American = Independent?

Publisher: Sage Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101274347 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1745-6924 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 17456916 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Perspect Psychol Sci Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2010- : Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage
Original Publication: [Washington, D.C.] : Association for Psychological Science, 2006-

Culture* ; Personality* ; Self Concept* ; Social Class*; Ethnicity ; Humans ; United States ; White People/psychology

U.S. American cultures and psyches reflect and promote independence. Devos and Banaji (2005) asked, does American equal White? This article asks, does American equal independent? The answer is that when compared to people in East Asian or South Asian contexts, people in American contexts tend to show an independent psychological signature-a sense of self as individual, separate, influencing others and the world, free from influence, and equal to, if not better than, others (Markus & Conner, 2013). Independence is a reasonable description of the selves of people in the White, middle-class American mainstream. Yet it is a less good characterization of the selves of the majority of Americans who are working-class and/or people of color. A cultural psychological approach reveals that much of North American psychology is still grounded in an independent model of the self and, as such, neglects social contexts and the psychologies of a majority of Americans. Given the prominence of independence in American ideas and institutions, the interdependent tendencies that arise from intersections of national culture with social class, race, and ethnicity go unrecognized and are often misunderstood and stigmatized. This unseen clash of independence and interdependence is a significant factor in many challenges, including those of education, employment, health, immigration, criminal justice, and political polarization.

Keywords: American; culture; diversity; independence; interdependence

Date Created: 20171004 Date Completed: 20180615 Latest Revision: 20221207

20221213

10.1177/1745691617718799

28972850