Emotions in collectivist and individualist contexts.

A theory of cultural differences in emotions was tested in a questionnaire study. Hypotheses about the differences between emotion in individualist and collectivist contexts covered different components of emotion: concerns and appraisals, action readiness, social sharing, and belief changes. The questionnaire focused on 6 types of events that were rated as similar in meaning across cultures. Participants were 86 Dutch individualist respondents and 171 Surinamese and Turkish collectivist respondents living in the Netherlands. As compared with emotions in individualist cultures, emotions in collectivist cultures (a) were more grounded in assessments of social worth and of shifts in relative social worth, (b) were to a large extent taken to reflect reality rather than the inner world of the individual, and (c) belonged to the self–other relationship rather than being confined to the subjectivity of the self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proud Americans and lucky Japanese: Cultural differences in appraisal and corresponding emotion.

Appraisal theories of emotion propose that the emotions people experience correspond to their appraisals of their situation. In other words, individual differences in emotional experiences reflect differing interpretations of the situation. We hypothesized that in similar situations, people in individualist and collectivist cultures experience different emotions because of culturally divergent causal attributions for success and failure (i.e., agency appraisals). In a test of this hypothesis, American and Japanese participants recalled a personal experience (Study 1) or imagined themselves to be in a situation (Study 2) in which they succeeded or failed, and then reported their agency appraisals and emotions. Supporting our hypothesis, cultural differences in emotions corresponded to differences in attributions. For example, in success situations, Americans reported stronger self-agency emotions (e.g., proud) than did Japanese, whereas Japanese reported a stronger situation-agency emotion (lucky). Also, cultural differences in attribution and emotion were largely explained by differences in self-enhancing motivation. When Japanese and Americans were induced to make the same attribution (Study 2), cultural differences in emotions became either nonsignificant or were markedly reduced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multimethod probes of individualism and collectivism.

A theoretical framework concerning cultural patterns labeled individualism and collectivism is probed. As predicted, it is shown that the content of the self includes more group-linked elements in collectivist than in individualist cultures; members of collectivist cultures perceive their ingroups as more homogeneous than their outgroups, and the opposite pattern is found among members of individualistic cultures; and people in collectivist cultures perceive more intimate and subordinate social behaviors as likely toward their ingroup members and more dissociative and superordinate behaviors toward members of their outgroups than do members of individualistic cultures. Collectivists emphasize values that promote the welfare of their ingroup, whereas individualists emphasize values that promote individual goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture and cause: American and Chinese attributions for social and physical events.

Argue that attribution patterns reflect implicit theories acquired from induction and socialization and hence differentially distributed across human cultures. In particular, the authors tested the hypothesis that dispositionalism in attribution for behavior reflects a theory of social behavior more widespread in individualist than collectivist cultures. Study 1 demonstrated that causal perceptions of social events but not physical events differed between American and Chinese students. Study 2 found English-language newspapers were more dispositional and Chinese-language newspapers were more situational in explanations of the same crimes. Study 3 found that Chinese survey respondents differed in weightings of personal dispositions and situational factors as causes of recent murders and in counterfactual judgments about how murders might have been averted by changed situations. Implications for issues in cognitive, social, and organizational psychology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The self in context: Implications for psychopathology and psychotherapy.

Views of the self differ in individualist and collectivist cultures. Independence and uniqueness are valued in the former, whereas interdependence and social context are valued in the latter. When there is more than 1 culture in the same context, the competent individual learns to become bicultural. Intrapersonal influences are more prominent in determining psychopathology in individualist contexts, whereas interpersonal influences are more prominent in collectivist contexts. Psychopathology among persons who are bicultural may be determined by both intrapersonal and interpersonal influences. Western psychotherapy has emphasized intrapersonal bases of psychopathology. However, the intrapersonal and bicultural context of psychopathology must be considered for psychotherapy to be appropriate with persons who have been socialized to be interdependent, including ethnic minority persons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of positive and negative emotions in life satisfaction judgment across nations.

