Beliefs about power and its relation to emotional experience: a comparison of Japan, France, Germany, and the United States

This research examined the concept of power in Japan, France, Germany, and the United States, as well as beliefs about the emotions persons in power tend to elicit in others and about powerful people's regulation (specifically, inhibition) of certain emotions. Definitions of power were assessed by examining the importance of two main components: control over self versus other and freedom of action vis-à-vis social norms. Beliefs about both positive (pride, admiration) and negative (jealousy, contempt) emotions were measured. Analyses revealed that the concept of power differed across countries and that the definitions of power as well as country of origin significantly predicted beliefs about the emotions that are elicited in others by powerful people and also the regulation of expression of emotion by powerful people.     

Cultural differences in emotions: a context for interpreting emotional experiences

In this article, it is suggested that cross-cultural assessment of emotional disturbances would benefit from the consideration of cultural differences in the modal, and normative emotions. A summary of the research literature on cultural differences in emotions, in particular in antecedent events, subjective feeling, appraisal, and behavior is provided. Cultural differences in emotions are understood functionally, such that the most prevalent emotional phenomena in a culture are those that fit and reinforce the distinct cultural models (i.e. goals and practices) of self and relationship. It is argued that a culture-sensitive approach to emotional disturbances would entail the assessment of emotional phenomena that are dysfunctional to the cultural models of self and relationship.     

Personality, emotional experience, and efforts to control emotions

Three converging, multimethod studies examined personality and emotional processes. Study 1 (N = 321) examined links among sex, personality, and expectations for emotional events. In Study 2, participants (N = 468) described contents of emotionally evocative slides to a partner (either a friend or a stranger). Participants reported their emotional experience, efforts to control emotion, and the anticipated reactions of their partners. Structural modeling of self-report data and analyses of observational data indicated that Agreeableness and sex were significant predictors of emotional experience and of efforts to control emotion. Study 3 (N = 68) replicated and extended the two previous studies using psychophysiological methods to examine responses to positively and negatively charged emotional materials. Outcomes are discussed in terms of processes underlying the five-factor structural dimension of Agreeableness and links to emotional self-regulation.     

Trust and commitment in the United States and Japan

A distinction is proposed betweentrust as a cognitive bias in the evaluation of incomplete information about the (potential) interaction partner andassurance as a perception of the incentive structure that leads the interaction partner to act cooperatively. It is hypothesized that trust in this sense helps people to move out of mutually committed relations where the partner's cooperation is assured. Although commitment formation is a rather standard solution to the problems caused by social uncertainty, commitment becomes a liability rather than an asset as opportunity costs increase. Facing increasing opportunity costs, trust provides a springboard in the attempt to break psychological inertia that has been mobilized to maintain committed relations. In conjunction with an assumption that networks of mutually committed relations play a more prominent role in Japanese society than in American society, this hypothesis has been applied to predict a set of cross-national differences between the United States and Japan in the levels of trust and related factors. The results of a cross-national questionnaire survey (with 1,136 Japanese and 501 American respondents) support most of the predictions, and indicate that, in comparison to Japanese respondents, American respondents are more trusting of other people in general, consider reputation more important, and consider themselves more honest and fair. In contrast, Japanese respondents see more utility in dealing with others through personal relations.The research reported in this paper has been supported by the Institute of Nuclear Safety System, Inc. We would like to thank Professor Jyuji Misumi, the director of the Social System Research Department of the institute, and Mr. Akira Yamada, the associate director of the department, for their constant encouragement and support. We would also like to thank past attendants of the trust workshops, also supported by the institute, Professors Karen Cook, Peter Kollock, Mary Brinton, Tatsuya Kameda, Taro Kamioka, Ichiro Numazaki, Motoki Watabe, Kumiko Mori, Nahoko Hayashi, Nobuhito Jin, and Nobuyuki Takahashi. This research has been supported also by Abe Fellowship and a Ministry of Education Scientific Research Grant provided to Toshio Yamagishi.     

Cultural influences on cognitive representations of conflict: interpretations of conflict episodes in the United States and Japan.

