Markus' most significant contributions to social psychology are her conceptualizations of the self-schema (Markus, 1977),[REF] of the mutual constitution of self and culture, and of the distinction between the independent and interdependent self (Markus & Kitayama, 1991) [REF].
Markus is also a pioneering figure in cultural psychology, a field which explores how cultural contexts both shape and reflect individuals' emotions, cognitions, motivations, and other psychological processes (Kim & Markus, 1999) in a process that Markus and her coauthors call mutual constitution or the culture cycle.