Measuring Cultures through Intersubjective Cultural Norms: Implications for Predicting Relative Identification With Two or More Cultures
Abstract
Core values of a culture may refer to values endorsed by most members of the culture or to values members of the culture generally believe to be widely shared in the culture. The authors propose an intersubjective consensus approach to identifying core cultural values based on the latter definition. In three studies, they illustrated the utility of the intersubjective consensus approach for identifying the cultural values that differentiate two or more nested cultural groups. They showed that endorsement of these values was related to the relative strength of identification with these cultural groups. The findings from the present research have important implications for social identity theories and acculturation research.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
1. The scale that we used differs from that originally used by Schwartz (1992) in two ways. First, we used an 8-point scale (0 =not important,7 =very important) instead of the original 9-point scale that ranged from –1 (opposed to my values) to 7 (of supreme importance). Second, Schwartz asked participants to rate the importance of each value “as a guiding principle in my life,” whereas we used a more elaborate instruction.
References
Bond, M. H. (1988). Finding universal dimensions of individual variation in multicultural studies of values: The Rokeach and Chinese value surveys. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,55, 1009-1015.
Brewer, M. B. (1991). The social self: On being the same and different at the same time. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,17, 475-482.
Brumann, C. (1999). Writing for culture: Why a successful concept should not be discarded. Current Anthropologist,40, S1-S13.
Feather, N. T. (1975). Values in education and society. New York: Free Press.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York: Free Press.
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Hogg, M. A. (2003). Social identity. In M. R. Leary & L. P. Tangney (Eds.),Handbook of self and identity (pp. 462-479). New York: Guilford.
Hogg, M. A. (2004). Social identity, self-categorization, and communication in small groups. In S. K. Ng, C. Crandall, & C. Chiu (Eds.),Language matters: Communication, identity, and culture(pp. 221-266). Hong Kong, China: City University Press.
Inglehart, R. (1997). Modernization and postmodernization: Cultural, economic and political change in 43 societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Keesing, R. M. (1981). Theories of culture. In R. W. Casson (Ed.),Language, culture and cognition: Anthropological perspectives (pp. 42-66). New York: Macmillan.
Kroeber, A. L., & Parsons, T. (1958). The concepts of culture and social system. American Sociological Review, 23, 582-583.
Lehman, D. R., Chiu, C., & Schaller, M. (2004). Psychology and culture. Annual Review of Psychology,55, 689-714.
McDonald, R. P. (1999). Test theory. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Mead, G. H. (1956). On social psychology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Rohan, M. J. (2000). A rose by any name? The values construct. Personality and Social Psychology Review,4, 255-277.
Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. New York: Free Press.
Rokeach, M. (1979). From individual to institutional values: With special reference to the values of science. In M. Rokeach (Ed.),Understanding human values: Individual and social (pp. 47-70). New York: Free Press.
Romney, A. K., Boyd, J. P., Moore, C. C., Batchelder, W. H., & Brazill, T. J. (1996). Culture as shared cognitive representations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,93, 4699-4705.
Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.),Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 25, pp. 1-65). New York: Academic Press.
Schwartz, S. H., & Bardi, A. (2001). Value hierarchies across cultures: Taking a similarities perspective. Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology,32, 268-290.
Schwartz, S. H., & Sagiv, L. (1995). Identifying culture specifics in the content and structure of values. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology,26, 92-116.
Searle, W., & Ward, C. (1990). The prediction of psychological and socio-cultural adjustment during cross-cultural transitions. International Journal of Intercultural Relations,14, 449-464.
Sperber, D. (1996). Explaining culture: A naturalistic approach. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories: Studies in social psychology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup relations. In W. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.),The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7-24). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
Terry, D. J., & Hogg, M. A. (1996). Group norms and the attitude-behavior relationship: A role for group identification. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,22, 776-793.
Triandis, H. C. (1995). Individualism and collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Triandis, H. C. (1996). The psychological measurement of cultural syndromes. American Psychologist,51, 407-415.
Turner, J. C., Hogg, M. A., Oakes, P. J., Reicher, S. D., & Wetherell, M. S. (1987). Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Turner, J. C., Oakes, P. J., Haslam, S. A., & McGarty, C. (1994). Self and collective: Cognition and social context. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,20, 454-463.
Wan, C. (2005). Intersubjective culture: A further examination of the role of cultural value importance in cultural identification. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Wan, C., Chiu, C.-y., Tam, K.-p., Lee, S., Lau, I. Y.-m., & Peng, S. (in press). Perceived cultural importance and actual self-importance of values in cultural identification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Ward, C., & Searle, W. (1991). The impact of value discrepancies and cultural identity on psychological and sociocultural adjustment of sojourners. International Journal of Intercultural Relations,15, 209-225.
Cite article
Cite article
Cite article
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published: March 2007
Issue published: March 2007
Keywords
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Journals metrics
This article was published in Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.
