Abstract
Self-construal is the continuous human expression of the self as it relates to the world. Existing literature suggests residents of Western nations (e.g., the United States) skew towards an independent self-construal, while residents of Eastern nations (e.g., China) skew towards an interdependent self-construal, likely reflecting their individualist and collectivist values, respectively. The identity of second-generation Chinese Americans (CA), who were born in the U.S., is less researched than that of first-generation individuals, who were born in China and then moved to the U.S. Such groups are often compared to non-Hispanic White Americans (NHW) whose lineage in the U.S. spans at least three generations. The current study aimed to understand the relationship between cultural values and sense of self, specifically, whether NHW adults feel as independent as they are thought to be, and how CA adults compare, given their supposed interdependent heritage culture. I predicted significant variance in expressed self-construal between participant groups and that cultural affiliation (American and Chinese) would inversely correlate with the opposing ends of the self-construal spectrum. Twenty-four CA adults and twenty-five NHW adults were tasked with rating 749 adjectives on a scale of 1-3, where lower values indicated greater endorsement. Twenty-nine of these words were synonymous with “independence” or “interdependence;” I compared CA and NHW adjective endorsements to measure self-construal. The General Ethnicity Questionnaire-abridged (GEQa) indicated participants’ affiliation with American and Chinese culture. Although GEQa scores for American culture were significantly higher among NHW adults than CA adults, which was expected, a higher rate of interdependent adjective endorsement occurred across groups, a finding only anticipated for the CA participants. Additionally, there were no significant correlations between American culture and interdependent endorsement or Chinese culture and independent endorsement. Understanding the complexity of self-construal and its interaction with cultural identity requires a methodology that addresses all conceptual aspects and studies of populations outside the East vs. West paradigm.