Cultural Biases in Achievement Motivation Self image and motivation can also vary greatly by culture.
Americans have a tendency to see themselves positively, which is critical for emotional well-be- ing (Baumeister, Tice, & Hutton, 1989; Taylor & Brown, 1988). U.S. culture highlights the importance of self-esteem and emphasizes it in everyday life as a key to success and well-being (Ng, Pomerantz, & Lam, 2007). However, studies suggest that Asian students tend to be self-critical, whereas European , Ameri- can, and Canadian students are typically self-enhancing (Heine, 2005; Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999). East Asian students are in general more sensitive to failure than to success, whereas European students are more sensitive to success than to failure (Heine et al., 2001; Kitayama, Markus, Matsumoto, & Norasakkunkit, 1997). Overall, East Asian children persist longer than Ameri- can students in the face of difficulty or failure (e.g., Blinco, 1992; Heine et al., 2001) because achievement is highly valued. Positive emotional function is not as important, emphasizing students’ failures and downplaying their successes. In contrast, in America, positive emotional well-being is highly valued (Eid & Die- ner, 2001), downplaying students’ failures and highlighting their successes. This may be detrimental to American students’ achievement.
The type of achievement feedback thought to be most beneficial to children’s advancement differs between various cultural groups. Researchers suggest that East Asian parents tend to believe that their role is to train their children to im- prove their performance, whereas American parents tend to believe that their role is to protect and build their children’s self-esteem by providing positive feedback (Miller, Wang, Sandel, & Cho, 2002). Thus, East Asian parents downplay chil- dren’s success and highlight children’s failure by setting even higher standards, whereas American parents highlight children’s success by praising or rewarding children (Hess, Chih-Mei, & McDevitt, 1987).
Studies on educational aspirations have demonstrated that in American school settings, the roles of teachers and of peers have greater effects than fam- ily on educational attainment and achievement (Lee, 2007; Lee & Smith, 1999; Raudenbush, 1984). However, in East Asian families, parental expectation and pressures have greater effects than school settings on children’s educational at- tainment and achievement (Ellinger & Beckham, 1997; Lee, 2002; Lee, 2007). In East Asia, parents, families, and communities take responsibility for teaching and disciplining children, and thus achievement motivation is socially oriented (Holloway, 1988). However, in America a child’s achievement is not considered to necessarily reflect the achievement of the parents, the family, or the community, and thus achievement is motivated by independent or individual goals (Bempe- chat & Drago-Severson, 1999).
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