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Relational Self Versus Collective Self: A Cross-Cultural Study in Interdependent Self-Construal Between Han and Uyghur in China

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Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

Published online on

Abstract

Although differences between independent and interdependent self-construals have been extensively investigated, few studies have considered intra-cultural variability in self-construal in China. In the present research, we aimed at exploring ethnic group differences in interdependent self-construal. We first compared self-reported importance of the private self, relational self, and collective self between the Uyghur and the Han—two ethnic groups in China. The results show that the Han viewed the collective self to be less important than the private self and the relational self, while the Uyghur exhibited a different pattern, rating the collective self as more important than the private self and the relational self (Study 1). Three follow-up self-referential memory experiments provided further support for the difference in interdependent self-construal between the Han and the Uyghur. Specifically, only the Han participants exhibited significantly better memories of mother-referenced information than famous-person-referenced information (Study 2). In contrast, only the Uyghur participants exhibited significantly better memories of group-referenced information (Studies 3 and 4). These marked ethnic differences in interdependent self-construal suggest that the Han privilege the relational self and the Uyghur the collective self, thus highlighting the intra-cultural variability of interdependent self-construal in Chinese populations.