Self as Cultural Product: An Examination of East Asian and North American Selves

“When the group performs poorly, however, each member feels less responsible for the outcome than does the average member (Mullen & Riordan 1988, Schlenker & Miller 1977).”

“…efforts, such as backtranslation (Brislin, 1970), the use of different methodologies on the basis of the nature of the sample (Greenfield, 1997), the use of hidden behavioral measures (Heine et al., 2000, 2001), and standardization of the data (Bond, 1988), can correct many of these confounds.”

“Ho (1976, p. 883; see also Heine, 2001) defined face as “the respectability and/or deference which a person can claim . . . by virtue of [his or her] relative position” in a hierarchy and the proper fulfillment of his or her role.”

“While social psychological studies suggest that cultures create habitual ways of processing information related to the self and one’s important others (Heine, 2001;Markus and Kitayama, 1991), our fMRI results indicate that these habitual cognitive processes are accompanied by detectible parallel neural processes.”

“Hofstede (2001) preferred to interpret it as time orientation, whereas Minkov (2007, 2008) hypothesized a link with the theory of self-enhancement and self-stability in Heine (2001, 2003) and Heine and Hamamura (2007).”

“Indeed, studies have shown that people in collectivist societies have a lower need for consistency and exhibit higher levels of flexibility compared to their counterparts in individualist societies (e.g., Heine 2001; Suh 2002).”

“This interdependent view of self is more common in non-Western cultures and has been linked to a wide array of distinct phenomena (for reviews, see Heine 2001, Markus & Kitayama 1991, Triandis 1989).”

“…collective than personal goals (Hofstede, 1980; Triandis, 1989), more likely to have an extraindividual (i.e., externally oriented) than intraindividual (i.e., internally oriented) focus (Heine, 2001), and more concerned with and bounded by relationships, roles, and social duties (Heine, 2001).”

“Parent–child relationships in Korean contexts may include multiple aspects, and each likely plays a slightly different role in student motivation (Park, Kim, & Chung, 2004) Individuals in East Asian cultures, including the current sample of Korean adolescents, are generally known to hold what is called interdependent…”

“Cultural psychology, as conceived by many [e.g., Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Nisbett, 2003; Nisbett et al., 2001], is typically based on the supposition of unified groups that can be studied in their organic totality.”

“Specifically, collectivism may encourage greater responsiveness to in-group members – such as family or romantic partners – as a means of fostering harmony and mutual obligation (Heine, 2001; Lebra, 1976; Markus & Kitayama, 1991).”

“The desire to please significant others in the social network that one identifies with, is a strong source of motivation for individuals in collectivistic cultures with interdependent self-construal (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Oishi & Diener, 2001).”

“According to previous work exploring cultural differences in self-concepts and self-construals, North Americans hold a more consistent sense of self than East Asians, such that the core representations of their identity remains largely uninfluenced by others (Heine, 2001).”

“Another limitation is the glaring absence of the role of culture as a foundation for and/or contributor to selfawareness (Heine, 2001).”

“Reputation may even prove to be a key locus of cultural differences; where members of individualist cultures place the most emphasis on their own self-concept, members of collectivist cultures might be expected to value reputation (the view of the individual held by those linked to him or her in social networks) above…”

“In contrast, for people with interdependent self-construals, roles and relationships are expected to influence behavior more than traits, reducing consistency (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1998).”

“However, to the extent that interdependent selves are sustained by roles and relationships (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991), investigating the individual self in isolation or in the context of interactions with strangers will only reveal a misleading fraction of the self (Lebra, 1976).”

“‘‘. . .the functional value of consistency is less clear for East Asian selves (Heine, 2001, p. 886).”

“For much of human history, the desires and goals of the community or the family have outweighed individual concerns (Brison, 2001; Gelfand et al., 2011; Heine, 2001).”

“Subjective opinions and feelings about the self are not enough; they need to be more officially ‘‘validated’’ by consensually shared social standards (cf. Heine, 2001).”

“East Asian adolescents in collectivistic cultures, presumably with an interdependent self (Heine, 2001), are sensitive to their parents' expectations and demonstrate a strong desire to satisfy their wishes.”

“In Eastern cultures, by contrast, consistency is thought to be generally less valued (Heine, 2001; Heine & Lehman, 1997, 1999; Markus & Kitayama, 1994; Suh, 2002).”

“In contrast, for people with interdependent self-construals, roles and relationships are expected to impact behavior more than traits, increasing within-individual variability (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1998).”

“…time, cultural psychologists have proposed that self-concept consistency is less important in collectivist or East Asian cultures, where the ability to adapt to situational or role requirements is highly valued (Choi & Choi, 2002; Heine, 2001; Spencer-Rodgers, Williams, & Peng, 2010; Suh, 2002).”

“In particular, the United States and Japan often have been used as prototypic examples of an individualistic and a collectivist culture (Heine, 2001; Kitayama & Markus, 1994).”

“In line with past research showing that Easterners tend to be more concerned with the feelings of others with whom they share a relational link (e.g., Cousins, 1989; Heine, 2001; Kanagawa, Cross, & Markus, 2001), Ma-Kellams and Blascovich found that East Asians inferred the emotions of close others more accurately tha…”

“Prior research strongly indicates that self-concepts differ across cultures (Bochner, 1994; Cross, Hardin, & Gercek-Swing, 2011; Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Zhu & Han, 2008).”

