Cross-cultural study on the meaning of self-esteem and its measurement in cultural context

2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 16530397
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Social psychology
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: YAMAGUCHI Susumu The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 教授 (80134427)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): MORIO Hiroaki The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Assistant, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 助手 (80361559)
• Project Period (FY): 2004 – 2005
• Keywords: self-esteem / cross-cultural

Research Abstract

Implicit self-esteem (ISE) as measured by the Implicit Association Test (IAT) was found to be universality positive in Japan, the U.S., and China. In addition, our study replicated a previous finding that Americans show higher explicit self-esteem on explicit measures of self-esteem than Japanese and Chinese. We also confirmed that ISE is positively correlated with planning fallacy among Japanese, which refers to people's tendency to be optimistic about the outcome of their planning. These results provide support to the predictive validity of IAT among Japanese. The construct validity of IAT and the mouse paradigm (MP) when they were applied to measure self-concept was also examined. The dynamic index of the self-concept as measured by MP was examined along with established self-esteem questionnaires and IAT, which is a measure of ISE based upon response latency. The results supported the validity of MP along with IAT. In addition, the intrinsic dynamics of self-concept and ISE were found to be related. Furthermore, we conducted a study on Mentsu, which is closely related to self-esteem. Mentsu is a public image related to one's social role. We attempted to show the difference between Mentsu and self-esteem, which represents positivity of one's self-evaluation. The result indicated that others are involved in Mentsu episodes more than self-esteem-relevant episodes.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Self-esteem in cultural context : The case of the Japanese. (2006)
  • Author(s): Yamaguchi, S., Lin, C., Aoki, S.
  • Journal Title: Progress in Psychological Science around the World (Q.Jing, M.R.Rosenzweig, G.d'Ydewalle, H.Zhang, Chen Hsuan-Chih & K.Zhang (Eds.)) (Oxford : Psychology Press.) Vol.2 (in press)
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Journal Article] The dynamism of self-narratives and its relation to explicit and implicit self-esteem.
  • Author(s): Morio, H., Yamaguchi, S., Murakami, F., Ozaki, Y.
  • Journal Title: Contributions to Asian Social Psychology (J.H.Liu, C.Ward, A.Bernardo, M.Karasawa, and R.Fischer (Eds.)) (London : Marshall Cavendish.) Vol.1 (in press)
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Book] Self-esteem in cultural context : The case of the Japanese. In Q.Jing, M.R.Rosenzweig, G.d'Ydewalle, H.Zhang, Chen Hsuan-Chih & K.Zhang(Eds.), Progress in Psychological Science around the World. (2006)
  • Author(s): 山口 勧
  • Publisher: Oxford : Psychology Press(印刷中)
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Book] The dynamism of self-narratives and its relation to explicit and implicit self-esteem. In : J.H.Liu, C.Ward, A.Bernardo, M.Karasawa, and R.Fischer (Eds.), Contributions to Asian Social Psychology, Vol.1. (2006)
  • Author(s): 森尾博昭
  • Publisher: London : Marshall Cavendish(印刷中)
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より