Title: Culture and the Self: A New Global Perspective
Headings: Culture and the Self: A New Global Perspective
APA Journals Article Spotlight ®
July 26, 2016
Culture and the Self: A New Global Perspective
Citation:

Content: The new research paints a much richer picture of diversity in cultural models of selfhood. It shows that Western cultures tend to emphasize certain ways of being independent (e.g., being different from others, self-directed, and self-expressive), but not others (e.g., being self-interested, self-reliant, and consistent across contexts). Viewed in global context, Western cultures are not "exceptional" but they form part of the broad kaleidoscope of global variation. Nor is cultural individualism linked straightforwardly to independent self-perceptions, as has been commonly presumed. Different ways of seeing oneself as both independent and interdependent were emphasized in different parts of the world, and this was partly explained by socioeconomic development and religious heritage of the cultural groups studied. The findings will be important to practitioners and researchers interested in cultural diversity. They open up new research possibilities that will help researchers better understand how psychological processes vary across the world. A richer understanding of cultural variation, based firmly on empirical research rather than stereotypes, could help practitioners intervene more effectively with members of diverse cultural communities. Citation: Vignoles, V. L., Owe, E., Becker, M., Smith, P. B., Easterbrook, M. J., Brown, R.,…Bond, M. H. (2016).