Culture and self-concept stability: consistency across and within contexts among Asian Americans and European Americans.
Whereas prior cultural research has focused on consistency of self-descriptions across contexts, the current 4 studies examined cultural differences in consistency of multiple self-dimensions and did so both across and within different contexts. Supporting predictions, Study 1a found that Asian Americans were less consistent in their self-descriptions across relationship contexts than were European Americans. Yet Study 1b, a short-term longitudinal study, found that Asian Americans' self-descriptions nonetheless showed high consistency within these contexts over time. Together, these findings suggest that for Asian Americans self-concept stability derives from defining the self in "if-then" terms, that is, as variable across relationship contexts but stable within them. In Studies 2a and 2b, parallel consistency effects emerged for 2 core motivational facets of the self-concept: self-view importance and self-enhancement. Moreover, dialectical beliefs mediated the cultural difference in consistency across contexts. Overall, the results demonstrate both the robustness and the boundaries of cultural differences in self-concept consistency as well as the importance of examining multiple forms of stability in the self-concept. Implications for authenticity and well-being are discussed.
English
Tammy
T
Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USA. english@berkeley.edu
Chen
Serena
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D012925:Social Conformity; D012931:Social Environment; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*