Recent cultural psychological research has revealed considerable cross-cultural variation in the forms and functions of the self. In particular, European-American, "independent" selves typically pursue agentivity, positivity, and efficacy. By contrast, East Asian, "interdependent" selves typically engage in self-criticism, which leads to an improvement of the self while promoting a mutually sympathetic relationship. In this talk I review evidence for these cross-culturally divergent selves and propose that the development of these selves is mediated by the ways in which mundane social situations are collectively constructed in the respective cultural contexts. Evidence is reviewed and its implications for the cultural grounding of the self are discussed.