Self and Personality Psychology 448C 10/14/08

Agenda  Lecture  Don’t need to know Culture & Gender or Five Factor Model of Personality for exams  In-class Activity

Self-Concept  How we perceive ourselves, and understand our identity plays a crucial role in how we think about many things.  The self-concept is implicated in  directing what information we should attend to,  it shapes the kinds of meaning that we draw from events,  it influences the kinds of relationships that we have,  it affects our emotions, and  it influences what we will be motivated to work towards.

Who Am I?  People are asked to describe themselves with a number of statements that begin with “I am _______.”  The kinds of statements that they list are then counted and analyzed.  People from some different cultural groups often provide different kinds of statements.

Comparisons of European-Americans and Native Americans (Fryberg & Markus, 2003)  European-American students described themselves more in terms of inner attributes than did Native Americans.

Independent vs. Interdependent Views of Self  Seminal paper by Markus and Kitayama (1991).  Argued that much of what is known in social psychology, has been studied with people who share a primarily distinct view of self - an independent self.  In much of the non-Western world, in contrast, an interdependent self is more common.

European American Exceptionalism?  A unique way of being in human history?  Modern subjectivity?  Social alienation  Individualism

Independent View of Self  Identity is experienced as largely independent from others.  Important aspects of identity are personal characteristics.  Identity remains largely constant across roles and situations.  Considerable fluidity between ingroups and outgroups.

Interdependent View of Self  Individual’s identity is importantly interdependent with others.  Key aspects of identity include roles, relationships, and memberships.  As roles change across situations, identity is also somewhat fluid across situations.  Clear distinction between ingroups and outgroups.

Culture and Business

1. How should a company determine compensation of its employees? a) A company should take into account the size of the employee’s family. The company should be responsible for paying additional compensation for each additional family member. b) An employee should be paid on the basis of the work s/he is doing for the company. Therefore, the company does not have to take into account the employee’s family.

2. Suppose you, as a manager, are in the process of hiring a new employee to work in your department. Which of the two following considerations is more important: a) The new employee must fit into the group or team in which s/he is to work. b) The new employee must have the skills, the knowledge, and a record of success in a previous job.

Determining compensation Percentage of people who agree with “b”: Family size of the employee is not a relevant factor for a company to consider in determining compensation. England USA Japan Italy

Hiring Percentage of People who chose “b”: The new employee must have the skills, the knowledge, and a record of success in a previous job. USA Germany Singapore France Italy

Self-Consistency  The interdependent self should be more contextually variable than the independent self.  When people are in different situations they are often in different roles  if the identity of the interdependent self is grounded in roles, then across situations, identity should vary.

Example  In one study, Japanese and American students completed the Twenty Statements Test in different situations (Kanagawa et al., 2001).  There were 4 test-taking situations:  alone  with peers  in a professor’s office  in a large class  DV: how similarly positive people’s self- descriptions were across situations.

American Data  American self- descriptions were highly similar across different situations.  Their self- descriptions were also uniformly positive. Ratio of Positive to Negative Statements

Japanese Data  Japanese self- descriptions varied significantly across different situations.  They were more positive when alone and most critical when with their professor.  Their self-descriptions were also less positive than the Americans. Ratio of Positive to Negative Statements

Why do cultures vary in self-consistency?  Often, cultural tendencies are functional  People behave according to cultural norms because they derive benefits from it.  Westerners benefit more than East Asians from being consistent across situations.

Example  Study compared how consistently Koreans and Americans described themselves across roles (Suh, 2002).  A consistency score was calculated for each participant.  Americans described themselves more consistently than did Koreans.  These consistency scores were then correlated with some other variables.

Benefits of Consistency  For Americans,  positive correlations between consistency and well-being, social skills, and likability.  For Koreans,  the correlations were far weaker  Americans benefit more from being consistent across roles than do Koreans. Correlations between Self-Consistency and...

Self-consistency  Note that the East Asian tendency to be less consistent across situations does not mean unpredictability.  East Asians are also consistent but it’s a different kind of consistency than found among Westerners.  consistency across time within each kind of relationship.  East Asians may feel differently about themselves when they’re with their family than when they’re with their friends,  The family self remains constant, and the friend self remains constant (see English & Chen, 2007).

A Western Psychology  Why doesn’t psychology examine role-consistency instead of self- consistency?  Americans would then be the exception  Non-Westerners would be the norm

Self-Awareness  Think back to your high school graduation, when you stood on stage and received your diploma.  Is your mental imagery about this event more from the 1st person perspective (what you saw from the stage) or from the 3rd person perspective (how people saw you from the audience)?

Example (Cohen & Gunz, 2002)  Participants indicated whether their memories contained 1st person or 3rd person imagery for a variety of events.  In some of the events they were the center of attention (e.g., your birthday party) and some they were not the center of attention (e.g., watching a movie with friends).

 This study suggests that East Asians are attending to the perspective of an audience so much more than are Westerners that this perspective influences their memories.

Cultural Differences in Interpreting Social Events (Chua, Leu, & Nisbett, 2005)  Main character focus:  “To what extent were the passages about Emma?” (Scale 1-9)  “To what extent were the passages about Jason, Elliot, Elliot’s cousin, Michele, Hannah, Amelia, Tom, and Professor Lewin, etc.?” (Scale 1-9)  Agency focus:  “To what extent were the characters’ actions driven by their plans and goals?” (Scale 1-9)  “To what extent were the characters’ actions influenced by the circumstances they found themselves in?” (Scale 1-9)

F(1, 55) = 2.14, p <.01

F(1, 54) = 4.94, p <.05

Emotion Perception Are there cultural differences between European Americans and Japanese in… 1. whether social context influences emotion perception of a target? (Masuda, Ellsworth, Mesquita, Leu, et al., 2008)

Target stimuli: JON

Central = Happy Background = Angry

Central = Happy Background = Sad

Central = Happy Background = Happy

Central = Happy Background = Neutral

Emotion of Background Figures: Angry, Sad, Happy, Neutral Emotions of Central Figures: Angry, Sad, Happy X Angry Sad Happy Angry Sad Happy Neutral X XX X

Methods Participants: 40 Japanese in Japan 40 European American in the US Procedure: Rating intensity of center figure’s emotion(s) Measures: Emotion Scales (0-9): anger, happiness, sadness

Central Person = Happy Angry Sad Happy Neutral Background Emotions USAJPN Intensity Ratings of Happiness

Central Person = Happy Angry Sad Happy Neutral Background Emotions USAJPN Intensity Ratings of Anger

Incremental vs. Entity Theories of Self  Incremental theories of self  abilities are malleable and are capable of being changed, with effort.  Entity theories of self  abilities are largely fixed, and reflect innate features of the self.  Interdependent selves: more incremental and less entity-based theories of self.  Independent selves: more entity and less incremental-based theories of self.

What is Intelligence Based On? Japanese Asian-Americans Euro-Americans

In-class Activity: Examples  Gender and math  Ethnicity and intelligence