Happiness Maximization Is a WEIRD Way of Living

Psychological science tends to treat subjective well-being and happiness synonymously. We start from the assumption that subjective well-being is more than being happy to ask the fundamental question: What is the ideal level of happiness? From a cross-cultural perspective, we propose that the idealization of attaining maximum levels of happiness may be especially characteristic of Western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies but less so for others. Searching for an explanation for why "happiness maximization" might have emerged in these societies, we turn to studies linking cultures to their eco-environmental habitat. We discuss the premise that WEIRD cultures emerged in an exceptionally benign ecological habitat (i.e., faced relatively light existential pressures compared with other regions). We review the influence of the Gulf Stream on the Northwestern European climate as a source of these comparatively benign geographical conditions. We propose that the ecological conditions in which WEIRD societies emerged afforded them a basis to endorse happiness as a value and to idealize attaining its maximum level. To provide a nomological network for happiness maximization, we also studied some of its potential side effects, namely alcohol and drug consumption and abuse and the prevalence of mania. To evaluate our hypothesis, we reanalyze data from two large-scale studies on ideal levels of personal life satisfaction-the most common operationalization of happiness in psychology-involving respondents from 61 countries. We conclude that societies whose members seek to maximize happiness tend to be characterized as WEIRD, and generalizing this across societies can prove problematic if adopted at the ideological and policy level.

Psychologizing indexes of societal progress: Accounting for cultural diversity in preferred developmental pathways

Since the Second World War, the dominating paradigm of societal development has focused on economic growth. While economic growth has improved the quality of human life in a variety of ways, we posit that the identification of economic growth as the primary societal goal is culture-blind because preferences for developmental pathways likely vary between societies. We argue that the cultural diversity of developmental goals and the pathways leading to these goals could be reflected in a culturally sensitive approach to assessing societal development. For the vast majority of post-materialistic societies, it is an urgent necessity to prepare culturally sensitive compasses on how to develop next, and to start conceptualizing growth in a more nuanced and culturally responsive way. Furthermore, we propose that cultural sensitivity in measuring societal growth could also be applied to existing development indicators (e.g. the Human Development Index). We call for cultural researchers, in cooperation with development economists and other social scientists, to prepare a new cultural map of developmental goals, and to create and adapt development indexes that are more culturally sensitive. This innovation could ultimately help social planners understand the diverse pathways of development and assess the degree to which societies are progressing in a self-determined and indigenously valued manner.

Committing to Work at the Expense of Other Life Pursuits: The Consequence of Individuals’ Relative Centrality of Work Across Job Types and Nations Differing in Performance Orientation

Relative centrality of work (RCW) is defined as the psychological importance given by individuals regarding work relative to the importance they attach to other major domains of living. Prior evidence has been inconclusive in terms of how RCW might influence the life satisfaction (LS) of individuals. Hence, in this study, we hypothesize that this relationship is regulated by an individual’s current job features (job complexity [JC]) and national culture concerning work (performance orientation [PO]) independently and jointly. On the basis of representative samples of 23,622 employees from 33 nations, we find that the RCW–LS relationship is negative when JC is low. By contrast, high JC eliminates but does not reverse this negative trend. This two-way interaction only exists when employees simultaneously live in a nation whose culture stresses performance improvements and achievement of rewards from work, that is, nations with high PO. Although an individual’s national–cultural context does not moderate the RCW–LS linkage, it functions by making work relative to other life domains (RCW) and job characteristics (high JC) highly important in deriving satisfaction from one’s life.

Linking Person Perception Dimensions to Behavioral Intention Dimensions

Using Norman's (1963) procedures and materials, four independent dimensions of person perception (extroversion, good-naturedness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability) have been isolated in a number of different cultures. In addition, Triandis (1977) has identified four universal dimensions of interpersonal behavior: overtness, association, subordination, and formality. To explore the connection between these domains, 256 male subjects read about a same-sex peer whose description varied across the four dimensions of person perception. Half of the subjects anticipated the possibility of meeting this target person (TP). Subjects then indicated their behavior intentions toward the TP. As predicted, the behavioral factors of association, subordination, and formality were most highly influenced by variations across the perceptual dimensions of good-naturedness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability, respectively. Results also indicated the extensive influence of the good-naturedness variable and the unimportance of possible future interaction in this judgment task. The universality and cultural specificity of these results are discussed.

