The Pleasures and Pains of Distinct Self-Construals: The Role of Interdependence in Regulatory Focus

Regulatory focus theory distinguishes between self-regulatory processes that focus upon promotion and prevention strategies for goal pursuit. Five studies provide support for the hypothesis that these strategies differ for individuals with distinct self-construals. Specifically, individuals with a dominant independent self-construal were predicted to place more emphasis on promotion focused information, and those with a dominant interdependent self-construal on prevention focused information. Support for this hypothesis was obtained for participants who scored high versus low on the Independence-Interdependence scale, participants who were presented with an independent versus interdependent situation, and participants from a western versus eastern culture. The influence of interdependence on regulatory focus was observed in both importance ratings of information and affective responses consistent with promotion or prevention focus.