THE SECOND ANNUAL
M AR C H 2 2 2 0 0 8
A T T H E D E P AR T M E NT O F P SY C H O L O G Y
U N I V E R S I T Y O F M I C H I G A N, A N N AR B O R
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SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 2008
BREAKFAST
9:00 am
ANNOUNCEMENT & INTRODUCTION
9:30-9:45 am
OPENING ADDRESS
9:45-10:00 am
SESSION 1: SELF AND OTHER
10:00-11:30 am
Vera Sacharin begins this section by discussing how American and German define and perceive
friendship differently. Next, Krishna Savani and Young Kim examine how individuals’ self-perception and
choices are influenced by other people’s perceptions and expectations.
AMERICAN AND GERMAN FRIENDS-SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES.
Vera Sacharin, University of Michigan
RESPONSIVENESS TO OTHER PEOPLE’S EXPECTATIONS: CULTURAL VARIATION AND SITUATIONAL
AFFORDANCE.
Krishna Savani, Stanford University
THE JURY AND ABJURY OF THE PEERS: THE ROLE OF PUBLIC REPRESENTATION IN DEFINING THE
SELF.
Young-Hoon Kim, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
SESSION 2: ESSENTIALISM
11:30-1:00pm
Expanding out of the lay theory tradition, in this section Melody Chao and Karl Dach-Gruschow examines
how lay beliefs about race and national characteristics can influence individuals’ social categorization
processes, national identification, and intercultural perceptions in a culturally diverse society.
ESSENTIALIZING RACE: ITS IMPLICATION TO SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION AND INTERCULTURAL
PROCESSES.
Melody Chao, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
NATIONAL IDENTITY, NATIONALISM, AND RACE.
Karl Dach-Gruschow, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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LUNCH BREAK & POSTER SESSION
1:00-2:30 pm
SESSION 3: COGNITIVE PROCESSES & SOCIAL COGNITION
2:30-4:00 pm
Presentations in this section examine the newest theoretical and empirical findings in domain of social
cognition. Xuezhao Lan begins this section by discussing East-West differences on inhibition, attention,
and executive control. Then, Jinkyung Na examines whether cross cultural differences in holistic and
analytic modes of thought can be reduced to differences at the individual level. Finally, Igor Grossmann
presents his work on interdependence and holistic cognition among Russian.
EAST-WEST DIFFERENCES ON INHIBITION.
Xuezhao Lan, University of Michigan
CAN CULTURAL DIFFERENCES BE REDUCED TO INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES? HOLISTIC VS. ANALYTIC
MODE OF THINKING AS CULTURAL SYNDROMES.
Jinkyung Na, University of Michigan
INTERDEPENDENCE AND HOLISTIC COGNITION: IS RUSSIA EASTERN OR WESTERN?
Igor Grossmann, University of Michigan
COFFEE BREAK
4:00-4:15 pm
SESSION 4: CULTURAL CHANGE AND COMPARISON
4:15-5:45 pm
In this session, Nick Bowman begins by examining subjective well-being in a changing society (the Slovak
Republic). Next, Shirley Cheng explores the emergence of cultural community from a communication
perspective. Finally, Chi-yue Chiu discusses effects of performance forecast in high versus low
occupational mobility contexts.
SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING AND ADJUSTMENT TO A CHANGING SOCIETY IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC.
Nick Bowman , University of Michigan
A COMMUNICATION PERSPECTIVE TO THE EMERGENCE OF A CULTURAL COMMUNITY.
Shirley Cheng, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
PERFORMANCE FORECAST IN HIGH VERSUS LOW OCCUPATIONAL MOBILITY CONTEXTS.
Jing (Julie) Chen & Chi-yue Chiu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
CLOSING ADDRESS
5:45-6:00 pm
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CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY CONFERENCE
PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS
SESSION 1: SELF AND OTHER
Vera Sacharin begins this section by discussing how American and German define and perceive
friendship differently. Next, Krishna Savani and Young Kim examine how individuals’ self-perception and
choices are influenced by other people’s perceptions and expectations.
American and German Friends - Similarities and Differences.
