1 Psychology 307: Cultural Psychology Lecture 10

2 Scoring Your Questionnaire In order to score your questionnaire, you must compute 5 scores. Score 1: Sum items 1, 6, 11, 16, 21 Score 2: Sum items 2, 7, 12, 17, 22 Score 3: Sum items 3, 8, 13, 18, 23 Score 4: Sum items 4, 9, 14, 19, 24 Score 5: Sum items 5, 10, 15, 20, 25

3 Due to the illness of a TA, there has been a delay in the posting of the grades for the midterm exam. When the grades are available, I will post them on the course website and inform the class via . Announcement

4 The Self-Concept and Motivation 1.Does cultural variation on the dimension of “individualism-collectivism” influence the self-concept and motivation? (continued)

5 By the end of today’s class, you should be able to: 1. explain how self-construals influence self-consistency, self-awareness and self-enhancement motivations. 3. discuss how early educational experiences may foster distinct self-construals in the U.S. and Japan. 2. define the terms: entity theory of self, incremental theory of self, entity theory of world, incremental theory of world, primary control, and secondary control.

6 Does cultural variation on the dimension of “individualism- collectivism” influence the self-concept and motivation? (continued) (b) Self-consistency (continued): ● Cultural differences in self-consistency are related to the following findings:

7 Individualists are more likely to maintain an entity theory of self, whereas collectivists are more likely to maintain an incremental theory of the self. Individualists are more likely to maintain an incremental theory of the world, whereas collectivists are more likely to maintain an entity theory of the world.

8 Individualists are more likely to engage in primary control, whereas collectivists are more likely to engage in secondary control.

9 (c) Self-awareness: ● Self-awareness theory maintains that people oscillate between two states of self-awareness: Subjective self-awareness: People consider themselves from the perspective of the subject (i.e., “I”). Objective self-awareness: People consider themselves from the perspective of others, as an object (i.e., “me”).

10 ● Research has shown that individualists spend a greater proportion of their time in a state of subjective self-awareness. ● In contrast, collectivists spend a greater proportion of their time in a state of objective self-awareness. ● Example:

11 Heine, Takemoto, Moskalenko, and Lasaleta (2007)  Recruited Japanese and Americans.  Examined the degree to which participants experienced discrepancies between their “actual” and “ideal” selves, in front of a mirror or not.  Found that Japanese actual-ideal discrepancies were unaffected when in front of a mirror; American actual-ideal discrepancies increased.

12 Actual-Ideal Self-Discrepancy

13 ● Research suggests that individualists exhibit a self- enhancement motivation—they tend to view and evaluate themselves in a positive manner. ● Self-enhancement reflects a desire to bolster one’s self- image and demonstrate one’s unique attributes. (d) Self-enhancement:

14 ● In contrast, collectivists exhibit a self-improvement motivation—they tend to view and evaluate themselves in a critical manner. ● Self-improvement reflects a desire to fit in with others and maintain “face.” ● Examples:

15 1. Markus and Kitayama (1998)  Found that Americans used the term “special” to describe themselves more frequently than Japanese. Japanese used the term “ordinary” to describe themselves more frequently than Americans:

16 Percent of Participants Who Endorsed Attribute as Self-Descriptive

17  Found that 93% of European-Canadians vs. 55% of Japanese had self-esteem scores exceeding the midpoint of the scale. 2. Heine, Lehman, Markus and Kitayama (1999)

18 3. Endo and Meijer (2004); Heine and Hamamura, (2007); Snibbe et al. (2003); White and Lehman (1999)  Found that Americans were more likely than East Asians to use tactics to enhance their self-view: Downward social comparison, compensatory self- enhancement, discounting, attributing failure to external causes, basking in the reflected glory of others.

19 The Self-Concept and Motivation 1.Does cultural variation on the dimension of “individualism-collectivism” influence the way in which the self is conceptualized? (continued)