ABSTRACT
Self-construal is described as the constellation of thoughts, feelings, and actions regarding an individual’s relationships to other people and the self as distinct from other people (Constantine & Yeh, 2001). Some research provides empirical evidence that there are two orthogonal dimensions of self that exist within each individual regardless of his/her cultural identity and can be measured as such (Gudykunst et al., 1996; Kim et al., 2001; Singelis, 1994), although recently this has been intensely contested by some communication scholars (Levine et al., 2003a; Levine et al., 2003b), as reviewed in the Comments section below. However, many communication scholars have conducted self-construal research in many and varied venues in communication (see Ellis & Wittenbaum, 2000; Grace & Cramer, 2003; Gudykunst & Lee, 2003; Gudykunst et al., 1994; Kim et al., 2000; Kim & Sharkey, 1995; Oetzel & Oetzel, 1997; Oguri & Gudykunst, 2002; Park, 2001; Sharkey & Singelis, 1995; Singelis et al., 1999).
