Abstract
Existing cross-cultural research often assumes that the independent versus interdependent self-construal process leads to different cultural behaviors, although few studies directly test this link. Extending from prior cross-cultural findings, two studies were conducted to explicitly test whether self-construal is linked with the differential use of emotions versus social information in judgments of life satisfaction. Study 1 confirmed the prediction that even among Americans, those who view themselves in interdependent terms (allocentrics) evaluate their life satisfaction in a more collectivistic manner (strong reliance on social appraisal) than those who view themselves in independent terms (idiocentrics). Study 2 replicated these findings in two cultural settings (United States and Korea) by using experimental primes of independent versus relational self-construal. Results strongly suggest that differences in self-construal processes underlie cross-cultural differences in life satisfaction judgments.
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Suh, E.M., Diener, E., Updegraff, J.A. (2009). From Culture to Priming Conditions: Self-Construal Influences on Life Satisfaction Judgments. In: Diener, E. (eds) Culture and Well-Being. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 38. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2352-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2352-0_7
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