A Cultural Task Analysis of Implicit Independence: Comparing North America, Western Europe, and East Asia
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In: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 97, No. 2, 08.2009, p. 236-255.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - A Cultural Task Analysis of Implicit Independence
T2 - Comparing North America, Western Europe, and East Asia
AU - Kitayama, Shinobu
AU - Park, Hyekyung
AU - Sevincer, A. Timur
AU - Karasawa, Mayumi
AU - Uskul, Ayse K.
PY - 2009/8
Y1 - 2009/8
N2 - Informed by a new theoretical framework that assigns a key role to cultural tasks (culturally prescribed means to achieve cultural mandates such as independence and interdependence) in mediating the mutual influences between culture and psychological processes, the authors predicted and found that North Americans are more likely than Western Europeans (British and Germans) to (a) exhibit focused (vs. holistic) attention, (b) experience emotions associated with independence (vs. interdependence), (c) associate happiness with personal achievement (vs. communal harmony), and (d) show an inflated symbolic self. In no cases were the 2 Western European groups significantly different from one another. All Western groups showed (e) an equally strong dispositional bias in attribution. Across all of the implicit indicators of independence, Japanese were substantially less independent (or more interdependent) than the three Western groups. An explicit self-belief measure of independence and interdependence showed an anomalous pattern. These data were interpreted to suggest that the contemporary American ethos has a significant root in both Western cultural heritage and a history of voluntary settlement. Further analysis offered unique support for the cultural task analysis.
AB - Informed by a new theoretical framework that assigns a key role to cultural tasks (culturally prescribed means to achieve cultural mandates such as independence and interdependence) in mediating the mutual influences between culture and psychological processes, the authors predicted and found that North Americans are more likely than Western Europeans (British and Germans) to (a) exhibit focused (vs. holistic) attention, (b) experience emotions associated with independence (vs. interdependence), (c) associate happiness with personal achievement (vs. communal harmony), and (d) show an inflated symbolic self. In no cases were the 2 Western European groups significantly different from one another. All Western groups showed (e) an equally strong dispositional bias in attribution. Across all of the implicit indicators of independence, Japanese were substantially less independent (or more interdependent) than the three Western groups. An explicit self-belief measure of independence and interdependence showed an anomalous pattern. These data were interpreted to suggest that the contemporary American ethos has a significant root in both Western cultural heritage and a history of voluntary settlement. Further analysis offered unique support for the cultural task analysis.
KW - American individualism
KW - culture and self
KW - frontier thesis
KW - independence and interdependence
KW - Psychology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=67949089827&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/4c2e872e-75fb-3321-8778-72eadc8c8b92/
U2 - 10.1037/a0015999
DO - 10.1037/a0015999
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 19634973
AN - SCOPUS:67949089827
VL - 97
SP - 236
EP - 255
JO - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
SN - 0022-3514
IS - 2
ER -