The Cultural Construction of Self and Well-Being: A Tale of Two Cities

Does local context (e.g.,city of residence) matter for self and well-being? we theorized that it does because local contexts diverge in prevalent historically-derived ideas,norms,and products. through historical analysis,studies of norms (tightness-looseness; study 1) and cultural products (content analyses of newspaper headlines,venture capital firm websites,hospital websites; studies 2-4),and studies assessing individuals' self and well-being (studies 5-7),we compared boston and san francisco-similar cities on many metrics. we find that self and well-being are,in some important part,local. reflecting themes of old and established, boston's history and cultural products emphasize tradition,status,and community,and social norms are relatively tight; accordingly feelings and selves are socially contingent. in contrast,reflecting themes of new and free, san francisco's history and cultural products emphasize unlimited possibility,egalitarianism,and innovation,and social norms are relatively loose; accordingly feelings and selves are relatively less contingent on others. © 2012 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.