Culture, self-discrepancies, and self-satisfaction

In contrast to the reliable effects observed with North Americans, research with Japanese has failed to detect self-enhancing biases. The authors cons idered the possibility that, owing to the need to adapt themselves to other s' expectations, Japanese are more critical of themselves than are North Am ericans. A comparison of actual-ideal self-discrepancies indeed revealed la rger discrepancies for Japanese than for either European or Asian Canadians . Moreover; the magnitude of the cultural differences were larger for chara cteristics that participants viewed as more important, and the relation bet ween depression scores and actual-ideal discrepancies was weaker for Japane se than for European Canadians. The data support the notions that (a) Japan ese are more likely than North Americans to be dissatisfied with themselves and (b) these self-critical attitudes are less distressful for Japanese.