This study examined how the frequency of positive and negative emotions is related to life satisfaction across nations. Participants were 8,557 people from 46 countries who reported on their life satisfaction and frequency of positive and negative emotions. Multilevel analyses showed that across nations, the experience of positive emotions was more strongly related to life satisfaction than the absence of negative emotions. Yet, the cultural dimensions of individualism and survival/self-expression moderated these relationships. Negative emotional experiences were more negatively related to life satisfaction in individualistic than in collectivistic nations, and positive emotional experiences had a larger positive relationship with life satisfaction in nations that stress self-expression than in nations that value survival. These findings show how emotional aspects of the good life vary with national culture and how this depends on the values that characterize one's society. Although to some degree, positive and negative emotions might be universally viewed as desirable and undesirable, respectively, there appear to be clear cultural differences in how relevant such emotional experiences are to quality of life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Earning its place as a pan-human theory: Universality of the big-fish-little-pond effect across 41 culturally and economically diverse countries.

For more than 2 decades, big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) research has demonstrated that students in high-ability classes and schools have lower academic self-concepts than their equally able counterparts in mixed-ability schools. However, cross-cultural BFLPE research has been limited to mostly developed and individualist countries. Using the Program for International Student Assessment database (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2005a, 2005b), the present investigation assessed the BFLPE in 41 culturally and economically diverse countries. In support of the BFLPE, the effect of school-average self-concept was negative for the total sample (effect size = ?.49), negative for each of the 41 countries considered separately, and statistically significant in 38 countries. In this large, culturally diverse sample of countries, the BFLPE was evident in both collectivist and individualist cultures and in economically developing and developed nations. Implications for BFLPE theory and educational practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Norms for experiencing emotions in different cultures: Inter- and intranational differences.

Within- and between-nations differences in norms for experiencing emotions were analyzed in a cross-cultural study with 1,846 respondents from 2 individualistic (United States, Australia) and 2 collectivistic (China, Taiwan) countries. A multigroup latent class analysis revealed that there were both universal and culture-specific types of norms for experiencing emotions. Moreover, strong intranational variability in norms for affect could be detected, particularly for collectivistic nations. Unexpectedly, individualistic nations were most uniform in norms, particularly with regard to pleasant affect. Individualistic and collectivistic nations differed most strongly in norms for self-reflective emotions (e.g., pride and guilt). Norms for emotions were related to emotional experiences within nations. Furthermore, there were strong national differences in reported emotional experiences, even when norms were held constant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Choice and self-expression: A cultural analysis of variety-seeking.

Three studies examined whether the tendency to seek variety in choices depends in part on cultural assumptions of choice and uniqueness. Study 1 showed that people from different cultures where different assumptions of choice and uniqueness dominate show different levels of variety in their choice rule use. Study 2 primed participants with magazine ads highlighting different representations of uniqueness dominant in individualist versus collectivist cultures to show the influence of cultural meanings of uniqueness on the variety-seeking tendency. Study 3 manipulated the motivation to display to demonstrate that variety-seeking in the United States partly hinges on cultural meanings of as self-expression. Variety-seeking in choice rule use was eliminated when participants had the chance to self-express through choice listing. The research illustrates the role of cultural assumptions in the variety-seeking tendency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Authoritarian parenting in individualist and collectivist groups: Associations with maternal emotion and cognition and children's self-esteem.

Mothers and children between the ages of 7 and 12, from individualist (Western European) and collectivist (Egyptian, Iranian, Indian, and Pakistani) backgrounds, completed assessments of children's self-esteem, maternal authoritarianism, and mothers' thoughts and feelings about their children. Collectivist mothers endorsed authoritarian parenting more than did individualist mothers but did not feel or think more negatively about their children, and collectivist children were not lower in self-esteem. Within both groups, maternal negative affect and cognition were associated with lower self-esteem in children. However, maternal authoritarianism was associated with maternal negative emotion and cognition only in the individualist group. The results suggest that maternal negative thoughts and feelings, associated with authoritarianism in individualist but not collectivist groups, may be more detrimental to children's self-esteem than is authoritarianism in and of itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conflict and childhood friendship in Taiwan and Canada.

