Julie Spencer-Rodgers

Dialectical Self-Esteem and East-West Differences in Psychological Well-Being

A well-documented finding in the literature is that members of many East Asian cultures report lower self-esteem and psychological well-being than do members of Western cultures. The authors present the results of four studies that examined cultural differences in reasoning about psychological contradiction and the effects of naive dialecticism on self-evaluations and psychological adjustment. Mainland Chinese and Asian Americans exhibited greater “ambivalence” or evaluative contradiction in their self-attitudes than did Western synthesis-oriented cultures on a traditional self-report measure of self-esteem (Study 1) and in their spontaneous self-descriptions (Study 2). Naive dialecticism, as assessed with the Dialectical Self Scale, mediated the observed cultural differences in self-esteem and well-being (Study 3). In Study 4, the authors primed naive dialecticism and found that increased dialecticism was related to decreased psychological adjustment. Implications for the conceptualization and measurement of self-esteem and psychological well-being across cultures are discussed.

Cultural Differences in Expectations of Change and Tolerance for Contradiction: A Decade of Empirical Research

Since the publication of Peng and Nisbett’s seminal paper on dialectical thinking, a substantial amount of empirical research has replicated and expanded on the core finding that people differ in the degree to which they view the world as inherently contradictory and in constant flux. Dialectical thinkers (who are more often members of East Asian than Western cultures) show greater expectation of change in tasks related to explanation and prediction and greater tolerance of contradiction in tasks involving the reconciliation of contradictory information. The authors show how these effects are manifested in the domains of the self, emotional experience, psychological well-being, attitudes and evaluations, social categorization and perception, and judgment and decision making. They note important topics in need of further investigation and offer predictions concerning possible cultural differences in unexplored domains as a function of the presence or absence of naïve dialecticism.

Attitudes toward the culturally different: the role of intercultural communication barriers, affective responses, consensual stereotypes, and perceived threat

Abstract The psychological impact of intercultural communication barriers on intergroup attitudes was examined by testing a model of global attitudes toward the culturally different. The prejudice literature has largely overlooked the role of intercultural communication and intercultural communication in determining peoples evaluative orientation toward ethnolinguistic outgroups. Intercultural communication emotions (negative affect associated with perceived linguistic and cultural barriers) were investigated as determinants of prejudice, in conjunction with causal factors that are widely recognized as central to intergroup judgments (consensual stereotypes, intergroup anxiety, and realistic and symbolic/cultural threats [Stephan & Stephan Int. J. Intercultural Relations 20 (1996) 409]). Regression analyses indicated that intercultural communication emotions were strongly and uniquely related to prejudice toward a culturally diverse outgroup: foreign students. Consistent with the contact hypothesis [Allport (1954) The nature of prejudice , Addison-Wesley], moderated regression analyses indicated that the structure of intergroup attitudes was modified by social contact with the international community. Implications for intergroup relations and international educational exchange are discussed.

The Dialectical Self-Concept: Contradiction, Change, and Holism in East Asian Cultures

Naïve dialecticism refers to a set of East Asian lay beliefs characterized by tolerance for contradiction, the expectation of change, and cognitive holism. In five studies, the authors examined the cognitive mechanisms that give rise to global self-concept inconsistency among dialectical cultures. Contradictory self-knowledge was more readily available (Study 1) and simultaneously accessible (Study 2) among East Asians (Japanese and Chinese) than among Euro-Americans. East Asians also exhibited greater change and holism in the spontaneous self-concept (Study 1) and inconsistency in their implicit self-beliefs (Study 3). Cultural differences in self-concept inconsistency were obtained when controlling for alternative explanatory variables, including self-criticism (Study 4) and self-concept certainty (Studies 2 and 3) and were fully mediated by a direct measure of dialecticism (Study 5). Naïve dialecticism provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding these cultural differences and the contradictory, changeable, and holistic nature of the East Asian self-concept.

Consensual and individual stereotypic beliefs about international students among American host nationals

Abstract The present study examined the consensual stereotype of an extraordinarily heterogeneous social group, international students who are sojourning in the United States, among American host nationals. The content and valence of the cultural stereotype was assessed using a multicomponent, free-response methodology with N=100 American college students. On the whole, consensual and individual stereotypic representations of international students were somewhat favorable, although a number of negative attributes were consistently ascribed to the group. The percentages of agreement among participants concerning the attributes of foreign students were substantial, indicating that international students are regarded as a fairly homogenous outgroup by domestic students, notwithstanding the extreme heterogeneity of the foreign student population. Individual stereotypic beliefs about international students were significantly correlated with overall attitudes and behaviors (social contact) toward the group. The negative evaluative content of participants’ individual stereotypic beliefs was strongly related to prejudicial attitudes and social avoidance of the group.

