Engaging in self‐regulation results in low‐level construals

Previous research has suggested that self‐regulation results in low‐level construals but has inferred construal levels after self‐regulation only indirectly, through construal‐dependent judgments and choices. In the present paper, we demonstrate a direct link between engaging in self‐regulation and low‐level construals, by manipulating self‐regulation and subsequently assessing construal levels using well‐established and straightforward measures of construal level in three studies. Participants who engaged in self‐regulation subsequently provided lower egocentric spatial distance estimates (Studies 1A and 1B), formed more groups when categorizing objects (Study 2), and used more concrete language when describing cartoon main characters' behavior (Study 3) than participants who did not engage in self‐regulation. These findings provide direct evidence that low‐level construals result from engaging in self‐regulation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Viewing time through the lens of the self: The fit effect of self‐construal and temporal distance on task perception

This paper describes how different self‐construals influence people's perception of temporal distance and in turn their task evaluation. We hypothesize that people with a more accessible interdependent (vs. independent) self‐construal perceive future events as temporally more proximal, and that people's reaction toward a task is intensified when the temporal distance to the task matches (vs. mismatches) their self‐construal. Across four studies, we showed that individuals with a more accessible interdependent self‐construal (Study 1) and East Asians (Study 2) perceived future events as more proximal than those with a more accessible independent self‐construal and European Americans. Further, when considering a task at a temporal distance that fits their self‐construal, individuals perceived a pleasant task as more motivating (Study 3) and an unpleasant task as less motivating (Study 4).

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The implicit sociometer effect and the moderating role of relational self‐construal

The present study examined how negative feedback influenced implicit self‐evaluations and how individuals' level of relational self‐construal (RelSC) moderated these relationships. One hundred Chinese university students completed the relational‐interdependent self‐construal scale and were randomly assigned into one of three conditions (social exclusion, personal failure, or control). After receiving the manipulation, participants completed two Brief Implicit Association Tests (BIATs) that measured their implicit self‐liking and self‐competence. The results indicated that people with a highly RelSC typically had higher implicit self‐liking, but they decreased their implicit self‐liking more than those with a low RelSC after experiencing social exclusion. However, RelSC did not influence the effect of personal failure on implicit self‐liking. In addition, RelSC was not associated with implicit self‐competence in any situation.     

Dynamic self‐representation of interdependent Chinese: The effect of bicultural experience

The process of globalisation has increased the opportunity for Chinese individuals to utilise influences from other cultures that differ from their own collectivistic culture. The explorations of the impact of acculturation on Chinese individuals' self‐construals have become intriguing. Thus, we recruited German‐Chinese (N = 192) people who live in Germany and had direct bicultural experiences, as well as Mainland‐Chinese (N = 192) people who live in Mainland China and had internalised a second culture through more indirect means of exposure. We investigated their accessibility to both interdependent and independent cultural frameworks using temporal self‐construal priming. The results showed that priming effects were observed in both cultural groups. However, the self‐construals of the German‐Chinese participants were more flexible than those of Mainland‐Chinese under self‐construal priming. Also, the results suggested that women were easier to be influenced by direct bicultural experiences, due to their private and collective self were different between the two cultures. These findings provide evidence regarding the opinion that individuals could use influences from more than one culture. More importantly, these results suggest that the acculturation induced by direct bicultural experiences facilitates cultural frame switching.     

In‐group representation and social value affect the use of in‐group identification for maintaining and enhancing self‐evaluation

Individuals with independent self‐construals identify with their in‐group in order to buffer threats to self‐esteem to a greater degree than do those with interdependent self‐construals. This study focused on the effect of the in‐group's social value and representation on this identification process among individuals who reported various real‐world threats to their self‐esteem. We conducted a questionnaire survey for university students and we examined how self‐construal, the in‐group social value, and the in‐group representation either moderate or mediate the relationship between threat to self‐esteem and identification with their academic departments. The results of multiple‐group analyses of structural equation modelling showed that independents who reported more threats to their self‐esteem identified with the in‐group when it was high in social value. In contrast, they did not exhibit in‐group identification when it was low in social value. Interdependents showed less in‐group identification regardless of the in‐group's social value. The representation of the in‐group as a common identity group mediated the relationship between threat to self‐esteem and in‐group identification for independents, whereas the representation of a common bond group played the same role for interdependents. These findings suggest the importance of considering the role of self‐construal and the in‐group social value, along with the representation of in‐group, in understanding in‐group identification in situations of threat to self‐esteem.     

