Private self-consciousness factors: relationships with need for cognition, locus of control, and obsessive thinking in Iran and the United States.
The authors measured Internal State Awareness (ISA) and Self-Reflectiveness (SR) factors from the Private Self-Consciousness Scale in Iranian (N = 325) and U.S. (N = 401) university students. In both societies, positive correlations with Need for Cognition and Internal Control and negative correlations with external control and obsessive thinking confirmed ISA as an adaptive form of self-consciousness. In partial correlations in which the authors controlled for ISA, SR was associated cross-culturally with greater Obsessive Thinking. This outcome conformed with the authors' expectations that SR would have negative mental health implications, but other data revealed complexities in the SR association with adjustment. Differences between samples failed to yield any simple support for F. Fukuyama's (1992) suggestion that Iranians might be more "alienated" (pp. 236-237) in their psychological functioning. The present study most importantly offered cross-cultural evidence in favor of the claim that better measures of an introspective self-awareness need to be developed.
Ghorbani
Nima
N
University of Tehran, Iran.
Watson
P J
PJ
Krauss
Stephen W
SW
Davison
H Kristl
HK
Bing
Mark N
MN
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D018912:Arabs / Q000523:psychology; D001364:Awareness; D003071:Cognition; D003073:Cognitive Dissonance; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D009770:Obsessive Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D011593:Psychology, Social; D011594:Psychometrics; D012647:Self-Assessment; D015144:Southeastern United States; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014495:Universities