Perspectives on Personal Identity Development in Western and Non-Western Contexts

Overviews on research on personal identity tend to be overly focused on research in North America and West Europe. In this chapter, we argue for a more cosmopolitan approach to identity. We first outline major conceptualizations of identity and etic (cross-cultural) applications of these models outside of the Western world. Next, we discuss specific examples from non-Western countries of emic (culture-specific) approaches to personal identity. Based on our overview, we recommend moving toward integrative models of personal identity that are relevant to multiple contexts, more critical reflection on the appropriateness of popular models developed in the Western world for studying identity around the world, and more attention to social-contextual processes in personal identity formation. We argue for more cooperation between researchers from the Western and non-Western worlds in designing new, flexible, universal frameworks that allow for the incorporation of culture-specific aspects of this complex developmental task.