The present study assessed cross-cultural differences in friendship characteristics among children (aged 8–9 yrs) from collectivist and individualist cultures. Same-sex dyads of Grade 3 and Grade 4 students in a middle-class suburb of Toronto, Canada (n?=?1,227) and students from a middle-class suburb of Taipei, Taiwan (n?=?965) reported on the presence of companionship, conflict, help, security, and closeness in their friendships. The analysis reveals that long-term stability rates for friendships were not significantly different between nations or between boys and girls. Companionship was a significant predictor of friendship continuation among students in Taiwan. Friends in Taiwan reported significantly less conflict in their relationships than did friends in Canada. There was also greater agreement among friends in Taiwan than in Canada on the presence of conflict in the friendship relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of individualism and collectivism across the United States.

Although the individualism–collectivism dimension is usually examined in a U.S. versus Asian context, there is variation within the United States. The authors created an eight-item index ranking states in terms of collectivist versus individualist tendencies. As predicted, collectivist tendencies were strongest in the Deep South, and individualist tendencies were strongest in the Mountain West and Great Plains. In Part 2, convergent validity for the index was obtained by showing that state collectivism scores predicted variation in individual attitudes, as measured by a national survey. In Part 3, the index was used to explore the relationship between individualism–collectivism and a variety of demographic, economic, cultural, and health-related variables. The index may be used to complement traditional measures of collectivism and individualism and may be of use to scholars seeking a construct to account for unique U.S. regional variation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring subjective life satisfaction in persons with severe and persistent mental illness: A measurement quality and structural model analysis.

This study investigated measurement of subjective quality of life by Lehman's Quality of Life Interview (QOLI). Participants from 2 states were included (N?=?502). Confirmatory factor analysis conducted on 29 QOLI subjective satisfaction items contrasted first- and second-order factor models of domain structure in fit of observed data. Both models yielded adequate fits, but the second-order factor model provided a parsimonious explanation of first-order QOLI domain correlations. Factor structure and item loadings, estimated in Cincinnati, Ohio (N?=?285), were invariant in Baltimore, Maryland (N?=?217). Model testing on 1-year follow-up responses (N?=?372) indicated invariant parameter estimates over the follow-up period. Stability estimates were high, ranging from r?=?.20 for financial satisfaction to r?=?.73 for the second-order factor of general well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Simultaneous Administration of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in 53 Nations: Exploring the Universal and Culture-Specific Features of Global Self-Esteem.

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) was translated into 28 languages and administered to 16,998 participants across 53 nations. The RSES factor structure was largely invariant across nations. RSES scores correlated with neuroticism, extraversion, and romantic attachment styles within nearly all nations, providing additional support for cross-cultural equivalence of the RSES. All nations scored above the theoretical midpoint of the RSES, indicating generally positive self-evaluation may be culturally universal. Individual differences in self-esteem were variable across cultures, with a neutral response bias prevalent in more collectivist cultures. Self-competence and self-liking subscales of the RSES varied with cultural individualism. Although positively and negatively worded items of the RSES were correlated within cultures and were uniformly related to external personality variables, differences between aggregates of positive and negative items were smaller in developed nations. Because negatively worded items were interpreted differently across nations, direct cross-cultural comparisons using the RSES may have limited value. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in prototypicality judgments about trait categories.

Three studies demonstrated substantial individual differences in prototypicality judgments about trait categories. In Study 1, subjects twice rated instances of four personality trait categories, four concrete object categories, and one definitional category. For all nine categories, agreement between individuals was substantially lower (median r?=?.43) than the retest reliability of individual ratings (median r?=?.86). In Studies 2 and 3, subjects twice rated the prototypicality of characters from the film Twelve Angry Men as instances of seven trait dimensions. Agreement between individuals was again found to be substantially lower (median r?=?.56) than the retest reliability of individual ratings (median r?=?.81). These results may help to explain the unreliability of trait ratings based on examples of behavior (e.g., evaluation of employees or patients) and suggest that individual differences in the perception of prototypicality should be taken into account when comparing cross-situational with temporal consistency of behavior. Most generally, the results suggest a reconsideration of the nature of implicit personality theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Converging measurement of horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism.

