TY - JOUR
T1 - Relating Self-Concept Consistency to Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being in Eight Cultures
AU - Church, A. Timothy
AU - Katigbak, Marcia S.
AU - Ibáñez-Reyes, Joselina
AU - de Jesús Vargas-Flores, José
AU - Curtis, Guy J.
AU - Tanaka-Matsumi, Junko
AU - Cabrera, Helena F.
AU - Mastor, Khairul A.
AU - Zhang, Hengsheng
AU - Shen, Jiliang
AU - Locke, Kenneth D.
AU - Alvarez, Juan M.
AU - Ching, Charles M.
AU - Ortiz, Fernando A.
AU - Simon, Jean Yves R.
PY - 2014/1/1
Y1 - 2014/1/1
N2 - Western theories suggest that self-concept consistency is important for well-being, but cultural psychologists have proposed that this relationship may be weaker in collectivistic or dialectical cultures. Hypotheses regarding the ability of self-concept (cross-role) consistency and short-term stability to predict hedonic and eudaimonic well-being across cultures were tested. College students in the United States, Australia, Mexico, Venezuela, the Philippines, Malaysia, China, and Japan rated their traits in various roles at test and retest and completed measures of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. In all cultures, cross-role consistency and short-term stability were inversely associated with negative affect, an aspect of hedonic well-being, and positively associated with Big Five Emotional Stability. In contrast, cross-role consistency and short-term stability were related to eudaimonic well-being more reliably in individualistic cultures than in collectivistic cultures, although the results in China only partially conformed to this pattern. We concluded that cross-role variability and short-term instability of self-concepts have a significant temperamental or affective basis, and this temperamental basis is a cultural universal. In addition, cultural psychology predictions of a weaker relationship between self-concept consistency and well-being in collectivistic cultures, as compared with individualistic cultures, were largely supported for eudaimonic well-being.
AB - Western theories suggest that self-concept consistency is important for well-being, but cultural psychologists have proposed that this relationship may be weaker in collectivistic or dialectical cultures. Hypotheses regarding the ability of self-concept (cross-role) consistency and short-term stability to predict hedonic and eudaimonic well-being across cultures were tested. College students in the United States, Australia, Mexico, Venezuela, the Philippines, Malaysia, China, and Japan rated their traits in various roles at test and retest and completed measures of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. In all cultures, cross-role consistency and short-term stability were inversely associated with negative affect, an aspect of hedonic well-being, and positively associated with Big Five Emotional Stability. In contrast, cross-role consistency and short-term stability were related to eudaimonic well-being more reliably in individualistic cultures than in collectivistic cultures, although the results in China only partially conformed to this pattern. We concluded that cross-role variability and short-term instability of self-concepts have a significant temperamental or affective basis, and this temperamental basis is a cultural universal. In addition, cultural psychology predictions of a weaker relationship between self-concept consistency and well-being in collectivistic cultures, as compared with individualistic cultures, were largely supported for eudaimonic well-being.
KW - cross-role consistency
KW - culture
KW - dialecticism
KW - hedonic and eudaimonic well-being
KW - individualism-collectivism
KW - short-term stability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84899833680&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0022022114527347
DO - 10.1177/0022022114527347
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84899833680
VL - 45
SP - 695
EP - 712
JO - Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
JF - Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
SN - 0022-0221
IS - 5
ER -