Collectivistic Self‐Construal and Forgiveness

This study tested a theoretical model of the relationship between collectivism and forgiveness. Participants (N= 298) completed measures of collectivistic self‐construal, forgiveness, and forgiveness‐related constructs. A collectivistic self‐construal was related to understanding forgiveness as an interpersonal process that involved reconciliation. Individuals with more collectivistic views reported higher trait forgivingness, which predicted the tendency to respond to specific offenses with decisional rather than emotional forgiveness. Individuals with a more collectivistic self‐construal may place more value on interpersonal harmony, reconciliation, and decisions to forgive rather than emotional peace. Implications suggest that counselors understand issues of conflict, hurts, and forgiveness within an assessment of clients’ self‐construal.     

A Multitrait Multimethod Measurement Approach to the Traits (or States) of Anxiety,Depression and Hostility

This study tested the convergent and discriminant validities of various psychological techniques used for the measurement of the affects of anxiety, depression and hostility. The subjects were 29 psychiatric patients and 25 normal controls, all males. Subjects were interviewed and rated for the three affects and given an extensive battery of tests. Anxiety and depression measures from ratings, checklists, and questionnaires demonstrated good convergent validity but poor discriminant validity. The projective methods did not demonstrate much convergent validity. Hostility was separable from anxiety and depression but the tests showed poor convergent validity for hostility. In the normals, fantasy hostility (TAT) and admitted hostility (Multiple Affect Adjective Check List) showed some convergence, but in the patients there was no congruence between these two levels.     

Relational Self‐Construal: Past and Future

Relational self‐construal is characterized as the extent to which a person defines the self in terms of close relationships. In this article, I distinguish relational self‐construal from collective‐interdependent self‐construal and from other similar‐sounding constructs. I review the history of the concept of relational self‐construal and how it is most frequently measured or manipulated. The remainder of the article focuses on research that examines the role of relational self‐construal in cognition, affect, motivation, and close interpersonal relationships.     

Skill Level,Self‐Views and Self‐Theories as Sources of Error in Self‐Assessment

People's impressions of the quality of their performances are often surprisingly inaccurate. In this paper, I discuss three specific factors that contribute to error in self‐assessment. First, at a most basic level, individuals must possess a certain level of knowledge to simply distinguish weak from strong performances. Thus, a lack of skill can contribute to erroneous self‐assessments. Second, even those who possess skill might rely on the wrong information to evaluate their performances. I discuss how relying on preexisting self‐views can lead estimates of one's performance astray. Third, I discuss how motivational forces can play an indirect role in overconfidence. In particular, theories of intelligence that inspire people to think well of themselves also inspire behaviors that contribute to overconfident impressions of how well one has performed on a task. Finally, I discuss how we can draw on this research to improve accuracy in self‐assessments.     

Supplementary Fit,Complementary Fit,and Work‐Related Outcomes: The Role of Self‐Construal

The current research investigated whether employees' self‐construals moderated the effects of supplementary fit and complementary fit on their work‐related outcomes (i.e. affective commitment and citizenship behavior). An organisational sample of 317 Chinese employees provided evidence that the relations between supplementary fit and these two work‐related outcomes were stronger among employees with a higher interdependent self‐construal. Conversely, the relations between complementary fit and work‐related outcomes were stronger among employees with a higher independent self‐construal. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The (In)validity of Self‐Construal Scales Revisited

This paper offers a critical rejoinder in the discussion concerning the viability of self‐construal scales. It is our contention that the existing data reported in our previous article (Levine et al., 2003) and elsewhere are more than sufficient to justify the conclusion that self‐report scales purporting to measure interdependent and independent self‐construals as 2 orthogonal constructs lack validity. The arguments to the contrary offered by Gudykunst and Lee (2003) and Kim and Raja (2003) are disputed. Additional data (N = 1,013) show that neither age, occupation, sample size, standardization, nor a 2nd‐order structure can account for the problems we documented previously. Although we see potential utility in the self‐construal construct, we believe that the 3 primary scales fail to meet reasonable and accepted social scientific standards. Difficult conceptual problems will need to be solved prior to the development of new and improved measures.     