Temporal construal

Construal level theory proposes that temporal distance changes people's responses to future events by changing the way people mentally represent those events. The greater the temporal distance, the more likely are events to be represented in terms of a few abstract features that convey the perceived essence of the events (high-level construals) rather than in terms of more concrete and incidental details of the events (low-level construals). The informational and evaluative implications of high-level construals, compared with those of low-level construals, should therefore have more impact on responses to distant-future events than near-future events. This article explores the implications of construal level theory for temporal changes in evaluation, prediction, and choice. The authors suggest that construal level underlies a broad range of evaluative and behavioral consequences of psychological distance from events.     

Ideal selves and self‐esteem in people with independent or interdependent self‐construal

Not living up to one's ideal self has been shown to coincide with decreased self‐esteem. In the present paper, this notion is applied to the differentiation between people with independent versus interdependent self‐construal. We suggest that the ideal self of independents differs in two respects from the one of interdependents: with respect to its contents (autonomous versus social self‐knowledge) and with respect to the degree of context‐dependency of the encoded knowledge (context‐independent versus context‐dependent self‐knowledge). In three studies, via a priming we either manipulated contents or degree of context‐dependency of what participants considered themselves to actually be like. On both explicit and implicit measures, participants with independent construal indicated higher self‐esteem after priming of autonomous and context‐independent knowledge than after priming of social and context‐dependent knowledge. The opposite pattern was observed in participants with interdependent construal. Results suggest that independent and interdependent construals mirror different ideals which are applied as a comparison standard when evaluating the self. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Your ethnic model speaks to the culturally connected: Differential effects of model ethnicity in advertisements and the role of cultural self‐construal

This paper examines self‐construal and consumer self‐referencing as a mechanism for explaining ethnicity effects in advertising. Data were collected from a 2 (participant ethnicity: Turkish versus Kurdish) × 2 (model ethnicity: Turkish versus Kurdish) × 2 (self‐construal: independent versus interdependent) experiment. Results show that (i) individuals with interdependent self‐construal display more positive evaluations towards an in‐group ethnic ad model than do individuals with independent self‐construal; (ii) ethnic minority individuals (Kurdish people) self‐referenced more advertising portrayals of models of a similar ethnicity than models of a different ethnicity, as did ethnic majority individuals (Turkish people); (iii) ethnic minority individuals who experienced high levels of self‐referencing exhibited more favourable attitude towards the advertisement, attitude towards the brand and a higher purchase intention than ethnic minority individuals who experienced low levels of self‐referencing; and (iv) self‐referencing is found to partially mediate the relationship between culturally constructed self‐concept (self‐construal) and ethnicity on consumer evaluations for interdependent subjects. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Core self‐evaluations and subjective well‐being in the U.S. and the Philippines: The moderating role of self‐construal

Extant literature has shown that the compound personality variable core self‐evaluations (CSE) is associated with various psychological outcomes. However, there is a dearth of research on CSE across cultures. Consistent with self‐construal theory, because there can be differences in self‐construals within and between cultures, the present study examined the moderating role of culture on the relation between CSE and subjective well‐being while also allowing for individual differences in self‐construal in the US and the Philippines. In both countries, CSE positively predicted subjective well‐being. Notably, the association between CSE and subjective well‐being was stronger in the US than in the Philippines. In addition, independent self‐construal strengthened the positive impact of CSE on subjective well‐being especially in the US. Overall, CSE positively predicts subjective well‐being; however, the relationship depends on not only the cultural context, but also on individual differences in self‐construal.     

