Читать книгу Social Psychology - Daniel W. Barrett - Страница 32

Virtually all of us, at one time or another, have asked “Who am I?” The answer to this question is called our self-concept or identity: It is the set of beliefs we have about the characteristics we possess. The self-concept is at the core of everything we think, feel, or do. It is our anchor and the filter through which we perceive ourselves and the world. Because the self lies at the center of our being, social psychologists have exerted tremendous effort to better understand how social experiences affect and are affected by it (Baumeister, 2010; Leary & Toner, 2015; Sedikides & Spencer, 2007).

One of the key influences on the self-concept is the culture that we grow up in. For instance, persons from individualistic cultures tend to define themselves as separate from other people, whereas those from collectivistic cultures are more likely to define themselves in terms of their relationships to others (Chua, Carbonneau, Milyavskaya, & Koestner, 2015; Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Our conception of the self is closely connected to the culture in which we reside. We will have much more to say about the cultural dimension of social behavior later. For now, be aware that whether we think of ourselves as fundamentally separate from or connected to others has implications for many other aspects of our lives, such as our motivations to perform well and the kinds of choices that we make. What is your self-concept, and how do you think it is affected by culture?