A Critical Review of Cultural Self-Construal and Resilience: Individual and Environmental Resource Perspectives

Abstract Book of the 7th International Conference on Research in Psychology

Year: 2026

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A Critical Review of Cultural Self-Construal and Resilience: Individual and Environmental Resource Perspectives

Kazuma Yamane, Eiichi Yubune

ABSTRACT:

This study provides an integrative review of research on resilience and cultural self-construal, aiming to clarify how culturally shaped views of the self influence adaptive processes. Traditional psychology has focused primarily on maladjustment, whereas positive psychology emphasizes strengths such as resilience, defined as a dynamic process of positive adaptation in spite of adversity. Prior research conceptualizes resilience as a multidimensional construct emerging from interactions between intrapersonal resources (e.g., temperament, cognitive ability) and environmental resources (e.g., family relationships, social support). At the same time, cultural psychology highlights culture as a fundamental force shaping cognition, emotion, and motivation. Within this framework, cultural self-construal—categorized as independent or interdependent—provides a useful lens for understanding cultural variation in psychological processes. Importantly, self-construal is not fixed but dynamically influenced by situational cues. This study conducted a narrative review of theoretical and empirical literature on resilience, cultural self-construal, and psychological adaptation, organizing resilience into individual and environmental dimensions and examining the relationships between resilience and self-construal. The findings suggest that resilience is inherently embedded in cultural contexts and cannot be fully understood as a universal trait. Moreover, cultural self-construal appears to differentially influence resilience: independent self-construal may enhance adaptation through internal resources, whereas interdependent self-construal may promote adaptation through relational and environmental resources. This study contributes to the literature by theoretically integrating these constructs and highlights the need for future empirical research, particularly experimental studies using cultural priming, to validate these proposed relationships.

Keywords: Adaptation; Cultural Priming; Environmental Resources; Intrapersonal Resources; Positive Psychology