The constructs of horizontal (H) and vertical (V) individualism (I) and collectivism (C) were theoretically defined and empirically supported. Study 1 confirmed, via factor analysis, that the 4 constructs, HI, V1, HC, and VC, which were previously found in the United States, which has an individualist culture, also were found in Korea which has a collectivist culture. Study 2 investigated multimethod-multitrait matrices measuring the constructs and generally supported their convergent and divergent validity. Study 3 showed how these 4 constructs relate to previously identified components by H. C. Triandis and colleagues. Study 4 showed the relationships of the measurement of the 4 constructs to some of the measures used by other researchers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation and dietary self-care in adults with diabetes: Are self-efficacy and autonomous self-regulation complementary or competing constructs?

This study examined constructs drawn from social-cognitive theory (A. Bandura, 1986) and self-determination theory (E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan, 1985, 1991) in relation to dietary self-care and life satisfaction among 638 individuals with diabetes. A motivational model of diabetes dietary self-care was proposed, which postulates direct links between self-efficacy/autonomous self-regulation, and adherence/ life satisfaction. Structural equation modeling showed that both self-efficacy and autonomous self-regulation were associated with adherence (βs?=?.54 and .21, respectively) and with life satisfaction (βs?=?.15 and .34, respectively). Constraint analyses confirmed that self-efficacy was significantly more associated with adherence, whereas autonomous self-regulation was significantly more associated with life satisfaction. According to the model, interventions for dietary self-care and life satisfaction should focus on increasing self-efficacy and autonomous self-regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture and alexithymia: Mean levels, correlates and the role of parental socialization of emotions.

Two studies examined the relationship between culture and alexithymia. In Study 1, mean levels and correlates of alexithymia were examined in 3 cultures: European American (EA), Asian American (AA), and Malaysian college students. Both Asian groups had higher alexithymia levels than the EA group. Somatization was more strongly associated with alexithymia in the Asian groups than in the EA group. Mood and life satisfaction were associated with alexithymia in similar ways across groups. In Study 2, the relations among culture, gender, retrospective reports of parental socialization of emotions, and alexithymia were examined among EA and AA college students. Cultural and gender differences were found in alexithymia and emotion socialization levels. Most important, parental emotion socialization mediated the relations among culture, gender, and alexithymia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analytic review of predictors of job performance for salespeople.

This meta-analysis evaluated predictors of both objective and subjective sales performance. Biodata measures and sales ability inventories were good predictors of the ratings criterion, with corrected rs of .52 and .45, respectively. Potency (a subdimension of the Big 5 personality dimension Extraversion) predicted supervisor ratings of performance (r?=?.28) and objective measures of sales (r?=?.26). Achievement (a component of the Conscientiousness dimension) predicted ratings (r?=?.25) and objective sales (r?=?.41). General cognitive ability showed a correlation of .40 with ratings but only .04 with objective sales. Similarly, age predicted ratings (r?=?.26) but not objective sales (r?=?-.06). On the basis of a small number of studies, interest appears to be a promising predictor of sales success. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do collectivists know themselves better than individualists? Cross-cultural studies of the holier than thou phenomenon.

Collectivists know themselves better than individualists do, in that collectivists provide more accurate self-predictions of future behavior in situations with moral or altruistic overtones. In 3 studies, respondents from individualist cultures overestimated the likelihood that they would act generously in situations involving redistributing a reward (Study 1), donating money (Study 2), or avoiding rude behavior (Study 3), whereas collectivists were, in general, more accurate in their self-predictions. Both groups were roughly accurate in predicting the behavior of their peers. Collectivists were more accurate in their self-predictions than were individualists, even when both groups were sampled from the same cultural group (Study 4). Discussion centers on culturally specific motivations that may bias the accuracy of self-insight and social insight. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)