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Neither Eastern nor Western: patterns of independence and interdependence in Mediterranean societies

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 08:01 authored by Ayse UskulAyse Uskul, Alexander Kirchner HauslerAlexander Kirchner Hausler, Vivian VignolesVivian Vignoles, Rosa Rodriguez-Bailón, Vanessa A Castillo, Susan E Cross, Meral Gezici Yalçin, Charles Harb, Shenel Husnu, Keiko Ishii, Shuxian JinShuxian Jin, Panagiota Karamaouna, Konstantinos Kafetsios, others
Social science research has highlighted ‘honor’ as a central value driving social behavior in Mediterranean societies, which requires individuals to develop and protect a sense of their personal self-worth and their social reputation, through assertiveness, competitiveness, and retaliation in the face of threats. We predicted that members of Mediterranean societies may exhibit a distinctive combination of independent and interdependent social orientation, self-construal, and cognitive style, compared to more commonly studied East Asian and Anglo-Western cultural groups. We compared participants from eight Mediterranean societies (Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus [Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities], Lebanon, Egypt) to participants from East Asian (Korea, Japan) and Anglo-Western (UK, US) societies, using six implicit social orientation indicators, an eight-dimensional self-construal scale, and four cognitive style indicators. Compared with both East Asian and Anglo-Western samples, samples from Mediterranean societies distinctively emphasized several forms of independence (relative intensity of disengaging [vs. engaging] emotions, happiness based on disengaging [vs. engaging] emotions, dispositional [vs. situational] attribution style, self-construal as different from others, self-directed, self-reliant, self-expressive, and consistent) and interdependence (closeness to ingroup [vs. outgroup] members, self-construal as connected and committed to close others). Our findings extend previous insights into patterns of cultural orientation beyond commonly examined East-West comparisons to an understudied world region.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

ISSN

0022-3514

Publisher

APA

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2023-01-31

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2023-01-31

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2023-01-31

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