ABSTRACT
A Belgian psychologist, Karen Phalet, asked Belgian and Turkish adolescents in their late teens what would give them a feeling of pride in the future. Both groups referred to future achievement, such as being a successful doctor, lawyer, and the like. However, Turkish adolescents, but not Belgians, spontaneously and without being asked also said “and that would make my family proud, too” (Phalet & Claeys, 1993). In contrast is an item that measures individualism: “If the child won the Nobel Prize, the parents should not feel honored in any way” (Triandis, Bontempo, Villareal, Asai, & Lucca, 1988). What these examples reflect are different construals of the self, one that extends into the “other” and one that “separates” itself from the other, the topic of this chapter.
