Independent and Interdependent Self-Construals, Individualism, Collectivism, and Harmony Control in African Americans

Abstract

The authors investigated the relationships among independent and interdependent self-construals (i.e., self-conceptualizations), dimensions of individualism and collectivism, and aspects of harmony control (i.e., the degree to which individuals are flexible in recognizing that their personal power stems from spiritual, social, and contextual forces) in a sample of 240 African American community college students. Results revealed that independent and interdependent self-construals and dimensions of individualism and collectivism were differentially related to various harmony control dimensions. Implications of the findings are discussed.

The Effects of Self-Construal and Religiousness on Argumentativeness: A Cross-Cultural Analysis

“…Oetzel (1998) also found self-construal to be a better predictor of conflict styles than ethnic or cultural background. Constantine, Gainor, Ahluwalia, and Berkel (2003) found a positive association between interdependent self-construal and harmony as well as a negative association between independent self-construal and harmony. Thus, based on research asserting individuals from different nations may be more likely to present different self-construals (Hofstede, 2001;Ting-Toomey et al, 2001) and that self-construal influences argumentativeness (Kim et al, 2001), the following research question is posed regarding the potential relationship between national culture, self-construal, and argumentativeness: RQ1: To what extent will an individual's national culture influence the relationship between self-construal and argumentativeness?…”

The Ethnic Context of Child and Adolescent Problem Behavior: Implications for Child and Family Interventions

“…Cultural values and beliefs such as communalism, spirituality, importance of kinship relations, collectivism, unity, cooperation, and awareness of racial disparities in mainstream culture are central themes in the socialization of African American children (Constantine, Gainor, Ahluwalia, & Berkel, 2003;Utsey, Adams, & Bolden, 2000). Communalism, defined as a belief in the importance of group over the individual and cooperation rather than competition (Belgrave, Townsend, Cherry, & Cunningham, 1997), indicates that the self is seen as a part of the collective whole.…”

Self and Identity in Early Adolescence

“…However, the bulk of this literature has focused on largely White samples of college students (Schwartz, 2005). Literature on ethnic and cultural identity, on the other hand, has focused primarily on immigrants and ethnic minorities (Constantine, Gainor, Ahluwalia, & Berkel, 2003;Lam, 2005) or on cross-ethnic or cross-national comparisons (e.g., Ghorbani, Bing, Watson, Davison, & LeBreton, 2003;Markus, Uchida, Omoregie, Townsend, & Kitayama, 2006).…”