Culture and the SelfConcept

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Culture and the Self-Concept
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Self-Concept

• What is your concept of a person?
• How do you experience who you are?
• There is a difference in how the self is
  construed in the West and in the East (Markus
  Kitayama, 1991).

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Western concept of Self Independent
Self-Construal

• A view of the self that is characterized by a
  bounded and autonomous sense of self that is
  relatively distinct from others and the
  environment. Those with an independent self
  construal strive to assert their individuality
  and uniqueness and stress their separateness from
  the social world.
• This view is best exemplified by North American
  and Western European cultures.

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Eastern concept of self Interdependent
Self-Construal

• A view of the self that is characterized by an
  emphasis on the interrelatedness of the
  individual to others and to the environment. It
  is only within the contextual fabric of
  individuals social relationships, roles, and
  duties that the self has meaning.
• This construal of self is most represented by
  Asian cultures.

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Self-Construal Diagram
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Goals of self-construals (Markus Kitayama, 1991)

• Independent goals
• Distinguishing oneself from others by realizing
  and actualizing one's positive inner attributes,
  preferences, and attitudes
• Determining the "right" choices and actions by
  checking them against one's personal and
  utilitarian satisfaction as a criteria (Bellah,
  et. al., 1985)
• Staying ahead of others (i.e., individual
  achievement)
• Thinking of oneself as "unique" and feeling
  "special" about it.
• Feeling "good" about oneself

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Continued (Markus Kitayama, 1991)

• Interdependent goals
• Establish meaningful social relationships.
• Fit in, maintain harmony, and not fall behind
  others
• Meet concensual standards of excellence.
• Secure a sense of belonging to social groups and
  ensure that others are satisfied with their
  contributions to those groups
• Subordinate personal beliefs and needs to norms
  and relationships

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Bottom line

• Major task of an independent self-construal.
• To attend, elaborate and emphasize positive
  aspects of the self
• Major task of an interdependent self-construal
• To fit in and maintain harmony

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Concluding Statements

• The concept of a person varies across cultures.
• Conclusions from research on higher level mental
  phenomena conducted on Western educated
  population may not meaningfully carry over to
  nonWestern cultures.