A Comparison of Assessment Center Practices in Organizations in German‐speaking Regions and the United States

The development, execution, and evaluation of ACs in 281 German, Swiss, and Austrian organizations are examined for compliance with professional guidelines and consideration of moderator variables of validity, and the results are compared with those reported for U.S. companies ( Spychalski et al., 1997 ). The authors show that some recommendations (e.g., systematic testing of reliability and validity) have not received sufficient attention in either the German‐speaking or U.S. sample and that compliance with guidelines (e.g., the application of information policy to assessees) varies across the countries studied. The most important cross‐national differences in the development, execution, and evaluation of ACs are explained as results of ideologically rooted reservations, insufficient professionalization in some aspects of intraorganizational AC use, as well as specific aspects of the Labor‐Management Act and similar legislation in German‐speaking regions. These factors are linked with a cultural difference—institutionalized collectivism, which is greater in German‐speaking regions than in the United Sates.     

Self‐Legislation and Self‐Command in Kant's Ethics

In his later writings, Kant distinguishes between autonomy and self‐mastery or self‐command. My article explains the relation between these two ideas, both of which are integral to his understanding of moral agency and the pursuit of virtue. I point to problems with other interpretations of this relation and offer an alternative. On my view, self‐command is a condition or state achieved by those agents who become proficient at solving problems presented by the passions. Such agents are able to stick to the results of self‐legislation over time and thereby achieve a form of temporally extended freedom.     

Reflective Self‐Control in Self‐Control Scholarship: A Peircean Analysis

Vosgerau, Scopelliti, and Huh (this issue) present an important critique of much self‐control research, highlighting some of the ways that our customary operationalizations and methods may have created more confusion than clarity. Their insights, rooted in past literature and new data, offer recommendations that will undoubtedly help us improve our research in consumption self‐control. In this commentary, I frame their work using the thought of Charles Sanders Peirce, a philosopher, mathematician, and logician whose frustration with the management of the self‐control construct and subsequent revision parallels Vosgerau et al's in many ways. Further, his thought proposes that their thought traces the boundary of another type of self‐control problem, which I'll refer to as “reflective self‐control.” Taking together consumption self‐control and reflective self‐control, we're able to address a wide range of human experiences and connect self‐control to ethics, consistent with a long tradition bridging the two. Perhaps most importantly, though, a Peircean analysis suggests that Vosgerau et al's paper—whether we agree or disagree with its conclusions—exemplifies the kind of scholarly self‐control we need to display to make scientific progress, regardless of our specific domain of study.     

Self-concept,aspirations, and well-being in South Korea and the United States

The authors examined the similarities and differences between 3 dimensions that represent people's focus on self vs. other: individualistic vs. collectivistic nations, independent vs. interdependent self-concepts, and intrinsic vs. extrinsic aspirations. In samples of South Korean and U.S. college students, the authors found that each of these dimensions was interrelated in expected ways and that each also was independently associated with different aspects of participants' self-report of their own well-being (i.e., self-actualization, vitality, happiness, anxiety, and physical manifestations). The authors concluded that environmental circumstances and personality characteristics that focus on personal needs are more likely to provide experiences supportive of psychological well-being.     

Motivations for Self‐Injury,Affect, and Impulsivity: A Comparison of Individuals with Current Self‐Injury to Individuals with a History of Self‐Injury

Individuals who report nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) are characterized by the tendency to act rashly while experiencing distress (negative urgency), the tendency to act without thinking, and endorsement of both social and affect regulation motives for the behavior. However, very little research has identified characteristics that distinguish current self‐injurers from those with a history of the behavior. The purpose of this study was to compare individuals with current self‐injury to a history of self‐injury on impulsivity‐related personality traits, motives for self‐injury, and distress. Among a sample of 429 undergraduates, 120 reported self‐injury. Among these 120 individuals, 33 endorsed self‐injury within the past month, with a mean frequency of 4.77 acts of NSSI. Within the self‐injury group, current self‐injurers reported higher endorsement of affect regulation motives for NSSI, and higher levels of current negative affect than individuals with a history of self‐injury. There were no differences between current and former self‐injurers on measures of impulsivity, endorsement of social motives for NSSI, or positive affect. We propose that individuals who use NSSI to regulate negative affect may be more likely to repeatedly engage in this behavior over time.     