Personal Reliance on Alternative Event-Management Processes in Four Countries

Organization members seek information from different sources, depending on how familiar they are with the work situations they encounter from one moment to the next. Event-management processes are the sources of information that organization members use to interpret and respond to the sequence of events they experience. Questionnaire items were constructed to ask employees how much they use five event-management processes to respond to two categories of events— day-to-day situations and unusual problems (i.e., exceptional situations). The questionnaires were administered to employees in five electronics-related manufacturing plants located in four countries— the U.S., U.K., Japan, and Hong Kong. The results indicate that the respondents find the distinction among different event-management processes in all four countries. Applications to process-oriented rather than traditional structure-oriented contingency management models for research and application are addressed.

The Influence of Individualism Collectivism, Self-Monitoring, and Predicted-Outcome Value on Communication in Ingroup and Outgroup Relationships

This study examined the influence of individualism-collectivism on communication in ingroup and outgroup relationships. Differences were predicted in ingroup and outgroup communication in collectivistic cultures. It was also hypothesized that self-monitoring and predicted-outcome value (POV) of the relationships also affect communication processes in these relationships. Data were collected in Hong Kong and Japan (collectivistic) and in Australia and the United States (individualistic). Results supported the prediction regarding the influence of cultural variability on ingroup and outgroup communication, as well as those regarding the influence of self-monitoring and POV.

Ethnic Affirmation Versus Cross-Cultural Accommodation

Chinese bilinguals from Hong Kong responded to three different question-naires in their first or second language of Chinese or English. On some questionnaire items their answers to the English version differed from those to the Chinese version in a more "Western" direction (cross-cultural accommodation); for others, in a more Chinese direction (ethnic affirmation). These outcomes were unaffected by the respondents' level of identification with traditional Chinese culture or by their degree of anonymity vis-a-vis the experimenter conducting the research. An internal analysis of responses to the Rokeach Value Survey revealed that the more important the value to the respondent, the less likely they were to show cross-cultural accommodation. It thus appears that affirmation occurs on important issues in order to buttress the individual's of psychological distinctiveness from other groups (Tajfel, 1974a); compromise is possible on less important matters, presumably more peripheral to the individual's cultural self-concept.

Hofstede's Culture Dimensions

Ng et al. (1982) collected data among students in nine Asian and Pacific countries using a modified version of the Rokeach Value Survey. Their data were reanalyzed by the present authors through an ecological factor analysis that produced five factors. Six of the countries covered also appear in Hofstede's (1983) extended study of work-related values among employees of a multinational corporation in 53 countries and regions. For the overlapping countries a correlation analysis was done between the five factor scores of the Ng et al. reanalysis and the four dimension scores of Hofstede. This correlation analysis revealed that each of Hofstede's dimensions can be distinctly identified in the Ng et al. data as well. This article is presented as an example of synergy between different cross-cultural studies.

Universality and Distinctiveness in Dimensions of Japanese Person Perception

Dimensions of Japanese person perception were assessed using Norman's (1963) method and stimulus materials. These dimensions were then compared statistically with results from similar studies involving subjects from the United States and from the Philippines. Students from Japan and the United States grouped the same behaviors into the five factors of extroversion, good-naturedness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and culture. For all three subject populations, the same behavior descriptions were grouped together to form the high variance dimensions of extroversion, good-naturedness, and conscientiousness. The factors of emotional stability and culture, however, appear to be construed in culturally specific ways. Differences in the relative strength of the first three factors across the three cultures were discussed with the prominence of the extroversion factor in Japan being related to the importance of relative status in Japanese society.

How Does Cultural Collectivism Operate?

How is the collectivism of a culture related to the allocation of reward for task and maintenance inputs toward a group goal? To examine this question, students from the United States and Hong Kong were asked to read a scenario describing a group member who made high, medium or low task and maintenance contributions towards a group project for a university course. Subjects then rated their perceptions of, and behavioral intentions towards, this target person (TP). Task and maintenance contributions were linearly related to both types of dependent variable in each cultural group. However, the slope of this regression was more moderate for the Hong Kong Chinese than for the Americans where intentions to reward were concerned. This more egalitarian distribution of resources probably functions to promote the group cohesiveness valued by more collective cultures.

