Culture and Self-esteem

Inhabitants of individualistic cultures tend to view them- selves as distinct and autonomous, whereas those in collectivist cultures view the self as part of an interdependent social network. Do these different orientations have implications for self-esteem? This turns out to be a tricky question.

Cultures have differing effects on the pursuit of self-esteem. Comparing the distribution of self-esteem test scores in Canada and Japan, they found that while most Canadians’ scores clustered in the high-end range, a majority of Japanese respondents scored in the center of that same range. In other studies, they also observed that Japanese respondents can sometimes be quite self-critical, talking about themselves in neg- ative, self-effacing terms.

Do Japanese people have a less positive self-esteem compared to Americans? Or do Japanese respondents have a positive self-esteem but feel compelled to present themselves modestly to others (as a function of the collectivist need to “fit in” rather than “stand out”)? To answer this question, some researchers have used less direct, subtle tests that measure implicit self-esteem—a person’s uncon- scious tendency to positively evaluate people and objects that reflect on them- selves. In a timed word-association study, researchers found that despite their lower scores on overt self-esteem tests, Asian Americans—just like their European American counterparts—are quicker to associate themselves with positive words like happy and sunshine than with negative words such as vomit and poison.