VERA SACHARIN
Differences in friendship behavior between German and Americans are a re-appearing issue in the
management literature (Robinson, 2005). Lewin (1948) describes how Americans show more ease
when making friends and less depth in friendships compared to Germans. Underlying this lack of
depth could be that for Americans, the term 'friend' seems to have a broad meaning and does not
imply closeness (Fischer, 1982). Rather than on intimacy, American friendships seem to be based on
sociability (Fischer, 1982; Wierzbicka, 1997). We expected that Americans would be less close to
their friends than Germans, particularly on measures of intimacy. In study 1, we show that Germans
define 'friends' and 'acquaintances' closer than Americans on an IOS-scale type measure (Araon,
Aron, & Smollan, 1992). In study 2, we assess participants' closeness to their friends in more detail.
Americans report more sociability with their 'friends,' while Germans report more empathy.
Relationships to 'acquaintances' were more similar to relationships to 'friends' for Germans, but not
as close as American 'friends.' Germans' closeness to 'acquaintances' is helpful for explaining why
Germans named fewer 'friends' than Americans in past research (Sleeth-Keppler, 2005). The study
shows that the anecdotally observed lack of depth in American friendships might be particular to
intimacy, and not generalize across all facets of friendship.
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Responsiveness to other people’s expectations: Cultural variation and situational
affordance.
KRISHNA SAVANI
In all cultures, people encounter many situations in which another person expects them to behave
in a certain way or to make certain choices. But cultural contexts might differ in the extent to which
people are generally responsive to other people's expectations and in the particular situations in
which people are most responsive. We hypothesize that people in Indian contexts will adjust their
choices merely after reflecting upon a significant others' expectation, even with the other person is
not present, which American participants will not. Two studies show that Indian women choose
more conservative shirts when their parents' expectations were made salient, while American
participants show no movement. These differences in psychological tendencies are afforded by the
interpersonal situations that people typically encounter in Indian and American contexts. A situation
sampling study found that compared to American situations, significant others in Indian situations
try to influence with a benevolent rather than a self-serving motive, and accommodation in Indian
contexts is more likely to strengthen the relationship.
The Jury and Abjury of the Peers: The Role of Public Representation in Defining the Self .
YOUNG-HOON KIM
We outline the way Face cultures tend to give priority to knowing oneself from the outside, whereas
Dignity cultures tend to give priority to knowing oneself from the inside. In Experiment 1, Face
culture participants absorbed into their self-definition whatever was publicly known among a group,
whereas Dignity culture participants did not absorb such judgments. In Experiment 2, for people
from a Face culture, simply having one other person know a piece of information about the self was
enough to enhance the validity of that information, making it more influential for self-definition, but
not for those from a Dignity culture. In Experiment 3, we used a modified version of the Ross et al.
(1977) quiz bowl task where the quiz bowl contestant would look relatively ignorant in this task,
simply as a function of their role. For those from a Face culture, the public performance of this
ignorant role affected their self-definition whereas their private performance of this role did not.
For those from a Dignity culture, the public vs. private performance distinction did not matter so
much.
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SESSION 2: ESSENTIALISM
Expanding out of the lay theory tradition, in this section Melody Chao and Karl Dach-Gruschow examines
how lay beliefs about race and national characteristics can influence individuals’ social categorization
processes, national identification, and intercultural perceptions in a culturally diverse society.
Essentializing Race: Its Implication to Social Categorization and Intercultural Processes.
MELODY CHAO
Racial essentialism is the belief that racial groups possess distinctive essence. Previous research has
found consistent associations between the endorsement of essentialist beliefs and negative
attitudes towards ethnic minority groups (Jayaratne et al., 2006; Keller, 2005). However, little is
known about the basic cognitive processes underlying essentialists' racial perceptions. Going beyond
the intuitive notion that endorsers of essentialist beliefs are essentially negative, this presentation
presents findings from three studies suggesting that essentialist beliefs setup mindsets through
which individuals interpret their social experiences. Specifically, the findings demonstrate that
individuals who endorse essentialist beliefs are more sensitive to subtle racial differences (Study 1)
and acquire racial categorization rules that define group membership more readily (Study 2). In
addition, the findings suggest that essentialists are more likely to make inference about group
characteristics based on racial group membership. More importantly, they do not necessarily make
negative inferences towards a particular ethnic group. Instead, they were simply more likely to
make race-based inferences in general; whether they evaluate a group positively or negatively
depend on the information they have about the specific ethnic group (Study 3).
National Identity, Nationalism, and Race.
