Culture, self -construal, and agency: India, the United States, and bicultural Indian-American

The present study explored the relationship between culture, self-construal, and agency in India, the United States, and in bicultural Indian-American individuals. Study 1 is a cross-cultural investigation of differences in self-construal and agency, using the Ten Statements Test, Relational Individual Collective Self-Construal Scale, and Test of Agency, with participants born and raised in India (N=54) and the United States (N=50). In Study 2 self-construal was manipulated in bicultural Indian-Americans (N=50), who lived in both the United States and India for at least 5 years. Study 2 utilized a priming procedure in which participants read a story to elicit independent, relational, or collective self-construal.;Results from Study 1 provide support for separating interdependence into two distinct constructs of relational and collective self-construal. When gender and national origin were considered together, a gender difference emerged: women scored higher than men on relational self-construal measures. Independent self-construal measures indicate cultural differences; Americans scored higher on independent scales than Indians. Collective self-construal is inconclusive, with one measure producing a main effect for national origin with Indians scoring higher, and another measure producing an interaction effect between national origin and gender, with males from India scoring higher and American females scoring higher. Analysis of urban and rural participants in India indicated that rural participants are more independent, and urban participants are more collective than expected.;No significant relationship between self-construal and agency was found. Results from Study 2 indicate that the priming method was successful for only 64% of participants. Among participants for whom the priming method worked, there was a trend towards self-construal manipulation yielding differences in agency, (p=.068).;The concept of relational agency was introduced in this dissertation, providing initial qualitative support for this construct. Qualitative analysis extracted themes from the open-ended agency measure. The themes of Leadership, Traits, and Trust were consistently found across all groups. However, the theme of Confidence was found primarily in the American group. Themes of Chasing, Sacrifice, and Safety were primarily found in the Indian group. In Study 2, the theme of Natural Law/Order emerged with bicultural participants.