The Concept of Human Nature in East Asia

Etic and Emic Characteristics

Bibliographic Data

ID2390636
AuthorsRolf Oerter (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), Rosemarie Oerter (Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany), Hendriati Agostiani (Padjadjaran University, Bandung, Indonesia), Hei C Kim (0000-0001-7867-1240, Mokpo National University), Hye-On Kim (Mok-Po National University, Republic of Korea), Sutji Wibowo (Padjadjaran University, Bandung, Indonesia)
Year1996
Volume2
Issue1
Pages9-51
Publication date1996-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture & Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-067X • E-ISSN: 1461-7056
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1354067x9621002
OpenAlexW2156757096
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited30

Adopting a constructivist approach, individual constructions of the concept of human nature were investigated by using an 'adulthood interview' and culturally adapted dilemma stories. Subjects were young adults with higher education, including university students and individuals already in work from the US, Indonesia, Japan and Korea. The central hypothesis that subjects from different cultures conceptualize similar structures of understanding human nature at different levels of complexity was clearly confirmed. A second complementary hypothesis assumed that subjects from eastern cultures emphasize a more collective and interdependent identity compared with US subjects. Content analysis revealed that all subjects from eastern cultures elaborated characteristics of interdependency that were viewed as crucial for human nature, while US subjects emphasized aspects of individuality and independence. However, without exception, eastern subjects also simultaneously stressed autonomous identity. Conflict resolutions resulting from contradictions between independent and interdependent identity are described by examples from Indonesia (parent-child conflict) and Japan (self-other conflict). Finally, a combination of universal structural levels and of a culturally shaped conception of identity is suggested, assuming that the interdependent self, more pronounced in eastern cultures, and independent identities, more elaborated in western cultures, are conceived at different structural levels of increasing complexity that show universal characteristics

Aesthetics · Dilemma · East Asia · Emic and etic · Epistemology · Geography · Interdependence · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Cultural Differences and Values · Gender Studies · Mathematics · Psychology · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology

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