Unpackaging Culture’s Influence on Self-Esteem and Embarrassability

A growing body of research supports the notion that individuals simultaneously hold two views of self. Members of collective cultures have stronger interdependent images of self, but less strong independent images, than do individualist groups. University students in Hong Kong ( n = 271), Hawaii ( n = 146), and mainland United States ( n = 232) completed the Self-Construal Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Modigliani Embarrassability Scale. As expected, levels of independence and interdependence were related to ethnocultural group (Euro-American, Asian American, and Hong Kong Chinese). Independence and interdependence accounted for most of the variance in embarrassability attributable to ethnocultural group. Contrary to predictions based on terror management theory, there was no difference in the relation between self-construal and self-esteem across the three ethnocultural groups. Across all groups, a more independent and less interdependent self-construal predicted higher levels of self-esteem. It is concluded that similar psychological processes contribute to self-esteem and embarrassability across the ethnocultural groups in the study.

College Students' Spontaneous Self-Concept

Cross-cultural comparisons of the self-concept have typically used structured inventories created in the United States. Importing and using such methodology may prevent culturally unique dimensions and contents from appearing. To overcome this problem, the Twenty Statements Test was administered to university students in Japan, the United States, and Hong Kong to assess cultural influences on the self-concept assessed from this open-ended inventory. Numerous cultural differences were found in the frequency of categories and subcategories used for self-statements and in the level of self-esteem. These differences were related to previous research on the self-concept, to socialization practices, and to central concerns in these cultural groups.

The Acceptance of "Barnum" Personality Interpretations by Japanese, Japanese-American, and Caucasian American College Students

Native Japanese, Japanese-American, and Caucasian American students at universities in Japan and Hawaii were compared on their acceptance of Barnum personality statements. The Barnum descriptions were filled with personality clich6s and were presented to the subjects as having been interpreted by "several clinical psychologists" from the Ss' Rorschach protocols. The results indicated that all three groups were equally and highly likely to endorse these descriptions as being true of themselves even when attempts were made to control for compliance effects. The findings were discussed with reference to similar acculturation influences in terms of mass media and course content self-concept learning experiences among university students. Finally, the utility of intra-and intercultural personality assessment was considered in terms of the high base rate Barnum statement acceptance.

Linking Person Perception to Behavior Intention Across Cultures

This research addressed two questions: (1) What are the potentially universal links between the dimensions of person perception and those of behavior intention, and (2) what dimensions of person perception are most salient in collectivist as opposed to individualistic cultures? Male subjects from Hong Kong and Australia read a description of a target person (TP) varying across the universal dimensions of extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability. They then indicated their behavior intentions toward that TP. Across both cultures, TP conscientiousness was linked to intentions of trust and TP extroversion and agreeableness to intentions of association. As predicted from the dynamics of cultural collectivism, the Chinese were more responsive than the Australians to TP conscientiousness in forming trust intentions and to TP agreeableness in forming associative intentions.

How are Responses to Verbal Insult Related to Cultural Collectivism and Power Distance?

It is assumed that an act is construed as aggressive and the actor thus negatively evaluated when that act falls outside legitimate modes of social control. If true, then cultural variations in the use of social control should be related to perceptions of an insult and of the insulter. In a scenario study, responses of Hong Kong Chinese, who are high in collectivism and power distance, were compared with those of Americans, who are low in collectivism and moderately low in power distance. In confirmation of this reasoning, the Chinese were found to be less critical of an insulter and of his or her action as long as he or she had higher status than the in-group target. Americans made no consistent distinctions as a function of the insulter's status or group membership.

Ethnic Affirmation by Chinese Bilinguals

What is the effect on the response of bilinguals when they are presented with a questionnaire in their first or their second languages? To examine this question 121 university students completed a survey on their identification with Chinese or Western practices. The questionnaire was written in Chinese or English and administered in small groups by one of four investigators-two Chinese, two Western. Results showed higher levels of Chinese identification in response to the English version of the attitude survey. It was proposed that this ethnic affirmation depends on the respondent's level of identification with the first culture and the availability of behaviors to affirm or deny that first culture. The phenomenon of ethnic affirmation extends beyond questionnaire responding and would seem applicable to any situation where one's ethnic salience is heightened. Cross-cultural interaction, particularly in a research context, is a prime example.

