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

“For example, it has been shown that East Asian societies view the self as being more malleable than do Western societies (Heine, 2001; Markus and Kitayama, 1991).”

“…describes North Americans and East Asians as exhibiting differences in terms of self-stability or self-consistency versus self-flexibility (Bond & Cheung, 1983; Choi & Choi, 2002; Heine, 2001; Kanagawa, Cross, & Markus, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Peng, Spencer-Rodgers, & Nian, 2006; Suh, 2002).”

“This dichotomy serves as a heuristic framework to derive hypotheses on culture-specific differences, while intracultural variations have to be taken into account (e.g., Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Rothbaum & Trommsdorff, 2007).”

“Kim & Markus, 1999) and improves well-being in Japan (Heine, 2001; Oishi & Diener, 2001).”

“Heine, 2001; Hofstede, 1980; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1995; Wagar & Cohen, 2003).”

“Members of collectivistic cultures indulge in self-criticism and evaluate themselves less positively compared to North Americans (Kanagawa, Cross, and Markus 2001).”

“Western and Eastern cultures differ in selfrelated constructs and construals of the self (Markus and Kitayama, 1991; Heine, 2001).”

“In such a dichotomous approach, the United States, with its strong emphasis on self-determination and individual rights, is normally taken to represent the individualistic pole (Heine, 2001: 884).”

“In addition, weaker expectations of behavioral consistency in East Asian cultures (Heine, 2001) that are associated with a strong emphasis on roles and relations (Markus & Kitayama, 1991) may translate into a greater willingness to accept differences in behavior between public and private settings.”

“For example, compared with East Asians, North Americans are more likely to view the external world (not the self) as malleable, the self as independent from others, and self-criticism as a threat to the positive self-concept (Heine, 2001).”

“Conversely, in collectivistic cultures, social behavior may be largely shaped by the role obligations inherent in the relational context (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991) and the hierarchical nature of children's social relationships may therefore influence children's shyness.”

“Heine (2001) believes that the self-critical tendency characteristic of most East Asians assists them in becoming aware of any shortcomings that may prevent them from living up to their roles and obligations to others.”

“Individuals have multiple selves, whose specific content and behavior manifestations are determined by culture (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Singelis, 1994; Triandis, 1989). These multiple selves can be conceptualized in various ways depending on the different influences of culture. For instance, Triandis (19…”

“A frequently asked question is whether the findings supporting the idea of an East–West difference in causal attributions are generally valid (e.g., Heine, 2001; Heine et al., 1999; Lee et al., 1996; McAllister, 1996; Morris & Peng, 1994; Sedikides et al., 2003).”

“dependence, mutual governance, and social identity of individuals (Fiske, Kitayama, Markus, & Nisbett, 1998; Geertz, 1984; Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2002; Sampson, 1989; Shweder & Bourne, 1984).”

“These differences in children’s responses may also be based upon a relatively greater emphasis on the importance of social roles among people in East Asia as compared to the U.S. (Heine, 2001; Kanagawa et al., 2001).”

“As East Asian culture traditionally supports a more context-dependent sense of self (English & Chen, 2011; Heine, 2001; Kanagawa et al., 2001), developing a continuous, individualised life story may present a more challenging developmental task for Taiwanese adolescents (Yeh et al., 2007) and may…”

“Furthermore, independent self-orientations result in stronger tendencies to self-enhance (Heine, 2001; Heine et al., 2001).”

“Face Cultures are widespread in East Asian because in these cultures self-worth is primarily interdependent with a person’s role in a stable social hierarchy and on fulfillment of role obligations (Heine, 2001).”

“On a broader scale, these results parallel the robust findings documenting differences between East Asian and Western cultures (see Heine, 2001, 2003; Spencer-Rodgers et al., 2010 for reviews).”

“In fact, those from East Asian backgrounds are sometimes more motivated by self-improvement goals in order to meet group expectations (Heine, 2001).”

“However, several cultural psychologists have noted that self-esteem itself may be a cultural product [27].”

“At the same time, cultural psychologists have deemphasized the importance of traits in collectivistic cultures, where contextual factors are expected to have a greater impact on behavior (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991, 1998).”

“Some support for these predictions has been found, particularly in comparisons of the United States with East Asian cultures (e.g. Heine, 2001; Kanagawa, Cross, &Markus, 2001).”

“In East Asian cultures, an interdependent or relational self-construal is based on the premise that people are connected with one another, so the self is defined, at least in part, by relationship or group membership (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Wang & Ross, 2007).”

“Related studies also found that Japanese tend to engage in very limited self-evaluation, and when they do, their evaluations are more affected by failures than successes (e.g., Cross, Liao, & Josephs as cited in Heine, 2001; Heine & Lehman, 1997; Kitayama et al., 1997).”

“Overall, collectivistic societies place more value on communal traits (Markus & Kitayama, 1991) and people in collectivistic societies rate themselves higher in communal than in agen-tic attributes (e.g., Heine, 2001; Sedikides et al., 2003; Sugihara & Katsurada, 2000).”

“If others positively evaluate my performance, I am proud; if it is negatively evaluated, I am ashamed (Heine, 2001).”

“Heine (2001) indicated another interesting aspect of dialecticism that has served as the basis for this study.”

