Neither Eastern nor Western: Patterns of independence and interdependence in Mediterranean societies.

Authors

Ayse Uskul, University of Kent & University of Sussex
Alexander Kirchner-Hausler, University of Kent & University of Sussex
Vivian Vignoles, University of Sussex
Rosa Rodríguez-Bailón, University of Granada
Vanessa Castillo, Coe College & Iowa State University
Susan Cross, Iowa State University
Meral Gezici-Yalçın, Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University & University of Bielefeld
Chalres Harb, American University of Beirut & Doha Institute
Shenel Husnu, Eastern Mediterranean University
Keiko Ishii, Nagoya University
Shuxian Jin, University of Sussex & Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Panagiota Karamaouna, University of Crete
Konstantinos Kafetsios, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki & Palacký University Olomouc
Evangelia Kateri, University of Crete
Juan Matamoros-Lima, University of Granada
Daqing Liu, University of Kent
Rania Miniesy, The British University in EgyptFollow
Jinkyung Na, Sogang University
Zafer Özkan, Ordu University
Stefano Pagliaro, University di Chieti-Pescara
Charis Psaltis, University of Cyprus
Dina Rabie, Nottingham Trent University & the British University in Egypt
Manuel Teresi, University di Chieti-Pescar
Yukiko Uchida, Kyoto University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2023

Abstract

Social science research has highlighted “honor” as a central value driving social behavior in Mediterranean societies, which requires individuals to develop and protect a sense of their personal self-worth and their social reputation, through assertiveness, competitiveness, and retaliation in the face of threats. We predicted that members of Mediterranean societies may exhibit a distinctive combination of independent and interdependent social orientation, self-construal, and cognitive style, compared to more commonly studied East Asian and Anglo-Western cultural groups. We compared participants from eight Mediterranean societies (Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus [Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities], Lebanon, Egypt) to participants from East Asian (Korea, Japan) and Anglo-Western (the United Kingdom, the United States) societies, using six implicit social orientation indicators, an eight-dimensional self-construal scale, and four cognitive style indicators. Compared with both East Asian and Anglo-Western samples, samples from Mediterranean societies distinctively emphasized several forms of independence (relative intensity of disengaging [vs. engaging] emotions, happiness based on disengaging [vs. engaging] emotions, dispositional [vs. situational] attribution style, self-construal as different from others, self-directed, self-reliant, self-expressive, and consistent) and interdependence (closeness to in-group [vs. out-group] members, self-construal as connected and committed to close others). Our findings extend previous insights into patterns of cultural orientation beyond commonly examined East–West comparisons to an understudied world region.

Recommended Citation

Uskul, A. K., Kirchner-Häusler, A., Vignoles, V. L., Rodríguez-Bailón, R., Castillo, V. A., Cross, S. E., Gezici Yalçın, M., Harb, C., Husnu, S., Ishii, K., Jin, S., Karamouna, P., Kafetsios, K., Kateri, E., Matamaros-Lima, J., Liu, D., Miniesy, R., Na, J., Özkan, Z., Pagliaro, S., Psaltis, C., Rabie, D., Teresi, M., & Uchida, Y. (2023). Neither Eastern nor Western: Patterns of independence and interdependence in Mediterranean societies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol.125, No.3, pp.471-495.