Hazel Rose Markus - Research Contributions

Research Contributions

Markus' most significant contributions to social psychology are her conceptualizations of the self-schema (Markus, 1977), of the mutual constitution of self and culture, and of the distinction between the independent and interdependent self (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). The self-schema is a cognitive representation that organizes knowledge about the self and guides processing of self-relevant information. In Study 1 of Markus (1977), participants completed a reaction time task, where they were presented with personality traits and asked to hit a button labeled "Me" if the trait was self-descriptive and another button labeled "Not Me" if the trait was not self-descriptive. When participants classified a trait that they had previously said described themselves, they were faster to categorize the trait with the "Me" button than participants who had previously said the trait was only moderately descriptive. The faster response time of people who felt the trait was self-descriptive reflects an association of that trait with their self-schema. Self-schemas and the self-concept remain among the most researched concepts in social psychology today.

Markus is also a pioneering figure in cultural psychology, a field which explores how cultural contexts both shape and reflect individuals' emotions, cognitions, motivations, and other psychological processes (Kim & Markus, 1999) in a process that Markus and her coauthors call mutual constitution or the culture cycle. Her recent research includes biracial identity, where she found that for ethnicity reports on forms such as the SAT or the census, if a biracial person is not allowed to choose to identify with more than one race, their self-esteem lowers. This was apparent in a survey that they were to take following the ethnicity report during the research. Also, biracial individuals from higher socioeconomic levels are more likely to admit to their biracial status. Asian/White are most likely to mark their ethnicity as biracial, followed by Black/White, and then Latino/White. Markus has also completed research on differences between East-Asian and European-American cultural norms, as well as biological differences that occur from different cultural perspectives and practices. Markus found that older Japanese adults reported increase personal growth as they aged, whereas older Americans reported a decrease. Interpersonal well-being is also rated higher in older Japanese adults. However, both Japanese and American adults reported a lack of purpose in life as they age. Markus remains very active in the research and publishing field.