ABSTRACT
Westerners should, however, find that past information is generally more indicativeand diagnostic of people’s nature than non-Westerners, since the key factor determining predestinal perception of people as “successes” or “failures” is the provision of suitable signs. As it was assumed that in the Calvinist perception differences between Protestants or Westerners and others would be observed mainly when “indicative labeling” was assessed, comparative results of indicative perception. To explore how self-labeling originates and operates differentially, this chapter begins by operationalizing and comparing two major self-labeling systems: “transmutive labeling,” presumably characterizing mostly Eastern societies, and “indicative labeling,” presumably characterizing Western society. It presents preliminary evidence of differential self-labeling among new and older Eastern and Western mental patients in Israel. Results indicated generally that while “transmutive self-labeling” was characteristic of Eastern patients and “indicative self-labeling” was generally characteristic of Western patients, as time of hospitalization increased, “indicative labeling” became the predominant pattern of most patients, regardless of ethnic origin.