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.     

Economic and social distance: Perceived income inequality negatively predicts an interdependent self‐construal

Previous research has shown that economic inequality influences how people are related with others. In this article, we suggest that perceived economic inequality influences self‐construal. Specifically, we propose that higher economic inequality leads to an independent self‐construal, whereas lower economic inequality leads to an interdependent self‐construal. Correlational data from Studies 1a and 1b revealed that people who perceive lower levels of economic inequality tend to show higher levels of interdependent self‐construal, even after controlling for social class. In Study 2, using an experimental design, we found that perceived high economic inequality leads to a more independent and less interdependent self‐construal compared to the low economic inequality condition. These results expand the literature bridging the gap between a macro‐social factor, such as economic inequality, and a micro‐social factor, such as self‐construal.     

Self‐Construal Scales Lack Validity

Self‐construal is thought to mediate and explain the effects of culture on a wide variety of outcome variables. A meta‐analysis of published cross‐cultural self‐construal research is reported in this article, and the results across studies suggests that the evidence for the predicted cultural differences is weak, inconsistent, or nonexistent. The results of 3 priming experiments (N = 121, N = 99, and N = 361) suggest that (a) priming does not account for the inconsistent results observed in the meta‐analysis, (b) that scores on a self‐construal scale appear to be measuring trait‐like constructs that are not sensitive to priming, and (c) that measures of self‐construals lack convergent validity. The results of several measurement studies (N = 121, 223, 230, 323, 214, 206, 126, 204, 148, 141, and 150) were inconsistent with the a priori two‐factor measurement model in every case. Self‐construal scales were found to be radically multidimensional and highly unstable within and across cultures. These results lead us to conclude that catastrophic validity problems exist in research involving the use of self‐construal scales in cross‐cultural research.     

Effects of priming self‐construals on self‐evaluations: Cultural game player perspective

This study examined the validity of situational view on culture‐specific behaviours focusing on self‐evaluation. Two experiments with American students as samples were conducted to examine whether priming their self‐construals would affect individuals' self‐evaluation. In Experiment 1, the participants' self‐evaluation was compared across different conditions of primed self‐contruals. In Experiment 2, the participants were split into 2 groups based on their initial default self‐consturals and, the self‐evaluations were compared across the 2 groups after priming self‐contruals. The results demonstrated that although the participants' self‐evaluation was initially in accord with their default self‐construal, it changed into accord with the primed self‐construals. The findings supported the proposed cultural game player view. Implications on situational view of self‐evaluation are also discussed.     

The effect of culture and self‐construals on predispositions toward verbal communication

This study tested the effects of culture and self‐construals (i.e., independence and interdependence) on predispositions toward verbal communication. For the purpose of this study, we focused on two main areas of verbal communication predispositions: (a) communication apprehension and (b) argumentativeness. In our path model, we expected that culture‐level individualism increases one's construal of self as independent, which, in turn, leads to a higher degree of argumentativeness and a lower level of communication apprehension. We also expected that culture‐level individualism decreases one's construal of self as interdependent, which, in turn, leads to a lower degree of argumentativeness and a higher level of communication apprehension. Data to test the model were drawn from undergraduates (N=539) studying in Korea, Hawaii, and mainland U.S. The data were partially consistent with the theoretical predictions made. The implications of the results for theory and practice are discussed.     

Parenting Self‐Construals of Mothers With a Serious Mental Illness: Efficacy,Burden, and Personal Growth1

We explored parenting self‐construals among mothers with serious mental illness (n= 379). Mothers reported feeling moderately positively about themselves as parents, more efficacious than inefficacious, more positive than negative, more valued than disvalued; but also at least somewhat restricted and burdened by motherhood. Factor analyses revealed 3 parenting self‐construal factors: efficacious, burdened, and parenting as a personal growth experience. In hierarchical regression analyses, parenting self‐construal factors significantly added to prediction of parenting behaviors and attitudes (nurturance, explanatory parenting style, and parenting stress), once demographic, mental health history, and current social context variables (support, stress, and current mental health) were taken into account. Maternal parenting self‐efficacy increased (while self‐construal of parenting as a burden decreased) positive parenting style.     