Do Chinese Self-Enhance or Self-Efface? It's a Matter of Domain

The assumption that Chinese tend to self-efface has mixed support in the scanty empirical literature. The conflicting findings may be attributable to measuring different domains in different studies. Therefore, we assessed self-enhancement across eight domains of person perception in a Hong Kong Chinese sample. Twenty-one groups of college students, after working together for 13 weeks on class projects, were asked to rate fellow group members on all eight domains. The degree of self-enhancement or self-effacement was determined by comparing self-ratings with mean peer ratings. Results showed an overall self-effacement effect, which was significant for five of eight personality dimensions. The exceptions were agentic traits such as Assertiveness, Openness to Experience, and Intellect. The overall rate of self-enhancers (43%) was substantially lower than the rate for a comparable North American sample (56%). Although those who self-enhanced most reported high self-esteem, they were not rated as better adjusted by their peers.

Winning Either Way: The Effect of Anticipating A Competitive Interaction on Person Perception

Prior to competing with a fellow student in an intelligence contest, female undergraduates were given an ambiguous self-description purportedly written by their future competitor. Control subjects also anticipating a competition were given the same description ascribed however to a competitor not paired against them. Results showed that future opponents were seen as having higher levels of competition-related skills and were liked more than were non-opponents. Traits irrelevant to the interaction such as warmth and honesty were not differently perceived by the two groups. This "autistic" perception of an opponent's competitive skills was explained as assisting the subject in preparing for either outcome in the ensuing contest. One's selfesteem would be protected following defeat by a capable opponent, just as one's self-esteem would be enhanced by victory over the same, capable opponent.

Cultural Influences on the Perception of Interaction Episodes

Most of our interactions take place within the frame work of culture-specific c social episodes. The cognitive representations people have about such social encounters should thus reflect the salient characteristics of their surrounding culture. Subjects from two very different cultures, Hong Kong (Chinese) and Australia (Western), provided judgments about their implicit representation of 27 social episodes common in both environments, analyzed using an Individual Differences Multi-dimensional Scaling (INDSCAL) procedure. We found significant differences in the cognitive representation of episodes, which were strongly related to the dominant features of the two cultures (see Hofstede, 1980). In addition, individual demographic, personality, and attitudinal variables were also related to episode perceptions in a culture-specific pattern. These results are discussed in terms of the influence of culture on cognition.

Parent and Adolescent Contributors to Teenage Misconduct in Western and Asian High School Students in Hong Kong

This study examined relations among teenagers’ and their mothers’ reports of values and autonomy expectations in relation to school misconduct in 58 Caucasian and 66 Asian high school students attending an international school in Hong Kong. Caucasian students were reported to exhibit more misconduct than did Asian students. Across cultures, teenagers’ endorsements of the values related to Openness to Change, and early autonomy expectations correlated positively whereas values related to Conservation correlated negatively with misconduct measures. Valuing tradition and conformity correlated negatively with disciplinary violations. Differences between teenagers’ and their mothers’ values significantly predicted disciplinary violations, providing evidence for the influence of parent/teenager interaction effects within families. The mediating role of values and autonomy expectations in explaining the link between culture and disciplinary violations is discussed in the light of these findings.

Functional Parenting in Pakistan

We obtained information regarding parenting perceptions and psychosocial adjustment from 102 Pakistani young women. Parenting behaviours assessed pertained to warmth and dominating control, as well as to “training” (proposed by Chao as having relevance in other Asian cultures), and indigenously relevant items related to religion and shame/honour. Adjustment measures included self-esteem, relationship harmony, and self-perceived health, shown to have relevance in other Asian cultures. In two-factor analyses, perceptions of parents’ warmth and training behaviours combined into a factor that correlated positively with adjustment measures, whereas the dominating control factor correlated negatively. In three-factor analyses, perceptions of mothers’ training behaviours predicted variance in relationship harmony, independent of perceptions of warmth and dominating control behaviours. These findings support Chao’s views that the dimension of training may play a particularly important role in functional parenting in some non-Western cultures

Adolescents Between Cultures

More information is needed about the effect of culturally atypical environments on values and behavior in youth. We investigated the value priorities and autonomy expectations of 226 Asian and Western teenagers from an international school. Asian teenagers in this setting retained traditional values while adopting many 'Western' values; however, their autonomy expectations remained later than for Western teenagers. These findings support Kagitqibasi's (1996) model of social change in traditional cultures, where despite emphases on the values of independence in function outside the family, interdependence within the family persists. In addition they provide a context to understand cross-cultural peer relationships in adolescents in an international setting.

