Atypical Minds: the Cognitive Science of Difference and Potentialities
Cognitio 2015
Young researchers conference in cognitive science
Montréal, June 8th, 9th and 10th 2015
Social Interactions Influence Individual Self-Construal
Daina Crafa, Joshua Schiff, Caitlin Stoddart & Mathieu Brodeur.
Background: Research into the social self has demonstrated that individuals with multicultural upbringings have flexible self-identity (e.g., bicultural individuals born in Canada but raised by Chinese parent or vice versa). However, such effects have not been reported for individuals with single cultural backgrounds (e.g., born in Canada and raised by Canadian-born parents), and it has been proposed that single-culture individuals may have a less flexible self-identity or be less influenced by social context. While this proposal may be correct, single-culture individuals are nonetheless still influenced by the social world. This project set out to characterize the flexibility of their social self. To do this, we modified a classic self-construal paradigm that classifies self-identify as either individualistic (IND) or collectivistic (COLL). Previous studies of bicultural individual have evaluated whether participants ‘flip’ self-identity from IND to COLL or COLL to IND in response to being primed with the opposite values schema. These studies have found that bicultural individuals frequently will ‘flip’ identity to match the primed value schema. We hypothesized that, after exposure to the opposite values schema, the self-construal of most single-culture participants would shift toward the opposite schema but not flip completely.
Methods: Thirty-three Canadian-born Anglophone students (males=16; females=17; mean age=21.8) participated in the experiment. Two days prior to the experiment (T1), all participants completed the 30-question Self-Construal Scale (Kitayama et al., 2014; Singelis, 1994), which was used to classify them as IND or COLL. Participants were then assigned to a social condition opposite their natural self-construal (i.e., IND participants were assigned to the COLL condition and vice versa). A modified version of the classic priming procedure used to ‘flip’ bicultural individuals was applied to single-culture individuals, which involves reading stories and thinking about their individuality and personal interests or their similarities with family and friends; unlike previous studies, they performed these priming procedures out loud as part of structured conversations with two researchers in order to incorporate greater ecological validity. Immediately after the experiment, participants completed the Self-Construal Scale a second time (T2). The difference between T1 and T2 self-construal scores was compared using a one-way ANOVA with Time as a within-subjects factor.
Results: 60.7% of Anglo-Canadians were naturally IND at T1 while 39.3% were COLL. When T1 was compared to T2, 15.6% of all Canadian participants ‘flipped’ self-construal. 31.4% moved in the ‘opposite’ direction and the remaining 53% moved toward the primed value schema without ‘flipping.’ The one-way within-subjects ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of Time, F(1,31)=5.61, p=.02.
Discussion: Our findings demonstrate that social context can shift self-identity toward the values of another person, even when the person comes from an opposite perspective. Moreover, this phenomena is not restricted to bicultural individuals as previously thought. Our findings also revealed a range of social flexibility; even though most participants’ scores were driven toward the primed value schema, some participants’ scores moved in the opposite direction. This indicates an implicit oppositional response in nearly a third of the population. In contrast, the fifteen percent who ‘flipped’ schemas demonstrates that some single-culture individuals have both values schemas. Further studies will evaluate whether these individuals are more empathetic than others. This study also demonstrates that our modified social priming technique is an effective and more ecologically valid alternative to previous priming procedures. Future studies are currently underway to apply this priming procedure to psychiatric patients, in order to investigate the relationship between flexible self-construal and sociability.
Citations:
Kitayama, S., King, A., Yoon, C., Tompson, S., Huff, S., & Liberzon, I. (2014). Survey Measures and Code Book for the Kitayama et al. Psychological Science (in press) paper.
Singelis, T. M. (1994). The measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20(5), 580-591.