced. HAB and IFB had stronger dependence on independent self-construal (IDSC) and interdependent self-construal (ITSC), respectively. In addition, when the self-construal level was low, the overall effect of the chain mediation model was stronger, highlighting the advantage of the role played by social norms.

Independence or Interdependence?: The Thai Self-Construal as Reflected by Linguistic Evidence

Abstract Self-construal can influence the ways people in distinct cultures think, perceive and interact with others. To date, scholars still present different arguments on the prominent self-construal of Thais. The present study aims at examining Thai linguistic data including proverbs, sayings, cultural key terms and interactional data in response to the question of whether Thai culture places emphasis on independent or interdependent perspectives of the self. The findings reveal that Thai sayings, proverbs and cultural key terms reflect both independent and interdependent self-construals. Yet, those that stress interdependency outnumber independency. As for interactional practices in daily exchanges, the usage of pronominal terms, final particles for (im)politeness and lexical variants marking interpersonal relationships make it mandatory for Thai speakers to pay attention to interpersonal relationships. Lastly, in task-based superior-subordinate conversations, collaborative and non-confrontational styles are preferred by Thai superiors. Their interactional style reflects features influenced by interdependent self-construal.

Neural representation of perceived race mediates the opposite relationship between subcomponents of self-construals and racial outgroup punishment.

Outgroup aggression characterizes intergroup conflicts in human societies. Previous research on relationships between cultural traits and outgroup aggression behavior showed inconsistent results, leaving open questions regarding whether cultural traits predict individual differences in outgroup aggression and related neural underpinnings. We conducted 2 studies to address this issue by collecting self-construal scores, EEG signals in response to Asian and White faces with painful or neutral expressions, and decisions to apply electric shocks to other-race individuals in a context of interracial conflict. We found that interdependent self-construals were well explained by 2 subcomponents, including esteem for group (EG) and relational interdependence (RI), which are related to focus on group collectives and harmonious relationships, respectively. Moreover, EG was positively associated with the decisions to punish racial outgroup targets, whereas RI was negatively related to the decisions. These opposite relationships were mediated by neural representations of perceived race at 120-160ms after face onset. Our findings highlight the multifaceted nature of interdependent self-construal and the key role of neural representations of race in mediating the relationships of different subcomponents of cultural traits with racial outgroup punishment decisions in a context of interracial conflict.

Property, Psyche, and the Theory of Tenancy: Independent and Interdependent Lease Law Covenants Through the Lens of Cultural Psychology

Is it property or contract? This question has perplexed scholars studying the residential lease for most of the last century. The present contribution combines the complementary perspectives of legal history and cultural psychology to clarify our theory of tenancy. From a historical perspective, I find that the oscillation of tenancy between competing doctrinal paradigms has resulted in a compromise solution rather than a coherent theory. While piecemeal reforms in the 1970s revised the doctrine of independent covenants, they did not provide a theoretical justification for increasing interdependence. From a psychological perspective, I suggest that such a theoretical justification may come from cultural psychology as the discipline that studies the behavioral effects of independent and interdependent self-construals. I provide the first comprehensive review of how this strand of psychology has informed legal issues in the last twenty years, and I extend this line of inquiry to include tenancy. I conclude that whether we regard tenancy as property or contract (i.e., as based on independent or interdependent covenants) will affect the amount of cooperation that we should expect from landlords and tenants. A theory of tenancy based on this insight would open up avenues for further research in law and society, comparative law, and contract theory.

Exploring the recipients' attitudes and behaviors toward gift-giving: a cross-cultural comparison between Thailand and the USA

PurposeThis research examines cultural differences between Thais and Americans in recipients' attitudes and behaviors throughout all three stages of Sherry's (1983) gift-giving model and the moderating effect of relationship closeness on the gift-giving process.Design/methodology/approachThree experiments tested recipients' attitudes and behaviors across cultures in each gift-giving stage. Study 1 explored the gestation stage (gift search and purchase). Study 2 tested recipients in the prestation stage (actual exchange), and Study 3 examined the reformulation stage (gift disposition and realignment of the relationship).FindingsResults show that relationship closeness between the giver and the recipient plays a role among interdependent self-construals. Thais (interdependent self-construals) are more likely to give a hint or make a request for a gift to close friends than distant friends and are also more likely to accept, keep and use gifts from close friends than from distant friends. Moreover, for interdependent self-construals, a gift from a close friend improved the relationship more than a gift from a distant friend. In contrast, Americans (independent self-construals) present no differences between close and distant friends.Originality/valueThis research provides a comprehensive picture of the recipient's perspective in cross-cultural gift-giving and expands the notion of relationship closeness as a moderator.

Make every interaction count - assessing the role of customers’ self-construal on value co-creation at service encounters

ABSTRACT This research examines the role of dual types of customers’ self-construal (i.e., independent vs. interdependent) on value co-creation attitude and behaviour in retail service encounters. Using a mall-intercept survey, 463 responses were collected. Structural equal modeling was employed to analyse the results. Findings suggest that customers’ independent self-construal does not affect their value co-creation attitude, implying that such customers solely create value on their own but do not participate in co-creation in service encounters. On the other hand, the interdependent self-construal has a strong significant impact on their value co-creation attitude; as a result, such customers create value independently as well as co-create value with the service employees by collaborating in service encounters. We argue that for service providers who want to encourage co-creation in retail markets, understanding the significance of consumers’ self-construals is essential. This study has a number of implications. For instance, it shows that businesses might enhance the shopping experience by co-creating value with interdependent self-construal customers. Customers that have interdependent self-construals benefit from direct connection with frontline staff during service interactions, and as a result, they can play a crucial part in bringing creative ideas to the retail market. This study adds to our understanding of who independently create value and who co-creates value with others by analysing the relative influence of two types of self-construal in retail markets.