Chemyeon, the Korean Face: Finalizing the Scale and Validity through Self-Construal

Abstract

Even though the term chemyeon encompasses its own cultural uniqueness, there have only been a small number of attempts to develop a scale which embraces the characteristics of chemyeon. This scale has not been previously fully checked for validity and theoretical applicability. The purpose of this study is to test the validity of the existing scale and to check its theoretical applicability in relation to self-construal. This study confirms the previous presumption that chemyeon consists of six factors with ethics, competence, demeanor, social performance, social personality, and social pride. This study also verifies that the concept of chemyeon consists of two dimensions: social chemyeon and personal chemyeon. As the predictive validity of the two-dimension model was anticipated, the correlation between social chemyeon and independent self-construal was found to be negative. However, the correlation between personal chemyeon and independent self-construal was found to be positive. Theoretical implications and ramifications for future study are discussed based on the results.