Developmental Process of Independent and Interdependent Self-Construal in Japanese Culture: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Sectional Analyses

Abstract

In order to investigate developmental changes in independence and interdependence, or self-schemata, as identified with the cultural view of the self in Japanese culture, a new version of Takata et al.'s (1996) scale was constructed for children. In one study, Japanese, divided into 7 age groups from elementary school to senior citizens, took these scales; participants in another study were Australian, Canadian, and Japanese college students. The results showed that (1) Japanese college students are more interdependent and less independent than Australian and Canadian college students; (2) independence in the Japanese participants was lowest in adolescents; the older the Japanese participants were, the more independent they were; (3) interdependence was highest in the adolescent group, and the adults were rather less interdependent. The mean scale values for Japanese adults thus showed high independence and low interdependence. Based on these results, two hypothetical processes were suggested to explain how the cultural view of the self is internalized as a part of the self schema.