EDP 816 Module 5 Culture, the Self and Personality Example

Is Modesty a Symptom? Culture, Self-Regard and Personality Assessment

Student Name

Doctor of Education Program, Aspen University

EDP 816: Cultural Perspectives in Psychology

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Is Modesty a Symptom? Culture, Self-Regard and Personality Assessment

Intake for adolescents and young adults at Grace's clinic includes a self-esteem scale. Aiko, nineteen, raised in a Japanese American family that values modesty, scored in the "low" range. When Grace, the psychologist, talked with her, Aiko described a close family, good grades and friendships she valued, and said she answered the questions "honestly, not bragging." Her score suggested a problem her life did not. Aiko is a teaching invention, like the clinic; the paper examines what the score might mean.

Self-Construal

Markus and Kitayama (1991) proposed that cultures differ in how the self is construed. An independent self is bounded and defined by internal attributes, and well-being involves expressing and affirming those attributes. An interdependent self is defined through relationships and roles, and well-being involves fitting in, maintaining harmony and meeting obligations. These construals shape what people notice about themselves, what emotions they feel and what motivates them. A self-esteem scale that asks people to affirm their positive qualities measures something closer to the independent ideal.

Self-Regard Across Cultures

Heine et al. (1999) reviewed research on self-enhancement and self-criticism. North American participants showed strong tendencies to view themselves positively, rating themselves above average and attending to their successes. Japanese participants were more self-critical, attending to their shortcomings and persisting more after failure than after success. The authors argued that the need for positive self-regard, often treated as universal, is shaped by culture; in Japanese contexts, self-criticism serves self-improvement and fitting in, goals valued in an interdependent self.

Personality Across Nations

Schmitt et al. (2007) administered a Big Five personality inventory in fifty-six nations. The five-factor structure replicated broadly, suggesting that extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness describe personality in many cultures. But mean differences between nations were harder to interpret. Some results were puzzling, such as relatively low self-reported conscientiousness in some East Asian nations known for diligence. The authors cautioned that response styles and reference-group effects may distort comparisons of self-reported means.

Applying the Research

The research suggests that Aiko's score reflects a culturally shaped way of describing herself rather than low self-worth in a clinical sense. If clinicians took the score at face value, they might set a goal of raising her self-esteem, which could feel to her like being asked to brag. The clinic will interpret self-esteem scores alongside measures of functioning and distress and the person's own account, and will avoid automatic referrals based on a low score alone.

Within-Group Variation

The patterns described here are averages. Many Japanese Americans hold strongly independent views; many European Americans are modest. Aiko's family's values, not her ancestry, explain her responses. The point is to interpret each score in the context of the person, not to apply a cultural correction based on background.

Self-Criticism and Improvement

Heine et al. (1999) argued that self-criticism is not simply the opposite of healthy self-regard. In their research, Japanese participants who learned they had done poorly on a task tended to persist longer on it, while North American participants persisted longer after success. Attending to one's shortcomings, in a context that values self-improvement and fitting in, can be motivating rather than demoralizing. Aiko described this herself: she said that noticing what she could do better helped her study harder and be a better friend. A clinician who saw only her score would have missed how her self-evaluation worked for her.

Structure Versus Scores

Schmitt et al. (2007) found that the same five broad traits organized personality descriptions across many nations, which supports using trait concepts across cultures. But structural equivalence, the same traits hanging together in the same way, does not guarantee that a score of, say, forty on conscientiousness means the same thing everywhere. People answer relative to those around them, and cultures differ in norms about modesty and agreement with statements. The clinic's personality inventory reports scores against norms drawn mostly from one population, which may make some patients appear unusual when they are typical of their own communities.

What Clinicians Will Check

Before acting on a low self-esteem score, clinicians will check three things: whether the person reports distress or impaired functioning, how the person describes the meaning of their answers and whether family or community values about modesty might shape the responses. A low score with no distress and good functioning will be noted, not treated. Where the inventory offers group-specific norms, clinicians will use them, while remembering that group norms are themselves averages.

Setting Goals With the Person

Treatment goals will be set with patients in their own terms. For a patient whose sense of self is relational, a goal such as "repairing my relationship with my sister" may matter more than "feeling better about myself." Markus and Kitayama (1991) argued that well-being in an interdependent self involves harmony and fulfilling roles; goals built around those values are more likely to be pursued.

Beyond the Clinic

The same issues arise wherever self-report scales guide decisions, from school counseling to hiring. A selection test that rewards confident self-description may disadvantage candidates whose cultures value modesty, even when their abilities are the same. Heine et al. (1999) argued that self-enhancement is shaped by culture rather than universal, which suggests caution whenever confident self-presentation is treated as evidence of competence or health.

A Second Look at the Score

When Grace explained to Aiko why the scale might not fit her, Aiko said she had always found such questionnaires strange, since agreeing with statements like "I am a person of worth" felt like boasting.

Conclusion

Markus and Kitayama explained how cultures construe the self, Heine and colleagues showed that self-enhancement is not universal and Schmitt and colleagues showed that similar personality structure does not guarantee comparable scores. For the clinic, self-report scores should be read in context, with the person's own account at the center.

References

Heine, S. J., Lehman, D. R., Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1999). Is there a universal need for positive self-regard? Psychological Review, 106(4), 766-794. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.106.4.766

Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224-253. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224

Schmitt, D. P., Allik, J., McCrae, R. R., & Benet-Martínez, V. (2007). The geographic distribution of Big Five personality traits: Patterns and profiles of human self-description across 56 nations. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38(2), 173-212. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022106297299