As we reported earlier today, a new study suggests the perception that East Asians are self-effacing and possess a low self-esteem, as compared to Americans, is incorrect. In fact, the consistency of the findings across cultures was so clearly apparent that the researchers conclude in this month’s issue of the journal Psychological Science that high implicit self-esteem may be culturally universal.

Researchers from the United States, China and Japan used newly developed measures to investigate self-esteem on more expansive basis than prior assessment tools have allowed. The scientists used the new scales to study implicit, or automatic, self-esteem comparing parallel samples of university students from the three countries.

Surveying more than 500 students, they found that implicit, or automatic, self-esteem was strongly positive among students from each of the nations.

Although East Asians are perceived by both others and themselves to be modest and self-effacing, the test results painted a different picture.

Students from all three countries had highly positive implicit self-esteem, with the Japanese students showing especially higher self-esteem than their Chinese and American counterparts.

“Ordinary East Asians are aware that they hold strongly positive self-views. But the prevalent modesty norm prevents them from expressing it publicly,” said Susumu Yamaguchi of Tokyo University and lead author of the study.

“The IAT successfully unraveled East Asians’ unexpressed self-esteem in our study.” The authors speculate that cross-cultural similarities in positive implicit self-esteem may arise from cross-cultural similarities in child-rearing.

This is fascinating because, while culturally we are expected to act in certain ways, internally (where it counts), we are all very much alike. This blows away the myth, at least amongst college students, that different cultures have different ways of perceiving themselves, and just as importantly, feeling emotions. It appears this may not be the case after all.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

Like this author?
Catch up on other posts by John M. Grohol, PsyD (or subscribe to their feed).

Comments

This post currently has 6 comments. You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts on our new comments page.

Trackbacks

La autoestima es universal (6/21/2007)

Anna’s IB Blog » Self-esteem: an Asian thing? (9/26/2007)

Self Help and Motivation Blog List » Self-Esteem is Universal - World of Psychology (10/7/2007)

Boink Blogs (10/19/2007)

    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 7 Jun 2007
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.