This article integrates theory from the cognitive tradition in negotiation with theory on culture and examines cultural influences on cognitive representations of conflict. The authors predicted that although there may be universal (etic) dimensions of conflict construals, there also may be culture-specific (emic) representations of conflict in the United States and Japan. Results of multidimensional scaling analyses of U.S. and Japanese conflict episodes supported this view. Japanese and Americans construed conflicts through a compromise versus win frame (R. L. Pinkley, 1990), providing evidence of a universal dimension of conflict construal. As the authors predicted, Japanese perceived conflicts to be more compromise-focused, as compared with Americans. There were also unique dimensions of construal among Americans and Japanese (infringements to self and giri violations, respectively), suggesting that identical conflict episodes are perceived differently across cultures.     

Gratitude and Life Satisfaction in the United States and Japan

Being grateful has been associated with many positive outcomes, including greater happiness, positive affect, optimism, and self-esteem. There is limited research, however, on the associations between gratitude and different domains of life satisfaction across cultures. The current study examined the associations between gratitude and three domains of life satisfaction, including satisfaction in relationships, work, and health, and overall life satisfaction, in the United States and Japan. A total of 945 participants were drawn from two samples of middle aged and older adults, the Midlife Development in the United States and the Midlife Development in Japan. There were significant positive bivariate associations between gratitude and all four measures of life satisfaction. In addition, after adjusting for demographics, neuroticism, extraversion, and the other measures of satisfaction, gratitude was uniquely and positively associated with satisfaction with relationships and life overall but not with satisfaction with work or health. Furthermore, results indicated that women and individuals who were more extraverted and lived in the United States were more grateful and individuals with less than a high school degree were less grateful. The findings from this study suggest that gratitude is uniquely associated with specific domains of life satisfaction. Results are discussed with respect to future research and the design and implementation of gratitude interventions, particularly when including individuals from different cultures.     

Attachment and culture. Security in the United States and Japan

Attachment theorists maintain that cultural differences are relatively minor, and they focus on universals. Here the authors highlight evidence of cultural variations and note ways in which attachment theory is laden with Western values and meaning. Comparisons of the United States and Japan highlight the cultural relativity of 3 core hypotheses of attachment theory: that caregiver sensitivity leads to secure attachment, that secure attachment leads to later social competence, and that children who are securely attached use the primary caregiver as a secure base for exploring the external world. Attachment theorists use measures of sensitivity, competence, and secure base that are biased toward Western ways of thinking: The measures emphasize the child's autonomy, individuation, and exploration. In Japan, sensitivity, competence, and secure base are viewed very differently, calling into question the universality of fundamental tenets of attachment theory. The authors call for an indigenous approach to the psychology of attachment.     

Gender and Deviance: A Comparison of College Students in Japan and the United States

Although evidence abounds in American criminology that young males are more prone to deviance than females, relatively little is known about the magnitude of the gender gap in deviance across cultures. Drawing on the literature concerning “risk taking” in power-control theory and on theory and research concerning cultural variability in “uncertainty avoidance,” we offer a rationale for predicting that the gender differences in levels of deviance are less among Japanese youth than Americans. Among Japanese, the level of male deviance should be closer to that of females because “uncertainty avoidance” is a strong component of Japanese culture that affects socialization of both males and females. Analysis of identical survey data from college students in Japan and the United States provides strong support for our argument.     

The Korean diasporic experience: measuring ethnic identity in the United States and China

The measurement and development of ethnic identity of Koreans living in the United States and China were examined in the context of different migration experiences. Three hundred sixteen undergraduate college students were administered the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM; J. S. Phinney, 1992). Separate principal-component analysis for each sample was performed to create cross-culturally equivalent Ethnic Identity and Other-Group subscales. Differential item function analysis revealed no cultural item bias among the retained MEIM items. Korean Americans had higher scores on the Ethnic Identity and Other-Group subscales and were more likely to be classified as bicultural than were Korean Chinese. Korean Chinese were more likely to be classified as assimilated, traditional, or marginalized in their cultural orientation.     

