Module 02 · The Self-Concept
Cultural Differences in the Self-Concept自我概念的文化差异
Overview 概述
Up to this point, we’ve been discussing the self and the self-concept as if they were consistent across cultures. That is assuredly not the case. So, in this section, we will acquaint you with the most well-studied cultural difference in self-concepts. To understand the difference in self-concepts that we will be talking about, it’s first important to differentiate two types of cultures: individualistic cultures and collectivistic cultures. Individualistic cultures are those that emphasize the importance of individual independence and self-reliance, whereas collectivistic cultures emphasize the importance of the group (or collective) over the individual. Frequently, the United States (and other Western countries) is used as a prototypic individualistic culture, and Japan (and other East Asian countries) is used to represent collectivistic cultures.
到目前为止，我们一直在讨论自我和自我概念，好像它们在文化间是一致的。这显然不是事实。因此，在本节中，我们将向您介绍自我概念中最被研究的文化差异。为了理解我们将讨论的自我概念差异，首先区分两种文化类型非常重要：个人主义文化和集体主义文化。个人主义文化强调个人独立和自力更生的重视，而集体主义文化强调群体（或集体）对个人的重视。通常，美国（和其他西方国家）被用作典型的个人主义文化，而日本（和其他东亚国家）被用来代表集体主义文化。
Independent and Interdependent Self-Concepts 独立与相互依赖的自我概念
Given that, as we talked about, culture is fundamental to creating self-concepts, it seems logical to assume that individualistic and collectivist cultures contribute to the development of different self-concepts. Indeed, that is true. People from individualistic cultures tend to define themselves based on their personal attributes, traits, and accomplishments. We refer to this self-view as an independent self-concept (or self-construal). On the other hand, people from collectivistic cultures tend to define themselves based on their relationships with others and to focus on the accomplishments of their group as opposed to their personal accomplishments. We refer to this self-view as an interdependent self-concept (or self-construal; Markus & Kitayama, 1991).
鉴于我们讨论过，文化对于形成自我概念至关重要，因此认为个人主义和集体主义文化对形成不同的自我概念有贡献似乎是合理的。确实如此。来自个人主义文化的人们倾向于根据自己的个人属性、特质和成就来定义自己。我们将这种自我观念称为独立自我概念（或自我建构）。另一方面，来自集体主义文化的人们倾向于根据自己的与他人关系来定义自己，并关注他们所在群体的成就，而不是个人的成就。我们将这种自我观念称为相互依赖的自我概念（或自我建构；Markus & Kitayama，1991）。
Let’s clarify this idea with an example. Imagine two baseball players, one having grown up in Japan and the other having grown up in the United States, but otherwise identical. Despite the fact that their experiences, their knowledge of their skills, their teams, and their roles on the team are the same, the two would respond very differently on the “I Am” task. Specifically, the American version of this player would be more likely to answer in ways that describe himself. For example, he might say, “I am a pitcher” and “I am an all-star.” Contrast this with the Japanese version of this player, who would be more likely to answer in ways that contain his relationships with others. For example, he might say, “I am a member of the Dragons baseball team” and “I am proud of my team’s championship.” These are two different takes on the same information based on different culturally informed self-views.
让我们用一个例子来澄清这个想法。想象有两个棒球运动员，一个在日本长大，另一个在美国长大，但除此之外他们完全相同。尽管他们的经历、对技能的了解、他们的团队以及他们在团队中的角色都是相同的，但在“我是”的任务中，这两个人会有非常不同的反应。具体来说，这个美国版本的运动员更有可能用描述自己的方式来回答。例如，他可能会说，“我是一个投手”和“我是一个全明星。”与此相反，这个日本版本的运动员更有可能用包含他与他人关系的方式来回答。例如，他可能会说，“我是龙队棒球的一员”和“我为我的球队夺冠感到自豪。”这是基于不同的文化背景的自我观念对相同信息的两种不同解读。
Before going any further, note that the difference between people in individualistic cultures and the people in collectivistic cultures is a difference in extent, not a difference in kind (Gardner, Gabriel, & Lee, 1999). Put another way, the self-concepts of members of both individualistic and collectivistic cultures possess independent and interdependent components. The difference between the two is in the extent to which each component of the self-concept is used. That is, people from collectivistic cultures possess both independent and interdependent self-construals. However, the interdependent self-construal is more likely to be used and more likely to be in their working self-concept than is the independent one. The reverse is true for people from individualistic cultures.
在进一步讨论之前，请注意，个体主义文化中的人与集体主义文化中的人之间的差异是程度上的差异，而不是种类上的差异（Gardner，Gabriel，& Lee，1999）。换句话说，个体主义和集体主义文化成员的自我概念都包含独立和相互依赖的成分。这两种文化之间的差异在于自我概念中每个成分的使用程度。也就是说，来自集体主义文化的人拥有独立和相互依赖的自我建构。然而，相互依赖的自我建构更有可能被使用，并且更有可能成为他们的工作自我概念，而不是独立的自我建构。对于来自个体主义文化的人来说，情况正好相反。
These differences in self-concepts lead to differences in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as well. For example, illustrating differences in how they think about themselves, Japanese research participants referred to themselves on the “I Am” task with social roles (descriptions of how they fit into a group) more often than Americans did, whereas Americans were more likely to refer to themselves with universal traits (e.g., “I am funny”) than were Japanese participants (Cousins, 1989). Interdependent self-concepts are also associated with more collective emotions. For example, Japanese participants report more pride at the successes of another person than do Americans (Neumann et al., 2009), and people from China (also a collectivistic culture) experience more anger than Americans do when hearing about an unfair event happening to another person (Stipek et al., 1989). Finally, people with interdependent self-concepts tend to act with the good of the group in mind more frequently than people with independent self-concepts. For example, people with more interdependent self-construals tended to respect stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic more than did people with more independent orientations (Tu et al., 2021).
自我概念的这些差异也导致了思想、感受和行为的差异。例如，为了说明他们如何看待自己的看法的差异，日本研究参与者比美国人更频繁地在“我是”任务中称呼自己为社会角色（描述他们如何融入群体），而美国人比日本参与者更有可能称呼自己具有普遍特征（例如，“我很有趣”），而日本参与者（Cousins， 1989）. 相互依存的自我概念也与更多的集体情绪有关。例如，日本参与者报告说比美国人对另一个人的成功感到更多的自豪（Neumann et al.， 2009），而来自中国的人（也是一种集体主义文化）在听到发生在另一个人身上的不公平事件时比美国人经历更多的愤怒（Stipek et al.， 1989）。最后，具有相互依赖的自我概念的人往往比具有独立自我概念的人更频繁地以群体的利益为出发点。 例如，具有更多相互依存自我构念的人比具有更多独立取向的人更倾向于在 COVID-19 大流行期间遵守居家令（Tu 等人，2021 年）。