The Dialectical Self Around the World: A Meta-Analysis of Country-Level Means

This research presents the first known meta-analysis of the Dialectical Self Scale, a widely used measure of the extent to which people hold contradictory and changeable self-conceptions. Data were synthesized from k = 139 studies (N = 23,629) from 28 countries to produce a national Dialectical Self Index (DSI). Study 1 used meta-analytic techniques to hierarchically order countries on dialecticism and test demographic moderators. No historical shifts in dialecticism were observed over two decades. In Study 2, dialecticism, at the country-level, was correlated with variables reflecting tolerance of contradiction and expectation of change, and socioecological factors (Buddhism, rice farming), but only weakly related to contemporary macro-social forces (globalization). Dialecticism was unrelated to collectivism and interdependent self-construals, indicating it is a foundational cultural mindset. A world map of dialecticism showed clear regional clustering. The DSI provides a useful tool for conducting cross-national research on dialecticism.