SELF and CULTURE What type of change?

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1 SELF and CULTURE What type of change? Cigdem Kagitcibasi Koç University Turkish Academy of Sciences Panel on The New Emerging Markets (Beyond BRIC): Managing Global Brands and Consumers Koc University, June 22 nd, 2010

2 CONNECTIONS BETWEEN LEVELS OF ANALYSIS Culture level Individualism - Collectivism Individual / Interpersonal level (self) Independence - Interdependence Triandis et al. (1982). Allocentric vs. Idiocentric tendencies: Convergent and discriminant validation, Journal of Research in Personality, 19, Kağıtçıbaşı,C. (1990) Family and socialization in cross-cultural perspective: A model of change. In J. Berman (Ed.), Cross-cultural perpectives: Nebraska Symposium on motivation, 1989 (pp ). Lincoln, NE: Nebraska University Press.; Markus, H.R. & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, (2),

3 A further distinction: Values orientation and Self orientation To I/C Normative Individualism/ Collectivism (Norms/values; Vertical-Horizontal I/C; Hierarchy) Relational Individualism/ Collectivism (Self-other relations; separatenessembeddedness) Kagitcibasi (1997). Individualism and collectivism. In J. W. Berry, M. H. Segall, & C. Kagitcibasi (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology, 2nd Ed.

4 The latter - - self boundaries, self - other relations has found expression in contrasts made between the Western Self-Contained Self and Other Views of the Self: Enriquez : The Filipino Kapwa the unity of the self and the other Japanese : Group Self (Amae) Nsamenang : West African Social Selfhood Sun : The Chinese Two Person Matrix (Yin and Yan) Roland : Japanese and Indian Familial Self Also reflected in Popular Psychology

5 Connected and Separate Selves/Family Connected Separate family family

7 Autonomy and Relatedness are Basic Human Needs However, The construal of Autonomy and Relatedness as Conflicting has prevailed over Autonomy and Relatedness as Basic Needs Thus, Relatedness is seen as incompatible with Autonomy; and Separation from others is seen as necessary for autonomy ( Separation-Individuation hypothesis)

8 What is the underlying reason? Not evolutionary, which rather stresses the survival value of cooperation and relatedness in humans and other primates (Euler et al, 2001; Guisinger & Blatt, 1994). It is cultural... Western Individualism as a Cultural Affordance (Poortinga, 1992).

9 In much cross-cultural research and theory individualism is understood as autonomy (Hofstede, 1980, 1991; Rothbaum et al., 2000; Rothbaum & Trommsdorff, in press; Smith & Schwartz, 1997; Triandis, 1995; Markus & Kitayama, 1991) Schwartz (2004) recast Individualism-Collectivism as Autonomy vs. Embeddedness This is especially the case for Normative I-C Thus issues of both conceptualization and measurement

10 Yet, it is neither logically nor psychologically necessary for Autonomy to mean Separateness if we recognize the existence of two distinct dimensions: Agency: Autonomy Heteronomy (dependency) Interpersonal Distance: Separateness Relatedness

11 The two dimensions underlie self, self-other relations and social behaviors. They reflect basic human needs for autonomy and relatedness. As conceptually distinct dimensions, either pole of each one can coexist with either pole of the other one. Kagitcibasi, C. (1996). The autonomous-relational self: A new synthesis. European Psychologist, 1,

12 A Conceptual Model of Different Types of Selves AGENCY Autonomy Autonomous-Separate self Autonomous-related self INTERPERSONAL DISTANCE Separation Relatedness Heteronomous-separate self Heteronomous-related self Heteronomy

13 This conceptualization renders viable The Autonomous-Related Self Despite the consensual agreement that Autonomy and Relatedness are basic needs, this self construal has not been readily recognized in psychology, even in crosscultural psychology. Kagitcibasi, C. (2005). Autonomy and Relatedness in Cultural Context. Implications for Self and Family. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36, Kagitcibasi, C. (2007). Family, Self and Human Development Across Cultures: Theory and Applications. (Revised Second Edition). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

14 Global Change toward the Autonomous-Related Self With Urbanization Increased Education Increased Affluence

15 10-19 age group population (million) Urbanization of Populations Urban Shift in Developing Countries for Young Population (age 10-19) urban rural

SHORT NOTES I or we : Family socialization values in a national probability sample in Taiwan

Asian Journal of Social Psychology Asian Journal of Social Psychology (2009), 12, 145 150 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-839X.2009.01276.x SHORT NOTES I or we : Family socialization values in a national probability