KARL DACH-GRUSCHOW
In the United States, there is a broad assumption that national ingroup members are White and that
non-Whites are less American. This assumption can be seen as both an example of the perpetual
foreigner stereotype and as a motivated effort to exclude non-Whites. The latter relationship is
consistent with Social Dominance Theory, which predicts a fusion of Racial and National Identity for
dominant group members. We present a new measure of the American = White assumption
stemming from this theoretical framework. Moreover our preliminary data suggests that for White
Americans, racial prejudice is related to the American = White assumption mainly when the
individual also holds nationalistic beliefs.
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SESSION 3: COGNITIVE PROCESSES & SOCIAL COGNITION
Presentations in this section examine the newest theoretical and empirical findings in domain of social
cognition. Xuezhao Lan begins this section by discussing East-West differences on inhibition, attention,
and executive control. Then, Jinkyung Na examines whether cross cultural differences in holistic and
analytic modes of thought can be reduced to differences at the individual level. Finally, Igor Grossmann
presents his work on interdependence and holistic cognition among Russian.
East-West Differences on Inhibition.
XUEZHAO LAN
Previous research has shown that East-Asians have holistic parallel cognition and westerners have
analytic sequential cognition (Kopecky, Kitayama, Meyer, under review; Kitayama, Duffy, & Uchida
2007; Nisbett, 2003; Nisbett & Miyamoto, 2005.) Recently, it has been proposed that underlying
these differences in higher-level cognitive tasks are cultural differences in basic cognitive processes
(Boduroglu, Shah, & Nisbett , 2008). Westerners were found to adopt sequential strategies while
East Asians adopted parallel strategies when multi-tasking (Kopecky, Kitayama, Meyer, under
review). The present studies investigated the influence of different cognitive styles on lower-level
inhibition including response inhibition, task switching and interference resolution. 38 American and
36 Asian students who have been to the U.S. for less than two years from the University of Michigan
participated on a battery of inhibition tasks in experiment one; 47 American students from the
University of Michigan and 48 Chinese students from Beijing Normal University participated in
Experiment two. Results from two experiments revealed that American students consistently
outperformed their East Asian/Chinese counterparts on task switching (switching between the two
tasks), and response inhibition tasks (inhibiting proponent responses) as indicated by their
performance on task-switching, go-no-go and Anti-saccade tasks. In addition, Asian students living in
the U.S. tend to outperform their peers living in China. However, East Asians and Americans did not
show strong differences in interference resolution tasks (ignoring irrelevant information) as
indicated by their performance on Flanker and Shape matching tasks. This study provided important
evidence in explaining the possible cross-cultural differences in attention and executive control.
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Can Cultural Differences be Reduced to Individual Differences? Holistic vs. Analytic
Mode of Thinking as Cultural Syndromes.
JINKYUNG NA
Past decade of research on holistic-analytic mode of thinking has shown that first, there are several
aspects of holism (e.g. diffused vs. focused attention and situational vs. dispositional attribution)
and second, these aspects of holism are correlated at cultural level such that in a culture where
diffused attention is common, the other aspects of holism (e.g. situational attribution) are also
pervasive. In other words, holism is a coherent and unitary concept at the level of culture. However,
it is still an empirical question whether the coherence of holism is maintained at the level of
individual. We hypothesized holism as cultural syndromes (or complexes) and therefore proposed
independence between cultural and individual level analysis. At cultural level, a holistic (or analytic)
culture provides a complete set of syndromes and hence coherence would result. However, such
coherence is broken at individual level because each individual samples only some aspects of holistic
(or analytic) mode of thinking. Consequently, we expected that correlations among aspects of
holism would become notably weak at the level of individual. A competing hypothesis, however,
argues that holism is another global trait which can be applied to both individual and cultural level in
the same way. The alternative hypothesis predicts holism would be a coherent and unitary concept
at individual level because it is so at cultural level. To test our hypothesis, we tested 136 participants
with nine holistic-analytic tasks. Supporting our hypothesis, we found correlations become notably
weak at the level of individual. Implications for cultural differences and holism are discussed.
Interdependence and Holistic Cognition: Is Russia Eastern or Western?