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.     

Assessing the Validity of Self Construal Scales

We disagree with Levine et al.'s (2003) conclusion that the 3 self construal scales currently in use have “severe” or “fatal” flaws. We argue that the results of Levine et al.'s meta‐analysis and priming studies do not raise problems with the validity of self construal scales, in part, because their results are compatible with theorizing about self construals. We also contend that Levine et al.'s measurement studies do not necessarily lead to the conclusion that there are problems with the validity of the scales (e.g., there may be multiple dimensions that form independent and interdependent self construals in second‐order factor analyses). We summarize other evidence for the construct validity of self construal scales which indicates that there are theoretically consistent findings across approximately 50 studies using the 3 scales. This would not be possible if there were major problems with the 2‐dimensional model of self construals or the scales used to measure them. We conclude that the 2‐dimensional model of self construals and the current scales are viable for use in future research.     

Abstract construals make the emotional rewards of prosocial behavior more salient

Although previous research has shown that helping others leads to higher happiness than helping oneself, people frequently predict that self-serving behavior will make them happier than prosocial behavior. Here, we explore whether abstract construal – thinking about an event from a higher level, distanced perspective – influences predictions about how rewarding prosocial actions will be for people’s own well-being. In Experiment 1, Hurricane Katrina volunteers who adopted an abstract construal predicted that their efforts would be more rewarding than did volunteers who adopted a concrete construal. Experiment 2 provided a conceptual replication with a hypothetical donation scenario; people who adopted an abstract rather than concrete construal predicted that giving more money would be more rewarding than giving less. These findings suggest that people are more likely to appreciate the emotional benefits of prosocial actions when they adopt high-level construals than when they adopt low-level construals.     

Self‐construal and social comparison effects

Background. Social comparison research usually demonstrates that students will have higher self‐evaluation in downward comparison but lower self‐evaluation in upward comparison. However, the existence of this contrast effect may depend on people's self‐construal. The contrast effect may exist only for people with independent self‐construal. For people with interdependent self‐construal, the contrast effect may be attenuated. Aim. The study investigated the role of self‐construal as a moderator of the social comparison effects in authentic classrooms. Sample. The participants were 96 Chinese seventh‐grade students (41 male, 51 female and 4 unreported) from a secondary school in Hong Kong. Method. The experiment employed a 2 × 2 between‐subjects design based on 2 levels of self‐construal (independent, interdependent) and 2 levels of comparison standard (upward comparison, downward comparison). The dependent variable was students' self‐evaluation. Results. A two‐way ANOVA indicated a significant interaction between self‐construal and comparison standard on self‐evaluation. When the students' independent self‐construal was activated, they reported higher self‐evaluation in downward comparison but lower self‐evaluation in upward comparison. However, such a contrast effect was attenuated when the students' interdependent self‐construal was activated. They reported high self‐evaluation in both upward and downward comparisons. Conclusions. The outcome of social comparison depends on whether independent or interdependent self‐construal is salient in the classroom.     

Effect of self‐construal and threat to self‐esteem on ingroup favouritism: Moderating effect of independent/interdependent self‐construal on use of ingroup favouritism for maintaining and enhancing self‐evaluation

The present study examined the hypothesis that in situations that threaten self‐esteem, people with independent self‐construal show more ingroup favouritism, whereas people with interdependent self‐construal do not. Using a minimal group paradigm, consistent with the hypothesis, the results showed that self‐construal and threats to self‐esteem have an interactive effect on ingroup favouritism. Individuals with independent self‐construal showed more ingroup favouritism when their self‐esteem was threatened than when it was not threatened, whereas individuals with interdependent self‐construal exhibited less ingroup favouritism when their self‐esteem was threatened than when it was not threatened. These findings suggest that independent/interdependent self‐construal moderates the use of ingroup favouritism for maintaining and enhancing self‐evaluation.