바로가기메뉴

본문 바로가기 주메뉴 바로가기

Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology

ISSN : 1229-0653

Article Contents

Prev Next
e-Submission

Vol.13 No.2
Citation Share

The Self in the Koreans' Mind in Comparison with the Western Self-Concept

Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology / Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, (P)1229-0653;
1999, v.13 no.2, pp.275-292
Sang-Chin Choi (Department of Psychology, Chung-Ang University)
Kibum Kim (Department of Psychology, Chung-Ang University)
Choi, S., & Kim, K. (1999). The Self in the Koreans' Mind in Comparison with the Western Self-Concept. Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, 13(2), 275-292.
  • Downloaded
  • Viewed
PDF Download

Abstract

Koreans are perplexed when they are confronted with a question such, as: "Who are you or What are you?" In general, Koreans have rare opportunities to think about those questions. However, if the questions are rephrase as the following: "What is your mind or Shimcheong when you are with your friends or when you are in conflict with your friends?" Then they are able to answer these questions more easily as compare to the first questions. This indicates that Koreans placed a great importance of their selves or minds in relation to their interpersonal relationships as well as in a specific context or situation. In contrast, the Westerners are able to respond to the question "Who are you?" since this question is in terms of their ontological beings. In other words, Westerners reflect and analyze their selves constantly as opposed to Koreans who placed their selves in the mind(ma-um) of the Korean people. The present authors define the Western self-concept as the 'Referential Entity-Self' and the Korean self-concept as 'Inferential Mind-Self'. This study examines die Korean self-concept based on the response from the university students. Moreover, if focuses on the comparison of 'Western self-concept with the Korean mind-self.

keywords

Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology

e-Submission OA Policy