Regular Ph.D. Fellow, Field B, Cohort 2021

Research Interests

• Cultural Psychology
• Self across different cultural backgrounds
• Values
• Personality

Dissertation topic
Migration and Value Differences in the Context of Honor and Dignity Cultures

Dissertation abstract
Many migrants currently entering Europe come from so-called honor cultures distinguished from the dignity cultures characterizing North Western Europe. Both honor and dignity, refer to the worth of a person but bear different connotations and psychological consequences. Dignity is an independent concept of self-worth whose locus lies deep within the individual, whereas honor is an interdependent concept that needs both personal and societal acknowledgment. Additionally, notions of honor and dignity differ across cultures due to cultural value priorities. While differences in honor and dignity cultures have been established, it remains unclear how personal honor and dignity can change post migration which is the central focus of this Ph.D. project. Specifically, the research takes an exploratory approach to draw the structural and contextual understanding of personal honor and dignity in North India and Germany and then aims to compare these with the leading group of interest, North Indian immigrants in Germany. The project utilizes a mixed methods approach combining qualitative and quantitative designs into an overarching study across three papers. Case selection and expected results are discussed at length and their justifications are derived from the disciplines of cross-cultural and social psychology, sociology, and anthropology. I hope to contribute to the literature by studying these relationships in the context of migration and gaining a sociocultural perspective on migrant lives.

Academic Supervisors
Ulrich Kühnen
Mandy Boehnke