Dialecticism and the Co-occurrence of Positive and Negative Emotions Across Cultures

Emotional complexity (the co-occurrence of positive and negative affect) is more prevalent in East Asian than North American cultures. Although researchers have attributed this robust finding to dialectical thinking (tolerance of contradiction), this hypothesis has not been experimentally tested. In this study, dialectical thinking about salient life events was manipulated among mainland Chinese and Euro-American participants, and increased dialectical thinking led to greater emotional complexity. Moreover, Chinese exhibited greater dialectical thinking and emotional complexity than did Euro-Americans, and cultural differences in emotional complexity were mediated by a direct measure of dialecticism (Dialectical Self Scale).

I Am Against Us? Unpacking Cultural Differences in Ingroup Favoritism via Dialecticism

The authors proposed a novel explanation for cultural differences in ingroup favoritism (dialecticism) and tested this hypothesis across cultures/ethnicities, domains, and levels of analysis (explicit vs. implicit, cognitive vs. affective). Dialecticism refers to the cognitive tendency to tolerate contradiction and is more frequently found among East Asian than North American cultures. In Study 1, Chinese were significantly less positive, compared to European Americans, in their explicit judgments of family members. Study 2 investigated ingroup attitudes among Chinese, Latinos, and European Americans. Only Chinese participants showed significant in-group derogation, relative to the other groups, and dialecticism (Dialectical Self Scale) was associated with participants’ in group attitudes. Study 3 manipulated dialectical versus linear lay beliefs; participants primed with dialecticism showed more negative, explicit ingroup attitudes. Although ingroup disfavoring tendencies were more prevalent among Chinese across studies, they may be a reflection of one’s culturally based lay beliefs rather than deep-rooted negative feelings toward one’s ingroup.

Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms as a Mediator between Sexual Assault and Adverse Health Outcomes in Undergraduate Women

This study investigated the links between sexual assault experiences, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and adverse physical health outcomes among undergraduate women. Existing research has demonstrated that posttraumatic stress disorder mediates the relationship between trauma exposure and physical health in general, but this has yet to be tested for sexual assault specifically. Using structural equation modeling, support was found for a model in which posttraumatic stress symptom severity partially mediates the association between sexual assault severity and self-reported health outcomes. An alternative model using depression symptoms did not meet the criteria for mediation. Implications for the physical health of sexual assault survivors are discussed.

Influence of negative stereotypes and beliefs on neuropsychological test performance in a traumatic brain injury population.

The impact of stereotype threat and self-efficacy beliefs on neuropsychological test performance in a clinical traumatic brain injury (TBI) population was investigated. A total of 42 individuals with mild-to-moderate TBI and 42 (age-, gender-, educationally matched) healthy adults were recruited. The study consisted of a 2 (Type of injury: control, TBI) × 2 (Threat Condition: reduced threat, heightened threat) between-participants design. The purpose of the reduced threat condition was to reduce negative stereotyped beliefs regarding cognitive effects of TBI and to emphasize personal control over cognition. The heightened threat condition consisted of an opposing view. Main effects included greater anxiety, motivation, and dejection but reduced memory self-efficacy for head-injured-groups, compared to control groups. On neuropsychological testing, the TBI-heightened-threat-group displayed lower scores on Initial Encoding (initial recall) and trended toward displaying lower scores on Attention (working memory) compared to the TBI-reduced-threat-group. No effect was found for Delayed Recall measures. Memory self-efficacy mediated the relation between threat condition and neuropsychological performance, indicating a potential mechanism for the threat effect. The findings highlight the impact of stereotype threat and self-referent beliefs on neuropsychological test performance in a clinical TBI population.

The power of affirming group values: Group affirmation buffers the self-esteem of women exposed to blatant sexism

Abstract Extending the group affirmation literature to the domain of prejudice, this study investigated whether group affirmation buffers the self-esteem of women exposed to blatant sexism. In accordance with Self-Affirmation Theory and group affirmation research, we hypothesized that when one aspect of the collective self is threatened (gender identity), self-esteem can be maintained via the affirmation of an alternative aspect of the collective self. In a 2 × 2 between-participants design, female students were randomly assigned to read about discrimination directed toward women or a non-self-relevant disadvantaged group (the Inuit). All then participated in a (fictitious) second study, in which half completed a group affirmation manipulation (wrote about the top three values of a self-defining group) and half completed a control writing exercise. The self-esteem of women who were threatened by sexism, but group affirmed, was protected from the negative effects of perceiving sexism.