Abstract

I proposed a model that altruism, ingroup favoritism, and collectivism should be mediated by the process of self-expansion. Self-expansion, which means inclusion of others into one's self-definition, is supposed to occur to satisfy such social motivations as needs for interpersonal support, self-worth, and (especially in the collectivism of Koreans) escape from the fear of non-being after death. Korean students from three colleges and elders completed the questionnaires measuring (a)self-expansion(Aron-Aron's IOS Scale), (b)expectations for social supports of others, (c)identification(reflection) to others, (d)collectivistic behavior tendencies(self-sacrificing and favoring ingroup members), and (e)Death Anxiety Questionnaire. Males and elders were found to be more collectivistic than their counterparts. Collectivism decreased as the modernization of the city of the colleges increased. Covariance structure modelling analyses revealed that "Self-Expansion→Motivation→Behavior" model and its two equivalent models("Self-Expansion←Motivation←Behavior" and "Self-Expansion←Motivation→Behavior" model) fit best with the data.