A Research Note on English‐Speaking Buddhists in the United States

Using data from the 2007 Pew Religious Landscape survey (PRLS), which includes over 650 Buddhist respondents (after weighting), this research note examines the usefulness of previously devised typologies for describing the religious and social characteristics of Buddhists in the United States. Existing “two Buddhisms” typologies capture the category breaks of the U.S. Buddhist landscape, with a couple of exceptions: convert Buddhists report higher rates of belief and higher rates of social activity than do those born into the religion. Analysis also shows that three‐group typologics capture additional complexity within the U.S. Buddhist landscape. Examination of the social characteristics of Buddhists in the United States mostly corroborates previous assumptions with one exception, women do not outnumber men.     

Trust and commitment in the United States and Japan

A distinction is proposed betweentrust as a cognitive bias in the evaluation of incomplete information about the (potential) interaction partner andassurance as a perception of the incentive structure that leads the interaction partner to act cooperatively. It is hypothesized that trust in this sense helps people to move out of mutually committed relations where the partner's cooperation is assured. Although commitment formation is a rather standard solution to the problems caused by social uncertainty, commitment becomes a liability rather than an asset as opportunity costs increase. Facing increasing opportunity costs, trust provides a springboard in the attempt to break psychological inertia that has been mobilized to maintain committed relations. In conjunction with an assumption that networks of mutually committed relations play a more prominent role in Japanese society than in American society, this hypothesis has been applied to predict a set of cross-national differences between the United States and Japan in the levels of trust and related factors. The results of a cross-national questionnaire survey (with 1,136 Japanese and 501 American respondents) support most of the predictions, and indicate that, in comparison to Japanese respondents, American respondents are more trusting of other people in general, consider reputation more important, and consider themselves more honest and fair. In contrast, Japanese respondents see more utility in dealing with others through personal relations.The research reported in this paper has been supported by the Institute of Nuclear Safety System, Inc. We would like to thank Professor Jyuji Misumi, the director of the Social System Research Department of the institute, and Mr. Akira Yamada, the associate director of the department, for their constant encouragement and support. We would also like to thank past attendants of the trust workshops, also supported by the institute, Professors Karen Cook, Peter Kollock, Mary Brinton, Tatsuya Kameda, Taro Kamioka, Ichiro Numazaki, Motoki Watabe, Kumiko Mori, Nahoko Hayashi, Nobuhito Jin, and Nobuyuki Takahashi. This research has been supported also by Abe Fellowship and a Ministry of Education Scientific Research Grant provided to Toshio Yamagishi.     

Making a Good Impression at Work: National Differences in Employee Impression Management Behaviors in Japan,Korea, and the United States

Impression management has important implications for success at work. This study explores differences in impression management in the East and West by examining the use of self-promotion, ingratiation, and exemplification directed towards three targets: supervisors, peers, and subordinates among 945 company employees from Japan, Korea, and the United States. Our results show that Korean employees used all three strategies most frequently, followed by United States, and then Japanese employees. Japanese and Korean employees used impression management strategies differentially across the three targets, and U.S. employees used impression management equally across targets. This elucidates how cultural trends in hierarchical relationships impact social behavior within the workplace. A follow-up mediation analysis found that relational or labor mobility fully mediated country differences in impression management, suggesting that culture is also reflected in larger social ecological trends in employee's ability and likelihood to change jobs, which also account for impression management strategy usage. Theoretical and practical implications for international business are discussed. This research may be useful in aligning strategies foreign employees might employ for using impression management when in Japan, Korea, and the United States.     

Eudaimonism,Virtue, and Self‐Sacrifice

This essay introduces some of the key topics at stake in the ongoing controversies about the place of eudaimonism in Christian ethics and theology. Whether and in what way a person should seek her or his own happiness and flourishing has been a central question in ethics for centuries. Here I summarize the contributions the essays in this focus issue make to that conversation, and conclude by briefly sketching a Neoplatonist approach to eudaimonism that may offer a way to build on the insights and concerns articulated in the focus essays.     

