Cross‐cultural invariance of NPI‐13: Entitlement as culturally specific,leadership and grandiosity as culturally universal

The current study explores the problem with the lack of measurement invariance for the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) by addressing two issues: conceptual heterogeneity of narcissism and methodological issues related to the binary character of data. We examine the measurement invariance of the 13‐item version of the NPI in three populations in Japan, Poland and the UK. Analyses revealed that leadership/authority and grandiose exhibitionism dimensions of the NPI were cross‐culturally invariant, while entitlement/exploitativeness was culturally specific. Therefore, we proposed NPI‐9 as indicating scalar invariance, and we examined the pattern of correlations between NPI‐9 and other variables across three countries. The results suggest that NPI‐9 is valid brief scale measuring general levels of narcissism in cross‐cultural studies, while the NPI‐13 remains suitable for research within specific countries.     

Interdependent Happiness: Theoretical Importance and Measurement Validity

We proposed the concept of “interdependent happiness,” which is interdependently pursued and attained. A nine-item Interdependent Happiness Scale (IHS) was developed to measure the happiness of individuals who are relationally oriented, quiescent and ordinary. Interdependent happiness correlated with both subjective well-being (SWB) and interdependent self-construal among Japanese students (Study 1); their SWB was more likely to be explained by IHS than the SWB of American students (Study 2); and IHS explained the SWB of working adults in the US, Germany, Japan, and Korea (Study 3) and Japanese adults and elders from collectivist regions of the country (Study 4). Cultural and cross-cultural psychological perspectives were incorporated to shed new light on collective happiness     

Cultural similarities and differences in social identification in Japan and Australia

A comparison of social identification processes in Australia and Japan found some similarities and differences. In both countries, identification with smaller face-to-face groups was found to be stronger than identification with larger social categories; however, Australians scored higher on the affective dimension of social identification, whereas Japanese scored higher on the cognitive dimension. Moreover, positive situations from Australia and negative situations from Japan were estimated by respondents from both cultures to be more influential in determining how much they identify with their ingroups, showing a cultural situation-bias effect. Situational affordances of social identification across cultures are discussed.     

The Effects of Social Status and Culture on Delay Discounting

People generally tend to discount future outcomes in favor of smaller but immediate gains (i.e., delay discounting). This study examines the hypothesis that culture and social status moderate this tendency, as well as the alternative hypothesis that social status and culture influence delay discounting independently of each other. American and Japanese adults were asked to choose receiving hypothetical monetary rewards either immediately or receiving rewards of different amounts with a delay of 1 year. The results replicated previous findings and supported the alternative hypothesis. Delay discounting was lower when subjective socioeconomic status (i.e., an individual’s perception of her or his social rank) was higher. Also, the Japanese were less likely to discount future rewards than the Americans. However, there was no interaction between social status and culture in influencing the rates of delay discounting.