1. Quiet Ego And Its Predictors: Comparing Turkey And The US Ece Akca Ege University Heidi A. Wayment & Meliksah Demir Northern Arizona University Nebi Sumer Middle East Technical University

2. Outline Introduction The Quiet Ego Personality Characteristics Cultural Orientations Method Results

3. Introduction Possible negative results of the high self-esteem Self-protection Violence Optimal self-esteem Fragile & Secure self-esteem Secure high self-esteem: know who you are Authenticity

4. Focus on the «I» Looking at oneself from outside Hypo-egoic self-regulation Not controlling the behavior Trying to sleep Alienate oneself from the self-focus Purified from selfish and egoistic desires

5. The Quiet Ego Turning down the volume of the ego Balanced inclusion of the others Accepting oneself Awareness of the present moment Screaming ego – Voiceless ego Balance between two ends

6. The Quiet Ego Four main characteristics; Objective awareness: Interpreting the present situation with non defensive and welcoming manner Interdependent identity: identity as a part of relation with others Perspective taking: shift of attention from oneself Growth: development through time

7. Personality Characteristics & Quiet Ego The Big Five Model; extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness Defensiveness and personality Strong determinants of how people perceive and interpret the world

8. Cultural Orientations and Quiet Ego Cross-cultural validation Self-other distinction Self enhancement needs in cultures Individualistic cultures: The importance of individual Personal goals Collectivist cultures: the importance of unity Keep the harmony

9. Independent Self  Uniqueness and being separated Interdependent Self  Importance of relationships Family environment Turkish culture  collectivist or mixed The US culture  individualistic

10. Aim of the Study Compare the US and Turkish cultures on predictive power of personality characteristics on quiet ego

11. Methods 248 Turkish and 683 American university students Instruments: Demographic questions: Age, gender, and education level The Quiet Ego Scale: 14 items English version, 13 items Turkish version, 5 point likert type The Big Five Personality Inventory: 44 items, 5 point likert type

12. Results Gender differences exist almost all of the variables  Control the effect of gender Cultural differences 2(Gender) X 2(culture) Factorial Anova for quiet ego One-way ANCOVA for BFI

13. Cultural Differences Turkish men > Amerikan men on quiet ego Conscientiousness: American > Turkish Neuroticism & Openness: Turkish > American Correlational analysis Quiet ego & Agreeableness: the US > Turkey

14. Predictive Power of Personality Characteristics The strongest predictor  openness to experience

15. Moderation effect of Culture 1st step: Gender 2nd step: BFI & Culture 3rd step: Culture * BFI Culture * Agreeableness significant Culture * Neuroticism significant

16. Culture & Agreeableness

17. Culture & Neuroticism

18. Discussion The US and Turkish cultures were compared Openness to experience : the strongest predictor Having open stance  break the defensive walls Universal characteristic of the Quiet ego

19. Discussion Agreeableness in the US & neuroticism in Turkey Individualistic cultures: being social, & prosocial behaviors Collectivist cultures: being isolated from the environment and other people Socialization processes and construction of the self Future studies: why and how neuroticism effects

20. Limitation: Unequal sample size Student sample Validation of QE in different cultures