Culture, Self-construal and Social Cognition: Evidence from Cross-Cultural and Priming Studies

Members of different cultures vary in basic social psychological processes, such as value orientation, attitudes, attitude-behavior relations, person perception and attribution of observed behavior. Previous researchers have traced back these differences to the respective culture members’ self-construal: Westerners define their self primarily in independent terms, whereas Asians are more likely to define their selves in interdependent ways. This difference in construing the self in turn affects the above mentioned judgmental processes. However, when relying on cross-cultural studies alone, the critical role of the self cannot directly be tested. In this chapter I argue that the accessibility of either independent or interdependent self-knowledge plays a critical role, because judgments are assimilated to either autonomous –or social– contents to the degree that independent –or interdependent– self-knowledge is accessible in the judgmental situation. If so, making self-knowledge of one kind or the other temporarily accessible, should mirror cross-cultural differences. I will review a series of studies confirming this assumption. These studies will be discussed with regard to their implications a) for the role of the self in judgment formation and b) for the flexibility of cultural differences

Cultural Diversity in Meta-Cognitive Beliefs about Learning: Within-European Similarities and Differences?

Previous work on cross-cultural differences in the domain of education, has primarily studied Western (European) and Asian cultures or comparisons thereof. Current internationalization trends in higher education however call for a greater understanding of possible within-European cultural differences in the domain of learning. The current paper therefore addresses the question how culture influences the beliefs of Western and Eastern European students. The studies are based on the theory that the beliefs of students and faculty in the Western cultural context can be characterized as primarily ‘mind oriented’, whereas previous research has indicated that the beliefs of East-Asian academics has a stronger ‘virtue orientation’. In the mind orientation, the development of one’s cognitive thinking skills is at the heart of the concept of learning. In the virtue orientation, learning is primarily seen as a process of social and moral development of the person. Since the psychological literature has not yet reached a consensus on the degree and domains in which cultural differences emerge across the Eastern and Western European regions, a two-fold survey study was conducted in the Eastern European countries of Poland and Russia; and the Western European countries of the Netherlands and Germany. Students from both European regions were found to endorse mind oriented beliefs about learning more strongly than virtue oriented ones on the level of both attitudes and behavioral intentions, pointing to a striking cross-cultural similarity across the European region in the domain of beliefs about learning

Do consumer choices augment narcissism? The role of self-referent processing

Drawing on the choice and self-referent processing literatures, we hypothesized that the act of making consumer choices will augment narcissism, because it directs attention to the self (i.e., increases selfreferencing). Results of three experiments provided support for the proposed path from choice to narcissism via self-referencing (indirect effect), but not for the path from choice to narcissism (total effect). This pattern, first reported in Experiment 1, held only for agentic choices (e.g., products for personal use), which prompt thoughts about the self, and not for communal choices (e.g., charitable organizations), which prompt thoughts about others (Experiment 2). Also, this pattern generalized across agentic choices of public and private products (Experiment 3). We consider theoretical and practical implications

Can Happiness change? An Interdisciplinary, Multi-Method Investigation of the Dynamics of Happiness

None of the major basic questions social sciences are concerned with can satisfyingly be answered from the perspective of one discipline alone. Each of them proposes theories and perspectives that make unique and important contributions. At the same time theoretical perspectives in general inevitably do have their blind spots. This fundamental insight was the reason for us to choose as the motto for the 19th IACCP congress held in Bremen in 2008 “Crossing borders – (Cross-) Cultural Psychology as an Interdisciplinary, Multi-Method Endeavor”. In this chapter we first want to illustrate this motto and our reasons for choosing it by reviewing recent research on one exemplary basic question of the social sciences: Can happiness change? We will cover findings across the social science disciplines in order to illustrate the benefits of interdisciplinary, multi-method investigations. This review will also reveal that the recent evidence violates traditional mono-disciplinary views on the respective question. After that, we will briefly introduce the contributions of this volume

Cross-Cultural Variations in Identifying Embedded Figures : Comparisons from the United States, Germany, Russia, and Malaysia

