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Culture, Self-Discrepancies, and Self-Satisfaction

University of Pennsylvania, heine{at}psych.upenn.edu

Darrin R. Lehman

University of British Columbia

In contrast to the reliable effects observed with North Americans, research with Japanese has failed to detect self-enhancing biases. The authors considered the possibility that, owing to the need to adapt themselves to others’ expectations, Japanese are more critical of themselves than are North Americans. A comparison of actual-ideal self-discrepancies indeed revealed larger discrepancies for Japanese than for either European or Asian Canadians. Moreover, the magnitude of the cultural differences were larger for characteristics that participants viewed as more important, and the relation between depression scores and actual-ideal discrepancies was weaker for Japanese than for European Canadians. The data support the notions that (a) Japanese are more likely than North Americans to be dissatisfied with themselves and (b) these self-critical attitudes are less distressful for Japanese.

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