Are Americans more individualistic and less collectivistic than members of other groups? The authors summarize plausible psychological implications of individualism–collectivism (IND-COL), metaanalyze cross-national and within-United States IND-COL differences, and review evidence for effects of IND-COL on self-concept, well-being, cognition, and relationality. European Americans were found to be both more individualistic—valuing personal independence more—and less collectivistic—feeling duty to in-groups less—than others. However, European Americans were not more individualistic than African Americans, or Latinos, and not less collectivistic than Japanese or Koreans. Among Asians, only Chinese showed large effects, being both less individualistic and more collectivistic. Moderate IND-COL effects were found on self-concept and relationality, and large effects were found on attribution and cognitive style. To contemporary Americans, being an individualist is not only a good thing; it is a quintessentially American thing. However, the term individualism itself appears to have its roots outside of the North American continent, namely in the French Revolution. It appears that individualism was first used to describe the negative

Self-presentation may require self-regulation, especially when familiar or dispositional tendencies must be overridden in service of the desired impression. Studies 1–4 showed that self-presentation under challenging conditions or according to counternormative patterns (presenting oneself modestly to strangers, boastfully to friends, contrary to gender norms, to a skeptical audience, or while being a racial token) led to impaired self-regulation later, suggesting that those self-presentations depleted selfregulatory resources. When self-presentation conformed to familiar, normative, or dispositional patterns, self-regulation was less implicated. Studies 5–8 showed that when resources for self-regulation had been depleted by prior acts of self-control, self-presentation drifted toward less-effective patterns (talking too much, overly or insufficiently intimate disclosures, or egotistical arrogance). Thus, inner processes may serve interpersonal functions, although optimal interpersonal activity exacts a short-term cost. The attentive pupil who wishes to be attentive, his eyes riveted on the teacher, his ears open wide, so exhausts himself in playing the attentive role that he ends up by no longer hearing anything. —John Paul Sartre One of the most vital skills in human social life involves

The self-concept plays an important role in conformity to sex-typed social norms. Normative beliefs that men are powerful, dominant, and self-assertive and that women are caring, intimate with others, and emotionally expressive represent possible standards for whom people ought to be and whom they ideally would like to be. In the present research, to the extent that sex role norms were personally relevant for participants, norm-congruent experiences (i.e., those involving dominance for men and communion for women) yielded positive feelings and brought their actual self-concepts closer to the standards represented by ought and ideal selves. A recurring theme in the popular psychology literature is that men and women are motivated toward different goals and values in everyday social relationships. Tannen's (1990) best-seller, You Just Don't Understand, suggests that women's "conversa-tions are negotiations for closeness in which people try to seek and give confirmation and support, and to reach consensus " (p. 25), whereas men's are "negotiations in which people try to achieve and maintain the upper hand if they can, and protect

Causal induction provides a nice test domain for examining the influence of individual-difference factors on cognition. The phenomena of both conditionalization and discounting reflect attention to multiple potential causes when people infer what caused an effect. We explored the hypothesis that individuals with an independent self-construal are relatively less sensitive to context (other causes) than are individuals with an interdependent self-construal in this domain. We found greater levels of conditionalization and data consistent with discounting for participants in whom we primed an interdependent self-construal than for participants in whom we primed an independent self-construal. Research on cultural differences and expertise has highlighted the presence of significant individual differences in performance on cognitive tasks that have often been thought to represent more universal cognitive tendencies

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A brief history of narcissism

ABSTRACT: This study examined underlying similarities between the Personal Authority in the Family System Questionnaire (PAFS; Bray, Williamson, & Malone, 1984a) and the Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI; Skowron & Friedlander, 1998). Generalized least-squares factor analysis yielded two related factors, Self Regulation and Interdependent Relating, accounting for 60 % of the variance in the solution. Greater Self Regulation—comprised of DSI scales characterized by less emotional reactivity and the ability to take an I position in relationships—and Interdependent Relating—marked by greater personal authority, intergenerational intimacy and less intergenerational fusion on the PAFS and less emotional cutoff on the DSI—predicted wellbeing among both women and men. Implications for family therapy and suggestions for future research are discussed. KEY WORDS: Bowen theory; differentiation of self; well-being; factor analysis. Multigenerational perspectives on individual and family development are based on the assumption that the dynamics within a family Elizabeth A. Skowron, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Counseling Psychology

This research examines the link between culture and consumer phenomena by focusing on the relationship between cultural orientation and mental representations of power. We distinguish among cultures that foster associations of power with statusenhancing concerns, those that encourage associations of power with concerns for the welfare of others, and those that do not emphasize the use of power as a theme for organizing social information. The research builds upon the relatively new distinction in the study of culture between horizontal (valuing equality) and vertical (emphasizing status and power) cultural orientations. We analyze implications of this distinction in view of research about the effects of power on goal activation and motivated impression formation. Integrating these approaches, we develop a framework for linking cultural orientation with distinct mental representations of power. This helps us to predict the power-related goals that individuals with different cultural orientations activate in a given context. In turn, these goals determine individuals ’ information-processing strategies when evaluating product information, and their subsequent judgments and actions. We

A-00-98-00012-00 and FRONTIERS subagreement number AI02.69A. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of

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