PSYC14H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Individualism, Prefrontal Cortex, Temporoparietal Junction
Chapter 6: Self and Personality
American focused more on how their performance reflected their own personal characteristics,
whereas, the Japanese focused more on how their performance was guided by the
expectations of others
Culture influence our understanding of ourselves and influences the ways we perceive and
interact with the social world
Twenty Statements Test: Who am I? I am…
It reveals how culture influences our identities in 2 levels: superficial and deep
Superficial Level: We become the identity due to being exposed to this culture, hence, culture
is providing the content about the ways we think of ourselves and not about why we describe
ourselves this way.
For example: we would still be defining ourselves in terms of sports and music, and the
differences would be that we were exposed to different kinds of sports and music,
therefore, we might appear highly similar across experiences in these two diverse
cultural worlds and vary only in terms of the content of things that we would be thinking
about.
Deep Level:
People of all over the world are able to think of themselves in terms of both abstract enduring
psychological attributes and concrete roles and relationships; the degree to which we view
ourselves in these two separate ways vary significantly across cultures.
Case Study: Kenyans and Americans – Asked them to describe themselves with the 20-
statements test
Kenya – a sample of University students in Nairobi were most Westernized, employed
adults in Nairobi were slightly less Westernized, traditionally indigenous people in
Samburu and Masai were least Westernized
American – a sample of undergraduates
Findings:
the most popular kinds of self-descriptions for the Americans were personal
characteristics, such as their traits, attitudes, and abilities
the people of Masai and Samburu generally defined themselves in terms of their social
identity, such as their roles and memberships
the Kenyan University students were more similar to the American pattern, while the
employees were more similar to the traditional indigenous people
The American pattern of emphasis on personal characteristics has emerged in many Western
cultures, while the traditional indigenous people’s pattern of greater emphasis on roles and
memberships appears in cultures from much of the rest of the world – these cultural
differences are already evident in kindergarten
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Study: Danish and Chinese in fMRI scanner to see brain activation when they evaluated
themselves on personal characteristics or social roles
Danish had no difference in their brain activation patterns
Chinese were similar to Danes that their brain activation patterns for personal
characteristics activated medial prefrontal cortex
Chinese thoughts about their social roles involved their temporoparietal junction, a
brain region that is more typically involved in understanding other people’s beliefs
Chinese thought about other people’s beliefs when thinking about their own social roles
Independent vs. Interdependent Views of Self
People can create the self from inner attriutes that reflect an inner essence of individual that
are the basis of individual’s identity.
Independent View of Self: self can be thought to derive its identity from its inner
attributes which are stable across situations, unique configuration, self-contained in that
they are perceived to arise from the individual and not from interactions with others,
significant in regulation of behavior, and individuals feel an obligation to publicly
advertise themselves in ways consistent with these attributes
Independent View of Self
The circle around the individual does not overlap with any borders surroundings its
significant relationship and so they experience identity as distinct from their relationship
The border around the individual is a solid line meaning that individual’s experience are
stable
The border around the in-group that separates one’s close relationships from one’s
more distant relations is drawn with a dotted line to indicate its fluidity
Individuals with independent identities still feel much closer to in-group than out-group
members but do not view them in fundamentally distinct ways
self and non-self is most important
X aspects of identities or the kinds of features that people consider when they think of
themselves - the larger the X, the more important
Larger X’s (i.e. personal attributes) are found within the circle of the individual
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Interdependent View of Self: the self can be viewed as a relational entity that is fundamentally
connected to and sustained by a number of significant relationships such that behavior is
contingent upon perceptions of others’ thoughts, feelings, and actions, therefore, individuals
are participants of a larger social unit
The border surrounding the interdependent self-overlaps with an individual’s significant
relationship showing that interdependent individual’s identities are closely connected
with other
The large X’s that represent the key aspects of identity for interdependent individual
rests at the intersection between individual and their significant relationship because
the self-identity is grounded in others
Dotted line indicates that the identity of the person is experienced as somewhat fluid in
different situations such that the experience of self will depend on the situation and the
role the person is taking on at the moment
The border that separates the in-group from out-group is drawn with a solid line and is
relatively significant and stable distinction since the self derives their identities through
these relationships
Cultural differences in self concept seen in the brain:
MRI Study: Westernized t and Chinese were asked to consider how well a trait characterized
themselves or their mothers
showed different regions of brain activation themselves and their mothers in distinct
ways
Chinese showed activation patterns in the same brain regions when considering how
well a number of trait adjectives characterized themselves or their mothers, medial
prefrontal cortex
They distinctions from their mothers is not that different
Self-concepts are shaped by cultural practices that direct what individuals attend to, value,
believe, and are able to attain
Self-concepts organize info about ourselves, direct attention to information that is relevant,
shape the concerns that we have, guide us in relationship partners and relationships, and
influence how we interpret situations, which influences emotional experiences
Relations with ingroups and outgroups
Ingroup relations are critical for self-definition and for appropriate bheaviours in interdenpenet
cultures and so they need clear boundaries.
Independent selevs would be more willing to form new reltionships, maintain larger networks
of realtionships and be less distressed when those realtionships fade away.
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Document Summary
American focused more on how their performance reflected their own personal characteristics, whereas, the japanese focused more on how their performance was guided by the expectations of others. Culture influence our understanding of ourselves and influences the ways we perceive and interact with the social world. It reveals how culture influences our identities in 2 levels: superficial and deep. Superficial level: we become the identity due to being exposed to this culture, hence, culture is providing the content about the ways we think of ourselves and not about why we describe ourselves this way. Case study: kenyans and americans asked them to describe themselves with the 20- statements test. Kenya a sample of university students in nairobi were most westernized, employed adults in nairobi were slightly less westernized, traditionally indigenous people in. Study: danish and chinese in fmri scanner to see brain activation when they evaluated themselves on personal characteristics or social roles.
