Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Self-Change in Close Relationships: Evidence From Hong Kong Chinese and European Americans.

Three studies examined cultural perceptions of self-change in romantic relationships. In Study 1 (N = 191), Chinese participants perceived hypothetical couples who changed for the sake of the relationship to have better relationship quality than couples who did not, compared to European American participants. In Study 2 (N = 396), Chinese individuals in a dating relationship were more likely to perceive that they had changed in the relationship, and self-change was a stronger predictor of relationship quality for them than for American dating individuals. In Study 3 (N = 115 dyads), Chinese married couples perceived greater self-change, and their perceived self-change was due in part to higher endorsement of dutiful adjustment beliefs than American couples. Self-change was a stronger predictor of relationship quality for Chinese married couples than American couples. Our studies provide support for cultural differences in the role of self-change in romantic relationships, which have implications for partner regulation and relationship counseling across cultures.

Is It Helpful to Believe That Efforts Will Lead to Positive Outcomes? Two Cross-Lagged Panel Investigations among Adolescents and Young Adults.

Over the past few decades, the role of self-views in life satisfaction has been extensively investigated. Recently, growing attention has been directed to the question of whether an optimistic worldview, termed "reward for application", helps boost life satisfaction. Conceptually, the association between reward for application and life satisfaction can be paradoxical. Due to various methodological and theoretical shortfalls, previous investigations were unable to draw a robust conclusion on this association. To address these shortfalls, two cross-lagged panel studies were conducted with different time lags. Over and above the potential confounds of self-views (namely, self-esteem and self-rated personality traits), reward for application had a positive effect on lagged life satisfaction among both adolescents and young adults, while the reverse effect was not found. Moreover, we found support for the multiplicative effect between worldviews and self-views, in which the positive effect of reward for application on life satisfaction was attenuated by high self-esteem.

Conceptualizing psychological processes in response to globalization: Components, antecedents, and consequences of global orientations.

The influences of globalization have permeated various aspects of life in contemporary society, from technical innovations, economic development, and lifestyles, to communication patterns. The present research proposed a construct termed global orientation to denote individual differences in the psychological processes of acculturating to the globalizing world. It encompasses multicultural acquisition as a proactive response and ethnic protection as a defensive response to globalization. Ten studies examined the applicability of global orientations among majority and minority groups, including immigrants and sojourners, in multicultural and relatively monocultural contexts, and across Eastern and Western cultures. Multicultural acquisition is positively correlated with both independent and interdependent self-construals, bilingual proficiency and usage, and dual cultural identifications. Multicultural acquisition is promotion-focused, while ethnic protection is prevention-focused and related to acculturative stress. Global orientations affect individuating and modest behavior over and above multicultural ideology, predict overlap with outgroups over and above political orientation, and predict psychological adaptation, sociocultural competence, tolerance, and attitudes toward ethnocultural groups over and above acculturation expectations/strategies. Global orientations also predict English and Chinese oral presentation performance in multilevel analyses and the frequency and pleasantness of intercultural contact in cross-lagged panel models. We discuss how the psychological study of global orientations contributes to theory and research on acculturation, cultural identity, and intergroup relations.