Stability and Change in Domain‐specific Self‐esteem and Global Self‐esteem

A notable uptick of interest in the stability of self‐esteem has been observed over the past few years. Most researchers, however, have focused on unidimensional rather than multidimensional conceptualizations of self‐esteem. The paucity of empirical research is surprising given conflicting theoretical perspectives on the stability of self‐esteem. The goal of the present study was to thoroughly disentangle different conceptualizations of self‐esteem and test opposing classical theories on (i) the stability and (ii) the direction of mutual influence of these different forms of self‐esteem. We analysed two‐year longitudinal data from participants (N = 644 at T1, N = 241 at T2) with an average age of 47.0 years (SD = 12.4). Analyses using a latent variable approach revealed that the domains of self‐esteem were relatively stable in terms of rank order and mean levels. In fact, the size of the stability coefficients was comparable to that of other trait measures that have been reported in the literature and paralleled the stability observed for global self‐esteem. Results did not provide support for either top‐down or bottom‐up effects between domain‐specific and global self‐esteem. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications regarding the stability and development of self‐esteem in adulthood and advance the understanding of self‐esteem in personality theory. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Sources of Variance in Personality Facets: A Multiple‐Rater Twin Study of Self‐Peer,Peer‐Peer,and Self‐Self (Dis)Agreement

ABSTRACT This study considered the validity of the personality structure based on the Five‐Factor Model using both self‐ and peer reports on twins' NEO‐PI‐R facets. Separating common from specific genetic variance in self‐ and peer reports, this study examined genetic substance of different trait levels and rater‐specific perspectives relating to personality judgments. Data of 919 twin pairs were analyzed using a multiple‐rater twin model to disentangle genetic and environmental effects on domain‐level trait, facet‐specific trait, and rater‐specific variance. About two thirds of both the domain‐level trait variance and the facet‐specific trait variance was attributable to genetic factors. This suggests that the more personality is measured accurately, the better these measures reflect the genetic structure. Specific variance in self‐ and peer reports also showed modest to substantial genetic influence. This may indicate not only genetically influenced self‐rater biases but also substance components specific for self‐ and peer raters' perspectives on traits actually measured.     

Mathematics,Morality, and Self‐Effacement

I argue that certain species of belief, such as mathematical, logical, and normative beliefs, are insulated from a form of Harman‐style debunking argument whereas moral beliefs, the primary target of such arguments, are not. Harman‐style arguments have been misunderstood as attempts to directly undermine our moral beliefs. They are rather best given as burden‐shifting arguments, concluding that we need additional reasons to maintain our moral beliefs. If we understand them this way, then we can see why moral beliefs are vulnerable to such arguments while mathematical, logical, and normative beliefs are not—the very construction of Harman‐style skeptical arguments requires the truth of significant fragments of our mathematical, logical, and normative beliefs, but requires no such thing of our moral beliefs. Given this property, Harman‐style skeptical arguments against logical, mathematical, and normative beliefs are self‐effacing; doubting these beliefs on the basis of such arguments results in the loss of our reasons for doubt. But we can cleanly doubt the truth of morality.     

Gratitude and Life Satisfaction in the United States and Japan

Being grateful has been associated with many positive outcomes, including greater happiness, positive affect, optimism, and self-esteem. There is limited research, however, on the associations between gratitude and different domains of life satisfaction across cultures. The current study examined the associations between gratitude and three domains of life satisfaction, including satisfaction in relationships, work, and health, and overall life satisfaction, in the United States and Japan. A total of 945 participants were drawn from two samples of middle aged and older adults, the Midlife Development in the United States and the Midlife Development in Japan. There were significant positive bivariate associations between gratitude and all four measures of life satisfaction. In addition, after adjusting for demographics, neuroticism, extraversion, and the other measures of satisfaction, gratitude was uniquely and positively associated with satisfaction with relationships and life overall but not with satisfaction with work or health. Furthermore, results indicated that women and individuals who were more extraverted and lived in the United States were more grateful and individuals with less than a high school degree were less grateful. The findings from this study suggest that gratitude is uniquely associated with specific domains of life satisfaction. Results are discussed with respect to future research and the design and implementation of gratitude interventions, particularly when including individuals from different cultures.