IGOR GROSSMANN
Previous research found that East Asians are more holistic or less analytic in cognitive style than
North Americans. These differences have been explained in terms of social orientation, with East
Asians more socially interdependent than North Americans. The current research extended this
literature by examining Russian culture, which may be assumed to fall between East Asia and North
America in terms of social orientation and the modal style of reasoning. We conducted a series of
eight studies to test the prediction that Russians would be more holistic than North Americans. As
predicted, Russians were relatively interdependent in self-construal. Moreover, they were more
likely than Americans 1) to reason about the social world dialectically, i.e. when presented with
descriptions of a person’s behavior (e.g. hiding a medical mistake), Russians attributed contradictory
characteristics to this person (e.g. honest) more often than Americans; 2) to predict changes in
events; 3) to categorize objects thematically (rather than taxonomically); 4) to detect changes in
context; 5) to make situational (vis-à-vis dispositional) attributions; and 5) to categorize behaviors
(e.g. “joining the army”) in terms of the global orientation (“helping the nation’s defense”) rather
than action orientation (“signing up”). Overall, the present findings provide converging evidence for
holistic style of thinking and interdependent social orientation in Russia.
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SESSION 4: CULTURAL CHANGE AND COMPARISON
In this session, Nick Bowman begins by examining subjective well-being in a changing society (the Slovak
Republic). Next, Shirley Cheng explores the emergence of cultural community from a communication
perspective. Finally, Chi-yue Chiu discusses the effects of performance forecast in high versus low
occupational mobility contexts.
Subjective Well-Being and Adjustment to a Changing Society in the Slovak Republic.
NICK BOWMAN
In former Communist states, the proliferation of free-market economies and democratic systems of
government has resulted in increasingly independent values, norms, and lay theories of agency.
Simultaneously, the increases in economic and social inequality associated with the removal of
Communism have made social class much more meaningful and salient within Slovak society.
Therefore, we hypothesized that social class differences in subjective well-being (SWB) would be
greater among Slovaks than Americans. We conducted studies using data from the Pew Global
Attitudes Project, National Surveys of Midlife Development in the United States, original data from
the Slovak Republic, and three waves of the World Values Surveys. Consistent with predictions,
social class differences (defined by educational attainment) in SWB were generally greater among
Slovaks than Americans, suggesting that rapid increases in economic and status inequality—as
opposed to continuous long-term disparities—have a particularly adverse effect on the lower and
working classes. Furthermore, older Slovaks (who are adjusting to a more individualistic society
after spending most of their lives in a collectivistic society) exhibited lower levels of SWB than
younger Slovaks and older Americans (who have spent most or all of their lives in a relatively
individualistic society).
A Communication Perspective to the Emergence of a Cultural Community .
SHIRLEY CHENG
Culture influences behaviors, but how does a culture start? Decades of (cross-) cultural research
have provided numerous examples of culture's influence on behaviors. However, the question of
how a culture begins is still awaiting answers from social psychology. On the surface, it seems that
when it comes to the question of how a culture starts, social psychologists must defer to historians.
Upon further probing, although inventing a world culture in a is still far beyond our psychological
imagination, simulating a novel brand culture (like the Apple culture) in a social psychology
experiment may still be within our reach. Such experimental studies could be informative because
they may help us identify some facilitative conditions for culture formation. Recently, to explore the
promises and limits of this research strategy, we have turned our laboratory into a culture
incubator. In this talk, I will present the preliminary results from our culture simulation research. The
key variables we examined in this research are minority status and serial reproductive
communication of narratives about ingroup members. We posit that the confluence of these factors
has facilitative effects on the formation of a brand culture.
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Performance Forecast in High versus Low Occupational Mobility Contexts .
JING (JULIE) CHEN & CHI-YUE CHIU
Should people have Bill Gates' personality to succeed in the information technology industry?
Should you have Harry Triandis' personality to become a successful cross-cultural psychologist? How
people would answer this question depends on their cultural background. In this talk, we will try to
answer two questions: (1) Are there East-West differences in the importance of person-profession
fit in making performance forecast? and (2) If yes, how do these differences emerge? In the United
States, people tend to believe that a competent employee, irrespective of her personal style, can be
successful in her self-chosen career. In Japan, where occupational mobility is relatively low,
employees who are competent but do not conform to the social expectations in the company may
be assigned to a "peripheral" department (aka the Department of the Losers). Consistent with this
observation, the results from five studies show that compared to European Americans, Asians
believe more strongly that (1) personality-profession fit (having personality expected from one's
profession) is important to future career success, (2) this cultural difference may arise from the
stronger belief in fixed reality in Asia (vs. North America), and that (3) experiences with occupational
immobility as a structural constraint set up the characteristic cultural belief and performance
forecast pattern in Asia. we will use these results to discuss the relationship between society,
culture, and cognition.
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