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The added value of world views over self‐views: Predicting modest behaviour in Eastern and Western cultures
Author(s) -
Chen Sylvia Xiaohua,
Ng Jacky C. K.,
Buchtel Emma E.,
Guan Yanjun,
Deng Hong,
Bond Michael Harris
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/bjso.12196
Subject(s) - psychology , operationalization , social psychology , trait , self enhancement , personality , construct (python library) , big five personality traits , mainland china , developmental psychology , china , philosophy , epistemology , computer science , programming language , law , political science
Personality research has been focused on different aspects of the self, including traits, attitudes, beliefs, goals, and motivation. These aspects of the self are used to explain and predict social behaviour. The present research assessed generalized beliefs about the world, termed ‘social axioms’ (Leung et al ., [Leung, K., 2002]), and examined their additive power over beliefs about the self in explaining a communal behaviour, that is, modesty. Three studies predicted reported modest behaviour among Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese, East Asian Canadians, and European Canadians. In addition to self‐reports in Studies 1 and 2, informant reports from participants’ parents and close friends were collected in Study 3 to construct a behavioural composite after examining the resulting multitrait–multimethod matrix and intraclass correlations. World views (operationalized as social axioms) explained additional variance in modest behaviour over and above self‐views (operationalized as self‐efficacy, self‐construals, and trait modesty) in both Eastern and Western cultures. Variation in reports on three factors of modest behaviour was found across self‐, parent, and friend perspectives, with significant differences across perspectives in self‐effacement and other‐enhancement, but not in avoidance of attention‐seeking.