“Get Up, Stand Up, Stand Up for Your Rights!” The Jamaicanization of Youth Across 11 Countries Through Reggae Music?

We investigated whether Reggae preferences are associated with similar values across cultures compared with its culture of origin—Jamaica. Remote acculturation predicts that Reggae listeners across countries will share similar cultural values with Reggae listeners in Jamaica regardless of their cultural or geographical distance from the Caribbean island. We analyzed the correlations between preferences for Reggae music and Schwartz’s 10 value types in university student samples from Jamaica and 11 other societies in Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia (total N = 2,561). In Jamaica, preferences for Reggae music were most strongly correlated with openness to change values and self-enhancement values. Across the other cultures, openness to change was the value dimension most strongly correlated with Reggae preference. Results also indicate some variations in Reggae’s value associations and its similarity to the culture of origin. Reggae’s value associations were more similar to Jamaica’s in samples that are closer culturally in terms of Individualism/Collectivism scores, and closer geographically in terms of kilometers. In sum, results provide some support for remote value acculturation via Reggae listening across countries (i.e., “Jamaicanization”) moderated by cultural and geographical proximity.

Culture and the Working Life

Work centrality has been defined as individual beliefs regarding the importance of work in one’s life (Kostek, 2012). In previous research, however, the importance of work has rarely been contrasted with the importance of other life domains and never across sufficient cultural groups to enable cultural moderation of processes around work centrality to be unpackaged. Accordingly, the present study explores the relative centrality of work (RCW) in the lives of employed men and women around the world, examining its predictors by personal attitudes toward work and independence in the individual’s work context. Given that national cultures socialize their members differently regarding the goals of life, we explore the moderating influence of national Self-directedness versus Other-directedness and Civility versus Practicality (Bond & Lun, 2014) along with gender on these individual-level processes. Using 29,080 respondents to the World Values Survey from representative samples of employees in 45 countries, we found that RCW is predicted pan-nationally by the attitude complex, “work as good” (WAG). A nation’s Self-directedness and its Civility, however, amplify WAG effects. Independence at work only associates with RCW for males and for persons in nations socializing its members for Self-directedness and for Civility. These results show how gender and national cultures moderate the predictors of RCW for individual lives around the world, making many of these findings culture-bound.

Differential growth in estuarine and freshwater habitats indicated by plasma IGF1 concentrations and otolith chemistry in Dolly Varden Salvelinus malma

This study employed a combination of otolith microchemistry to indicate the recent habitat use, and plasma concentrations of the hormone insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) as an index of recent growth rate, to demonstrate differences in growth and habitat use by Dolly Varden Salvelinus malma occupying both freshwater and estuarine habitats in south-west Alaska. Extensive sampling in all habitats revealed that fish had higher IGF1 levels in estuarine compared to lake habitats throughout the summer, and that the growth rates in different habitats within the estuary varied seasonally. In addition, otolith microchemistry indicated differentiation in estuarine habitat use among individual S. malma throughout summer months. Although growth in the estuary was higher than in fresh water in nearly all sites and months, the benefits and use of the estuarine habitats varied on finer spatial scales. Therefore, this study further illustrates the diverse life histories of S. malma and indicates an evaluation of the benefits of marine waters needs to include sub-estuary scale habitat use.

Validating the Concord Index as a measure of family relationships in China

Interest in family functioning across cultures has become more widespread, but our instruments have not kept pace by measuring constructs that are especially relevant outside the West. We present the psychometric properties of the Concord Index (CI) in the family context. The CI examines (qihe), translated most closely into English as concord. The term includes concepts of harmony and mutuality, and is a characteristic of dyadic relationships valued in Chinese cultural groups that form about a fifth of the world's population. The scale was adapted to measure 2 types of family relationships: specific dyadic relationships within the family between any individual family member and another (the A-P perspective), as well as an individual's composite assessment of all his/her family relationships (the A-FAM perspective). The 10-item measure was internally consistent, stable over 2 weeks, and showed factor invariance across gender, age, relationship, and household size for A-P and A-FAM perspectives. The A-P correlated negatively with disagreement with the partner. The A-FAM correlated with measures of family functioning, well-being, leisure time spent with family members, and with measures of emotional but not physical symptoms. Furthermore, the A-FAM measure added predictive power to individual measures of emotional functioning in assessing subjective happiness. The CI adds to other "imported" instruments designed to measure family function in Chinese populations because of its brevity, its adaptability for measuring dyadic and global family relationships across family roles, its easily understood items, and its incremental validity in predicting well-being beyond individually focused measures.

