My nation,my self: Divergent framings of America influence American Selves

Current public discourse calls for america to act more interdependently in the world or act more like a conjoint agent. america and american selves,however,are typically associated acting independently or disjoint agency. since nation is a significant sociocultural source of self,the authors examine what happens to american selves if america is instead associated with conjoint agency. study 1 surveyed participants in america and nine nations (n = 610) about america's role in the world and found that although people currently associate america with disjoint agency,they overwhelmingly prefer america to be a conjoint agent. studies 2-4 demonstrated that framing america's role in the world with conjoint agency rather than disjoint agency led americans to see themselves more positively (studies 2 and 3) and be less individualistic in their self-descriptions and actions (study 4). the results reveal how changes in the sociocultural context can catalyze a corresponding change in the selves that inhabit that context. © 2011 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.