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Previous studies have found cross-cultural variation in field dependence. In this study, cross-cultural differences were expected depending on the degree of individualism or collectivism of the respective cultures. Samples were taken from two prototypically individualist cultures, the United States and Germany, and two collectivist cultures, Russia and Malaysia. As predicted, field dependence did not differ between those samples that represented the same type of culture, either collectivist or individualist. However, a clear difference could be found between the two types of cultures; that is, U.S. and German participants were more field independent than were Russian and Malaysian participants

Integrating International Students into Tertiary Education Using Intercultural Peer-to-peer Training at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany

Increasing internationalization of higher education raises the question of how well institutions prepare their students to integrate into and benefit from cultural diversity on any university campus. The aim of this study was to assess an intercultural peer-to-peer training at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, that aims to facilitate the integration of incoming students into the multicultural environment of this international university. The individual experience of eight undergraduate students was explored using qualitative in-depth interviews. The results suggest that motivation to participate and satisfaction with the training were highest among students with some intercultural experience compared to students with extensive or little intercultural experience. All students supported the overall training format and the peer-trainer scheme. It seems that the training has adequately addressed the issues related to the general social life on the multicultural campus. However, it should focus more specifically on the learning model used and learning-related expectations at Jacobs University Bremen. In conclusion, the current study provides the first qualitative evaluation of an intercultural peer-to-peer training that could be utilized at other educational institutions in Germany and beyond as a method of linking culture-related issues to academic and social life of new students

The Values in Crisis Project:A three-wave panel study in Germany and the United Kingdom

This article introduces the data from the Values in Crisis project conducted in Germany and the United Kingdom. The project seized the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment to investigate whether, how and to what extent people’s moral values change as a result of a disruptive event of massive order and global scale. An online panel survey measured individuals’ experiences with COVID-19, moral values, personality traits and social orientations at three different stages throughout the pandemic: at its onset (Wave 1: April–May 2020), one year later amidst the pandemic (Wave 2: February–March 2021), and two years later towards its end (Wave 3: February–April 2022). The samples for Wave 1 were drawn using quota sampling along gender, age group, level of education, and country region for the population aged 16 and above in Germany (NDE,W1 = 2,005), and 18 and above in the UK (NUK,W1 = 2,033). The samples for Wave 2 consist of re-contacted participants at a retention rate of 63.99% for Germany (NDE,W1–2 = 1,283) and 56.57% for the UK (NUK,W1–2 = 1,150). The samples for Wave 3 comprise of re-contacted participants at a retention rate of 43.74% in Germany (NDE,W1–3 = 877) and 37.73% in the UK (NUK,W1–3 = 767) as well as newly recruited participants (NDE,W3 = 381, NUK,W3 = 461). The data can be used for various secondary analyses on the topics covered in the survey.</p

Social Construction of the Value–Behavior Relation

Personal values are reliable cross-situational predictors of attitudes and behavior. Since the resurgence in research on values following the introduction of Schwartz’s theory of basic values, efforts were focused on identifying universal patterns in value–attitude relations. While some evidence for such universal patterns exists more recent studies point out, there is still considerable variation in value–attitude and value–behavior links across cultures and contexts. Extending the existing literature on potential moderators in this paper, we introduce the concept of value-instantiating beliefs. This study looks at subjective construal of the value relevance of specific behaviors as a proximal moderator of value–attitude and value–behavior relations. We argue that a belief that construes a behavior as a valid instantiation of a value is a prerequisite for the relationship between said value and the behavior. We also argue that such value-instantiating beliefs play a central role in determining the direction of the relationship. In a web-based survey experiment (N = 1724) consisting of three trials, we presented participants with vignettes describing behavioral choices. In order to manipulate the value-instantiating beliefs, the behaviors were described either neutrally, as reinforcing the value, or as inhibiting the value. We then measured the value-instantiating beliefs, the attitude toward the behavior, and the intention to perform it. Instantiating beliefs strongly moderated the relationship between the personal values and the dependent variables in all three trials. Moreover, the direction of the relationship was determined by the instantiating beliefs. The results emphasize the plasticity of the value–behavior relation and the role of social construction in directing the motivational power of values toward concrete instantiating behaviors