“…where identity is importantly grounded in one’s roles and memberships with significant ingroups, as is arguably the case in Japan (Cousins, 1989; Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991), a meaningful existence may be attained better through other means, for example, by maintaining ‘face’ (Heine…”

“To begin with, numerous studies in cultural psychology have shown that the East Asian concept of self views individuals as more malleable than does the Western Caucasian concept of self (cf. Chiu et al., 1997; Heine, 2001; Neisser et al.,1996).”

“Consistent with this view, effort is highly valued in Japan and traits such as academic prowess are often viewed as the result of effort more than innate ability ( Heine, 2001; Sato, Namiki, Ando, & Hatano, 2004).”

“As noted above, some cultural psychologists have suggested that cultural differences in the traitedness of self-concepts and causal inferences can be accounted for by cultural differences in the implicit theories or beliefs held by cultural participants (e.g. Chiu, Hong, & Dweck, 1997; Heine, 2001; Norenzayan, Choi, &…”

“Here, the self is considered as embedded in a social context, and group harmony and cooperation are of relevance (e.g., Heine, 2001).”

“…differ in their endorsement of trait beliefs as a function of the type of trait, the more common stance of cultural psychologists has been to associate individualism with greater traitedness in general, without reference to specific traits (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1998; Triandis, 1995).”

“These differences can be explained by greater emphasis on individuality versus uniformity, assertiveness versus self-control, and situational consistency versus appropriateness in the respective cultural contexts (e.g., Heine, 2001).”

“To explore this, researchers typically contrast the nature of the self-concept across cultures; in particular, much research has contrasted self-concepts common in East Asian contexts with those common in North American contexts (Cousins, 1989; Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991).”

“In a sense, each self is a necessary element for other selves, thus interpersonal relationships reflect the critical building blocks of Chinese life (Heine, 2001).”

“Previous research has found that cultural differences in models of the self play a critical role in emotional reactivity (Chentsova-Dutton & Tsai, 2010; Heine, 2001).”

“Cultural psychologists argue that the trait-related behavioral consistency is greater in individualist than collectivist cultures because behavior in collectivist cultures is more strongly influenced by contextual factors (Heine 2001; Markus and Kitayama 1998; Triandis 1995).”

“Moreover, members of collectivist cultures are believed to have a more salient social self-representation (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1998).”

“This has been attributed to various factors, including East Asians perceiving themselves as less consistent across situations, seeking information outside the individual to explain behavior, and incorporating in-group members into the self (Heine, 2001).”

“In face cultures, self-worth is primarily dependent on people’s relative positions in a stable social hierarchy, and on the extent to which they © 2017 The International Association for Chinese Management Research fulfill their role obligations in that hierarchy (Heine, 2001).”

“There is evidence that people in East Asian cultures tend to place a high value on adjusting one's behavior to the role requirements of a range of social situations (Gao, 1998; Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991).”

“Similarly, cultural psychologists argue that the self is a cultural construction, and that we can expect significant cultural differences in both content and processes associated with the self (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991).”

“According to this independent schema, “good” behavior is characterized by acting autonomously, feeling in control, and determining one’s own outcomes free from others’ influence (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 2003; Triandis, 1989).”

“These authors proposed that EOT may be promoted in a Chinese context due to greater cultural emphasis on social harmony, relationships, and contextual factors, with relatively less emphasis on individual emotional experience [17].”

“One such difference is that in the United States, the goal of viewing oneself positively tends to be highly valued by the Euro-American culture, and individuals tend to emphasize positive information about themselves and others (Heine, 2001; Miller, Wang, Sandel, & Cho, 2002).”

“These authors proposed that higher levels of EOT within a Chinese context might be driven by greater cultural emphasis on interpersonal relationships, social harmony, and contextual factors, and relatively less emphasis on inner emotional experience (e.g., Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991).”

“…in romanticism and nationalism (Herder, 2010 [1772; Herder, 2010 [1772], see Williams, 1985), has been central to the tradition of anthropology (Benedict, 1934) and continues to be used in cross-cultural and cross-national comparative research (e.g. D’Andrade, 1995; Heine, 2002; Hofstede, 2003).”

“Conversely, East Asian cultures tend to hold an “interdependent” self-construal, in which interpersonal relationships are stressed, the self seen as embedded in a social context, and group harmony and cooperation are valued (e.g., Heine, 2001).”

“These differences result in variations in basic psychological processes including the fundamental attributional bias that emphasizes individual rather than contextual explanations for behavior and self-enhancement biases that are held to maintain self-esteem (Heine 2001, 2015).”

“…behaved and well mannered, the focus is on traits that promise the maximization of one’s full potential (cf. Harwood et al., 1995; Triandis, 1995) rather than on self-malleability and active efforts to modify the self to fit in with others and the environment (Heine, 2001; Kitayama & Markus, 1999).”

“So, self-worth is interdependent with a person’s role in a stable social hierarchy and on fulfillment of role obligations [79].”

“This contrasts with norms in North America, in which acknowledging one’s personal achievements and good deeds is frequently seen as a legitimate way to pursue the goal of developing a positive self-image (Heine, 2001; Miller, Wang, Sandel, & Cho, 2002).”