4114 - WEST MEETS EAST IN A NEW TWO-POLARITIES MODEL OF PERSONALITY: COMBINING SELF-RELATEDNESS STRUCTURE WITH INDEPENDENT-INTERDEPENDENT FUNCTIONS

Session: 4112 - CULTURALLY RELEVANT PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT USING THE COMBINED EMIC-ETIC APPROACH
AUTHORS:
Fan Weiqiao (Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China; ~ Shangai ~ China) , Li Mengting (Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China; ~ Nanjing ~ China) , Leong Frederick (Chinese University of Hong Kong (SZ), Shenzhen, China; ~ Shenzhen ~ China) , Zhou Mingjie (Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China ~ Beijing ~ China)
Abstract text:
Most extant personality models are culturally biased towards an individualistic conception of
personality and self-construction has been the major emphasis based on WEIRD samples. These
models are incomplete because they ignore the interpersonal dimension of personality, which has
received particular attention in Eastern personality theories and is also included in early Western
models. In terms of the cultural-relevant feature, both self and relatedness and their specific
aspects may be variously highlighted in different cultural settings. On the basis of a reexamination
of several crucial two-dimension (namely, self and relatedness) personality theories
derived from the east and west, we reconstruct a new two polarities personality model to include
not only self and relatedness but also the independent and interdependent functions in terms of
some popular personality theories with the combined emic-etic approach.
Thus, we argued that there are two types of self and relatedness in personality structure. (1)
Independent self, which distinguishes and separates a person from others by autonomy and
identity coherence. (2) Interdependent self, which reflects the basic function of maintaining a
person's autonomy or identity by considering the person part of an encompassing social
relationship. Social environments, especially other people, serve as a mirror-like reflection to
show a person's uniqueness. (3) Intrapersonal Relatedness, which reflects how an individual thinks about their social world—their social cognition. This type of relatedness indicates how a
person relates his/herself to the social environment. (4) Interpersonal Relatedness, which defines
how a person relates to the social world through behavior or performance, such as social
presentation and social transformation (namely, persona).
This work is beneficial to understanding global personality across cultures. A consistent
personality structure across Western and Eastern contexts exists, and the only difference is that
the structure possesses cultural-specific representation or different functions for individuals in
different contexts.