2. SELF CONSTRUALS Independent and Interdependent Selves

3. LECTURE OUTLINE Culture and Self –Independent Self –Interdependent Self Self Perceptions –Self in relation to others –Positivity biases –Self-serving biases –Self esteem Is there a universal need for positive self regard? Conclusions

4. WHO ARE YOU? I AM……….

5. INDEPENDENT SELF A bounded, unique, more or less integrated motivational and cognitive universe, a dynamic center of awareness, emotion, judgment and action, organized into a distinctive whole and set contrastively against other such wholes and against a social and natural background Geertz

6. INDEPENDENT SELF Unique Autonomous Self-contained Individualistic Idiocentric

7. INTERDEPENDENT SELF Connected Relational Holistic Collective Allocentric

8. WHO ARE YOU? Defined by traits? Defined by roles and relationships?

9. SELF Mother Co-worker Father Friend Sibling INDEPENDENT SELF

10. SELF Mother Co-worker Father Friend Sibling INTERDEPENDENT SELF

11. SELF CONSTRUALS FEATUREINDEPENDENTINTERDEPENDENT DefinitionSeparate from social context Connected to social context StructureBounded, unitary, stable Flexible, variable Tasks Be unique Express self Realise internal attributes Promote own goals Be direct Belong, fit in Occupy one’s proper place Engage in appropriate action Promote others’ goals Be indirect

12. SELF CONSTRUALS FEATUREINDEPENDENTINTERDEPENDENT Role of others Self-evaluation; others important for social comparison Self-definition; relations with others in specific context define self Basis of self- esteem Ability to express self, validate internal attributes Ability to adjust, restrain self, maintain harmony with social context

13. ….The human being seems to be striving basically to assert and expand his self-determination. He is an autonomous being, a self-growing entity that asserts itself actively instead of reacting passively like a physical body to the impacts of the surrounding world. This fundamental tendency expresses itself in a striving of the person to consolidate and increase his self-government, in other words to exercise his freedom and to organize the relevant items of his world out of the autonomous center of government that is his self. This tendency- “the trend towards increased autonomy”- expresses itself in spontaneity, self-assertiveness, striving for freedom and for mastery (Angyal, 1956).

14. ….The person appears to seek a place for himself in a larger unit of which he strived to become a part. In the first tendency we see him as struggling for centrality in his world, trying to mold, to organize, the objects and events of his world, to bring them under his jurisdiction and government. In the second tendency he seems rather to surrender himself willingly to seek a home for himself and to become an organic part of something that he conceives as greater than himself. The super-individual unit of which one feels oneself a part, or wishes to become a part, may be variously formulated according to one’s cultural background and personal understanding (Angyal, 1956).

15. SELF IN RELATION TO OTHERS Americans judge self more dissimilar to others than others dissimilar to self Indians see self as more similar to others than others are similar to self

16. POSITIVITY BIAS 70% of American students in a national survey believed that they were above average in leadership ability Approximately 50% of Japanese believe that they are above average on a given trait or ability

17. SELF-SERVING BIAS Tendency to take credit for success and deny responsibility for failure Cross-cultural research suggests that this is not apparent or occurs less frequently in Japanese, Indian, Nepali and Chinese cultures

18. SELF-ESTEEM Positivity of a person’s global self evaluation Low self esteem generally associated with negative outcomes (e.g., substance abuse, poor mental health, anxiety, poor relationships)

19. MEASUREMENT OF SELF- ESTEEM I feel I have a number of good qualities I feel I have not much to be proud of I am able to do things as well as most other people All and all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure

20. IS THE NEED FOR POSITIVE SELF-REGARD UNIVERSAL? “Japanese do not have the same kind of need for self regard as North Americans” - (Heine et al., 1999) To assess the validity of this statement it is necessary to disentangle terms such as:self- enhancing, self-effacing, self-serving, positive self regard and self-esteem

21. CONCLUSIONS Self construals are influenced by cultural context Independent and interdependent self construals have implications for psychological processes, including –Self perceptions –Positivity biases –Self-serving biases –Self esteem and –Positive self regard How cross-cultural research findings on self construals and self perceptions are interpreted depends on the level of understanding different cultures and the level of abstraction of the constructs