The relationship between self -construal and preference for different types of classroom organization among Black, Hispanic, and White college students

Markus and Kitayama's (1991) self-construal theory characterizes the different ways that individuals conceive of themselves and interpret the world. In their view, individuals have different degrees of independent and interdependent self-construals. One interesting claim of their theory is that different cultures encourage one or the other self-construal to different degrees and that different self-construals lead to different observed cross-cultural differences in affect, motivation, and cognition. Existing cross-cultural studies often make comparisons between national groups and do not take into account the great diversity that exists within many national boundaries. The two main purposes of this study were (1) to test the validity of the self-construal theory to explain important psychological differences among different groups of American college students; and (2) to examine whether ethnic differences in college students' self-construals exist and whether these self-construals are associated with preferences for different types of classroom organization.;Participants were 197 college students (White = 87, Hispanic = 56, Black = 54) who completed questionnaires measuring different types of self-construal, preference for classroom organizations, and degree of identification with one's ethnic group. For testing ethnic differences in self-construal and classroom organization preferences, a series of ANOVA, MANOVA, or MANCOVA models were used. Results indicated that degree of identification with one's ethnic group, the covariate measure, and not the independent variable of ethnic group, was crucial in predicting one's independent and interdependent self-construal scores. Also, there was a significant sex difference in preference for a competitive classroom organization, but no ethnic differences were found for any of the preferences for types of classroom organization. For testing the validity of self-construal theory, a multiple regression mediation analysis was conducted. Contradicting the theory, self-construals appeared not to act as mediators of students' preferences for learning organizations. Future implications for ethnic minority research and practice are discussed.