How shared preferences in music create bonds between people: values as the missing link

How can shared music preferences create social bonds between people? A process model is developed in which music preferences as value-expressive attitudes create social bonds via conveyed value similarity. The musical bonding model links two research streams: (a) music preferences as indicators of similarity in value orientations and (b) similarity in value orientations leading to social attraction. Two laboratory experiments and one dyadic field study demonstrated that music can create interpersonal bonds between young people because music preferences can be cues for similar or dissimilar value orientations, with similarity in values then contributing to social attraction. One study tested and ruled out an alternative explanation (via personality similarity), illuminating the differential impact of perceived value similarity versus personality similarity on social attraction. Value similarity is the missing link in explaining the musical bonding phenomenon, which seems to hold for Western and non-Western samples and in experimental and natural settings.

Reconceptualizing Individual Differences in Self-Enhancement Bias: An Interpersonal Approach

Self-enhancement bias has been studied from 2 perspectives: L. Festinger's (1954) social comparison theory (self-enhancers perceive themselves more positively than they perceive others) and G. W. Allport's (1937) self-insight theory (self-enhancers perceive themselves more positively than they are perceived by others). These 2 perspectives are theoretically and empirically distinct, and the failure to recognize their differences has led to a protracted debate. A new interpersonal approach to self-enhancement decomposes self-perception into 3 components: perceiver effect, target effect, and unique self-perception. Both theoretical derivations and an illustrative study suggest that this resulting measure of self-enhancement is less confounded by unwanted components of interpersonal perception than previous social comparison and self-insight measures. Findings help reconcile conflicting views about whether self-enhancement is adaptive or maladaptive.

Perceptions of sex-role stereotypes, self-concept, and nursing role ideal in Chinese nursing students

AIM

This study examined the relationship between sex-role stereotypes, self-concept and the requisite personality characteristics of an ideal nurse in a cohort of Hong Kong nursing students.

METHODS

To rate these concepts a measure of eight comprehensive dimensions of personality perception was administered to 177 nursing students, studying on preregistration and postregistration programs at a Hong Kong tertiary institution. Both male and female nursing students perceived an ideal nurse to possess a profile of traits including being high on the dimensions of emotional stability, application, intellect, helpfulness and restraint.

RESULTS

No significant difference between the self-ratings of the male and female students was found, indicating that male students had undergone a highly self-selective process when choosing nursing education under the influence of Chinese cultural stereotypical attitudes towards nursing. A typical Chinese nurse was rated as similar to the typical female in Chinese society by both male and female nursing students. A typical Chinese nurse was rated relatively low on the masculine dimensions of openness, extroversion and assertiveness. The self-ratings of male nursing students more closely approximated the ideal nurse than did the self-ratings of female nursing students.

CONCLUSION

The conclusions highlight implications for the recruitment and education of both male and female nursing students in Hong Kong society.

Interpreting personality profiles across cultures: bilingual, acculturation, and peer rating studies of Chinese undergraduates

Prior research (R.R. McCrae, P.T. Costa, & M.S. Yik, 1996) using a Chinese translation of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory suggested substantial differences between Hong Kong and North American undergraduates. Study 1, with a sample of bilingual Hong Kong students (N = 162), showed that prior findings were not due simply to the translation. Study 2, with undergraduates of European and Chinese ancestry living in Canada (N = 633), suggested that more of the differences were cultural in origin. Study 3, which used peer ratings of Chinese students (N = 99), replicated most Study 2 results, suggesting that exposure to Canadian culture increased openness, cheerfulness, and prosocial behavior and attitudes. Differences in sense of competence and vulnerability to stress appeared to be due to different cultural standards for judging these traits. Together, the 3 studies illustrate an integrated approach to interpreting personality differences across cultures.