VIEW ALL JOURNAL METRICSArticle usage*
Total views and downloads: 767
*Article usage tracking started in December 2016
Articles citing this one
Receive email alerts when this article is cited
Web of Science: 75 view articles Opens in new tab
Crossref: 0
-
Attitudes and Beliefs Towards Transgender Individuals Among Residents ...
-
Why self-proclaimed environmentalists commit non sustainable behaviors...
-
How foreign cultural identity affects franchise business in overseas m...
-
Important to me and my society: How culture influences the roles of pe...
-
Different domains of identity predict different exit strategies
-
Japanese Clinical Psychologists' Consensus Beliefs about Mental Health...
-
Self-brand values congruity and incongruity: Their impacts on self-exp...
-
Decoding Culture
-
Mapping the Cultural Identities of Youths in Hong Kong from a Social C...
-
Local mobility culture as injunctive normative beliefs – A theoretical...
-
Broadening the social psychological approach to acculturation: cultura...
-
Growth Mindset as a Personal Preference Predicts Teachers’ Favorable E...
-
How does culture shape our moral identity? Moral foundations in Saudi ...
-
Consequences of cultural practices on advertising: Rethinking the role...
-
Cultures and Persons: Characterizing National and Other Types of Cultu...
-
Culture, Norms, and the Assessment of Communication Contexts: Multidis...
-
Culture, Norms, and the Assessment of Communication Contexts: Discussi...
-
Source-country individualism, cultural shock, and depression among imm...
-
The influence of construal of self on internal auditors' judgments on ...
-
The Story of Culture in Psychology and the Return Journey to Normology...
-
References
-
Rewards, autonomous motivation and turnover intention: Results from a ...
-
Identity‐centrality, dimensions of uncertainty, and pursuit of subgrou...
-
Learning and praxis for workplace safety
-
What You Know, What You Do, and How You Feel: Cultural Competence, Cul...
-
Construal of self and Chinese accountants’ aggressive financial report...
-
Community Collectivism: A social dynamic approach to conceptualizing c...
-
Understanding the Lack of Parent–Child Value Similarity...
-
Comprehending Adverbs of Doubt and Certainty in Health Communication: ...
-
Re-conceptualizing recreation-based social worlds: examining the core ...
-
Social Identities in a Globalized World...
-
Cross-Cultural Psychology of Aging
-
Alignment with globalized Western culture: Between inclusionary values...
-
Values, schemas, and norms in the culture–behavior nexus: A situated d...
-
Beyond Whom and When...
-
The Motivational Force of Descriptive Norms...
-
Cultural Identity Dynamics and Intersubjective Cultural Representation...
-
Understanding Cultural Identification Through Intersubjective Cultural...
-
Psychological Functions of Subjective Norms...
-
Culture and National Well-Being: Should Societies Emphasize Freedom or...
-
Single Parents, Unhappy Parents? Parenthood, Partnership, and the Cult...
-
Priming Bush (vs. Obama) increases liking of American brands: The role...
-
Do we measure what we expect to measure? Some issues in the measuremen...
-
Retrospective Peak‐Experiences Among Chinese Young Adults in Hong Kong
-
Cultural knowledge, category label, and social connections: Components...
-
Metacognitive Strategies for Making Sense of Cross-Cultural Encounters
-
Meta-Knowledge of Culture Promotes Cultural Competence
-
Consumers’ Reactions to the Cultural Meanings in Brands
-
Psychology and aging in the land of the panda
-
The Better-Than-Average Effect in Hong Kong and the United States...
-
Circumnavigating de-Westernisation: Theoretical reflexivities in resea...
-
When Does Behavior Reflect Personal Values? A Study on Values’ Actual ...
-
Goal commitment and alignment of personal goals predict group identifi...
-
Shared Knowledge Matters: Culture as Intersubjective Representations
-
Intersubjective Culture
-
What I do and What I think they Would Do: Social Axioms and Behaviour
-
Identity Development in Cultural Transition: The Role of Need for Clos...
-
One world, One dream? Intergroup consequences of the 2008 Beijing Olym...
-
Cultural Meanings of Brands and Consumption: A Window into the Cultura...
-
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Identity
-
Altruísmo no Brasil: Um Estudo Exploratório
-
Culture as Intersubjective Representations of Values
-
Self-Definitional Functions of Culture
-
Intersubjective cultural representations predicting behaviour: The cas...
-
What I Know in My Mind and Where My Heart Belongs
-
Intersubjective Culture...
-
Intersubjective Consensus and the Maintenance of Normative Shared Real...
-
The good old days and a better tomorrow: Historical representations an...
-
Home Versus Host — Identifying With Either, Both, or Neither?...
-
Rural‐urban differences in generation of Chinese and Western exemplary...
-
Peak-experiences among norwegian youth
-
Role of personal endorsement of outgroup members' distinctive values a...
-
Peering into the “Magnum Mysterium” of Culture...
-
Toward a Social Psychology of Culture and Globalization: Some Social C...
-
Investigating the three ethics in emerging adulthood: a study in five ...
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Get access
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
loading institutional access options
IACCP members can access this journal content using society membership credentials.
IACCP members can access this journal content using society membership credentials.
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