“Traditional Chinese families are authoritarian and hierarchical, with the dominance of elders and men (Ho, 1987, chap. 9; Lang, 2010). The hierarchy in the family is often backed by legal and moral rules, most of which come from the social hierarchy system. The five basic human relations and their principles the five…”

“…to investigate the potential influence of cultural background on athletes’ use of self-compassion in sport, as cultural background has been identified as influencing psychological constructs both within and outside of the sport domain (Geisler, 2018; Heine, 2001; Peters & Williams, 2006).”

“Another explanation is based on the premise that people from relatively individualistic Western cultures prefer to conceptualize the self as distinct from others, whereas people from relatively collectivistic Eastern cultures prefer to conceptualize the self as interdependent with others (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayam…”

“However, it is not clear that these findings generalize to other cultures considering that there is some evidence that cultural factors have an effect on the self and autobiographical memory (Heine, 2001; Libby & Eibach, 2007).”

“Groupmembership and the associated groupmarkings, norms, and ideals are interjected as part of an enculturated identity (Abrams et al. 1990; Atran 2016; Burke and Stets 1999; Ellemers, Spears, and Doosje 2002; Heine 2001; Hornsey 2008; Stets and Burke 2000; Swann et al. 2014; Wiessner 1998).”

“According to Hofstede (2001) and other researchers, the United States and Australia are among the most individualistic cultures, whereas Mexico and the Philippines are relatively collectivistic cultures (e.g., Church, 1987; Díaz-Loving & Draguns, 1999; Heine, 2001).”

“…a cultural logic of face (e.g., East Asian societies), individuals’ self-worth and social status are believed to be largely afforded by others, based on adhering to social and relational obligations and fulfilling the expectations associated with one’s societal roles (Heine, 2001; Ho, 1976).”

“In Korea, where the interdependent self-construal is important (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991), the influence of family processes is expected to be greater than with students in Western society.”

“Second, some social psychological researchers have proposed that culture may engender habitual ways of processing information related to the self and important others, such as one’s mother [18,42].”

“People raised in flexible social systems like the United States may believe that individuals have the agency to shape their social world as they see fit (Chiu, Hong, & Dweck, 1997; Heine, 2001).”

“experienced, salient or threatening for Asian students (Heine, 2001).”

“Later, Heine (2001) extended and detailed the differences between North America and East Asia selfways into five domains: an emphasis on consistency versus flexibility, an intraindividual versus an extraindividual focus, the malleability of the self versus the world, the relation of self to others,…”

“Research has shown that the different ways of self-enhancement, including SSAB, seek to protect self-esteem (Campbell and Sedikies 1999), which is the best predictor of well-being in individualistic countries (Cross and Markus 1999; Heine 2001).”

“…as largely found in the United States, generally regard the self as independent and autonomous, whereas Eastern cultures, such as largely found in Mainland China, generally regard the self as interdependent and value group-level goals over personal concerns (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991).”

“In contrast, Heine (2001) proposes an explicit cultural psychology that does not view culture as a superfi cial wrapping of the self, or as a framework within which selves interact, but as something that is intrinsic to the self.”

“…have argued that behavior is more determined by the situation in collectivistic cultures than in individualistic cultures, because in collectivistic cultures behavior is more determined by roles and relationships than by internal dispositions or traits (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1998).”

“But it is also possible to use the self to mark shifts in the broader socio-temporal order, as the self is to some degree a ‘malleable’ or ‘plastic’ entity, which is informed by—and informing of—its surrounding social and cultural conditions (e.g. Heine, 2001; Stetsenko & Arievitch, 2004).”

“Researchers have found that the content of these selves have significant impact on the individual’s behavior and much of this impact is mediated by culture (Heine, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Singelis, 1994; Triandis, 1989).”

“Eastern psychology has been described as collectivistic and interdependent as opposed to the individualistic and independent psychology operating in western cultures (Heine, 2001).”

“Although prior studies have typically established differences in self-construal styles (Heine 2001), other meta-analyses have suggested no consistent cultural differences between East Asian and European American groups (e.g., Oyserman et al. 2002).”

“Asian Americans, by contrast, are focused on maintaining interconnectedness and social harmony (Heine, 2001; Kim, Sherman, & Taylor, 2008; Taylor et al., 2004); consequently, they do not extract support from their relationships because they fear disrupting group harmony, burdening others, and losing face (Kim, Sherman…”

“A large body of research also has identified the FFM and compared national means of Big Five traits (cf. Allik & McCrae, 2004; De Fruyt, De Bolle, McCrae, Terracciano, & Costa, 2009; Heine, 2001; Triandis & Suh, 2002).”

“…self-concept than their Western counterparts and are more tolerant of apparent contradictions in self-concept (Choi and Choi, 2002; Church et al., 2008; Cukur, 2002; English and Chen, 2011; Heine, 2001; Heine and Lehman, 1997; Heine et al., 1999; Markus and Kitayama, 1994; Suh, 2000, 2002).”

“, 2001), and an individual’s relationships and roles take precedence over the internalized attributes (Heine, 2001).”

“Because Eastern and Western cultures tend to value harmony, contradiction, and confidence differently (Heine, 2001; Varley, 2000), this may manifest as differences in the ways self-concept changes occur and are valued across cultures.”

“experience (Heine, 2001; Kitayama et al., 1997; Wang, 2013), we expected that third-person perspectives, particularly in negative events, would be”

“ways in which self and identity are multiply determined by cultural values and beliefs (Heine, 2001; Tafarodi, Lo, Yamaguchi, Lee, & Katsura, 2004), while also reflecting universal developmental processes (Helwig, 2006; Smith, Bond, & Kagitcibasi, 2006).”