Cultural patterns in implicit theories of self may be associated with self-construal, or how people understand themselves in relation to others. Interdependent self-construal is described as tending to align with an incremental theory of self and as being more common in Asian cultures. Independent self-construal is described as tending to align with an entity theory of self and as being more common in North American cultures. These statements describe broad tendencies rather than characteristics of every person within either cultural group.