Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of context on self-construal of European Americans and Asian Americans and to examine how ethnic make-up of groups in various social settings affect self-construal. It was expected that European Americans would report more independent self than Asian Americans and that Asian Americans would report more interdependent self than the independent self across ethnic composition settings and experience more variability in their self-construal than European Americans. Among Asian Americans, it was expected that those with a low ethnic identity would report more independent self-construal while those with a high ethnic identity would report more interdependent self. The sample consisted of 194 psychology undergraduate students from California, 119 European Americans (30 males, 89 females) and 75 Asian Americans (26 males, 49 females). Mixed ANOVA results reveal significant ethnicity differences between groups regarding self-descriptions across minority, mixed, and majority ethnic composition settings.