Interpreting personality profiles across cultures: bilingual, acculturation, and peer rating studies of Chinese undergraduates

Prior research (R.R. McCrae, P.T. Costa, & M.S. Yik, 1996) using a Chinese translation of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory suggested substantial differences between Hong Kong and North American undergraduates. Study 1, with a sample of bilingual Hong Kong students (N = 162), showed that prior findings were not due simply to the translation. Study 2, with undergraduates of European and Chinese ancestry living in Canada (N = 633), suggested that more of the differences were cultural in origin. Study 3, which used peer ratings of Chinese students (N = 99), replicated most Study 2 results, suggesting that exposure to Canadian culture increased openness, cheerfulness, and prosocial behavior and attitudes. Differences in sense of competence and vulnerability to stress appeared to be due to different cultural standards for judging these traits. Together, the 3 studies illustrate an integrated approach to interpreting personality differences across cultures.

Pancultural explanations for life satisfaction: adding relationship harmony to self-esteem

The first part of the study confirmed an additive effect of the newly proposed construct of relationship harmony to self-esteem in predicting life satisfaction across student samples from the United States and Hong Kong. As predicted from the dynamics of cultural collectivism, the relative importance of relationship harmony to self-esteem was greater in Hong Kong than in the United States. In the second part of the study, the independent and interdependent self-construals (H. R. Markus & S. Kitayama, 1991) and the 5 factors of personality (P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) were advanced to be the culture-general determinants of life satisfaction, acting through the mediating variables of self-esteem and relationship harmony. Both self-construals and the 5 factors of personality were shown to influence life satisfaction through the mediating agency of self-esteem and relationship harmony in equivalent ways across these 2 cultural groups.

Pancultural explanations for life satisfaction: adding relationship harmony to self-esteem

The first part of the study confirmed an additive effect of the newly proposed construct of relationship harmony to self-esteem in predicting life satisfaction across student samples from the United States and Hong Kong. As predicted from the dynamics of cultural collectivism, the relative importance of relationship harmony to self-esteem was greater in Hong Kong than in the United States. In the second part of the study, the independent and interdependent self-construals (H. R. Markus & S. Kitayama, 1991) and the 5 factors of personality (P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) were advanced to be the culture-general determinants of life satisfaction, acting through the mediating variables of self-esteem and relationship harmony. Both self-construals and the 5 factors of personality were shown to influence life satisfaction through the mediating agency of self-esteem and relationship harmony in equivalent ways across these 2 cultural groups.

CROSS-CULTURAL SOCIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

This review considers recent theoretical and empirical developments in cross-cultural studies within social and organizational psychology. It begins with a description of the importance and the difficulties of universalizing psychological science. It then continues with an examination of theoretical work on both the internal-proximal and the external-distal constraints that mediate culture's influence on behavior. Influences on social cognition are documented by describing research on self-concept, self-esteem, emotions, attribution processes, person perception, interpersonal attraction, and justice. Group processes are addressed in the areas of leadership, decision-making, and negotiation, and research in organizational psychology is examined with respect to work motivation and work behavior. The review concludes that considerable improvement is evident in recent cross-cultural research. However, future research must include a broader range of cultures and attend more closely to the levels at which cultural effects should be analyzed, and cultural samples must be unpackaged in more psychologically useful ways.

Exploring implicit personality theories with indigenous or imported constructs: The Chinese case

This study is concerned with the relation between indigenous and imported constructs of personality perception. A pool of Chinese personality descriptors was used by Chinese Ss to rate a variety of target persons. These same Ss then rated the same target persons using the (translated) personality descriptions first isolated by Tupes and Christal (1961) from Americans. Five factors of personality perception were then derived from both the emic Chinese descriptors and the imported American descriptors. The interrelations among these factors were examined to address the basic question of how adequately the factors gleaned from these foreign materials represented Chinese perceptual space. Of the 5 Chinese factors, 4 could be adequately explained by varying combinations of the 5 imported factors. Furthermore, there was a 1-to-1 relation of imported to indigenous factors for only 2 of the 5 indigenous factors, whereas the others were multiply determined. The implications of these results are discussed with respect to the widespread use of foreign instrumentation and the models of man that may or may not be constructed in consequence.