Cultural Psychology of the Self

Kitayama

Cultural variation of the self has become one major topic of research in the recent years(e.g., Fiske, Kitayama, Markus, & Nisbett, 1998; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1989). This literature has focused on European-Americans and East Asians, and presented a case that European-Americans are independent and East Asians are interdependent. Thus, it has been suggested that European Americans tend to believe that they are unique, bounded, and separate from context. Further, these individuals are motivated to influence the surrounding and to be a source of action. In contrast, East Asians tend to believe that they are contextual, relational, and embedded in context. Further, these individuals are motivated to fit-in and adjust to the surrounding.