The social environments of early infancy in Japan and the United States

The social environments of early infancy in Japan and the United States were compared in terms of the context of caregiving and the quality of the month-infant interaction. Mothers of 17 Japanese infants and 17 infants in the United States were interviewed in their homes about the experiences that they provided for their 4-month-old infants, and mother-infant interactions were recorded on videotape. Levels of parents' education were similar in both countries. The context of the infant's development varied substantially with culture. Mothers in the United States provided a greater variety of experiences on the HOME and care of Japanese infants tended to be more exclusively provided by mothers whereas care of infants in the United States was shared by fathers and other caregivers to a greater extent. Examination of behaviour frequencies during mother-infant interaction indicated that mothers in Japan provided their infants with more vocal input and more physical play than mothers in the United States and Japanese mothers were more vocally responsive to their infants' vocalizations.     

The meaningful life in Japan and the United States: Levels and correlates of meaning in life

Culture supplies people with the provisions to derive meaning from life. However, no research has examined cultural variation in the two principal dimensions of meaning in life, presence of meaning and search for meaning. The present investigation adapted theories of self-concept and cognitive styles to develop a dialectical model of meaning in life, which predicted cultural differences in the tendency to experience search for meaning as opposed to, or harmonious with, presence of meaning. Using data from American (N = 1183) and Japanese (N = 982) young adults, mean levels and correlates of presence of meaning and search for meaning were examined. As predicted, Americans reported greater presence of meaning; Japanese reported greater search for meaning. In accordance with the model, search for meaning was negatively related to presence of meaning and well-being in the United States (opposed) and positively related to these variables in Japan (harmonious). Thus, the search for meaning appears to be influenced by culture, and search for meaning appears to moderate cultural influences on presence of meaning.     

Flood of emotions: emotional work and long-term disaster recovery

This paper uses concepts of emotion work and emotional labour to explore people’s experiences of the long-term disaster recovery process. It draws on data taken from two qualitative research projects which looked at adults’ and children’s recovery from the floods of June 2007 in Hull, UK. The paper argues that the emotional work of recovery cannot be separated from the physical and practical work of recovering the built environment. It shows that a focus on emotion work can lead to a more nuanced understanding of what recovery actually means and who is involved, leading to the identification of hidden vulnerabilities and a better understanding of the longer timescales involved in the process.     

Understanding emotional transitions: the interpersonal consequences of changing emotions in negotiations

Research on the interpersonal functions of emotions has focused primarily on steady-state emotion rather than on emotional transitions, the movement between emotion states. The authors examined the influence of emotional transitions on social interactions and found that emotional transitions led to consistently different outcomes than their corresponding steady-state emotions. Across 2 computer-mediated negotiations and a face-to-face negotiation, participants negotiating with partners who displayed a "becoming angry" (happy to angry) emotional transition accepted worse negotiation outcomes yet formed better relational impressions of their partners than participants negotiating with partners who displayed steady-state anger. This relationship was mediated through 2 mechanisms: attributional and emotional contagion processes. The "becoming happy" (angry to happy) emotional transition as compared with steady-state happiness was not significantly related to differences in negotiation outcomes but was significantly related to differences in relational impressions, where perceivers of the "becoming happy" emotional transition gave their partners lower relational impression ratings than perceivers of steady-state happiness.     

Cultural Differences in Newcomer Feedback Seeking: A Comparison of the United States and Hong Kong

Les travaux sur la recherche de feedback de la part des nouveaux arrivants peuvent s’appuyer sur des présupposés qui ne sont pas universellement valides, à savoir que les nouveaux arrivants font preuve d’auto‐affirmation, qu’ils jugent leur patron accessible (faible distance hiérarchique) et qu’ils doivent faire preuve d’initiative pour obtenir l’information dont il ont besoin, ce qui relève d’un processus de socialisation individuelle et informelle. Dans cette étude sur les nouveax arrivants, les Americains signalèrent plus de demandes de feedback que les gens de Hong Kong. Cette divergence est à rapporter aux différences culturelles dans l’auto‐affirmation et la distance hiérarchique. Ces résultats suggèrent que certains des présupposés implicites concernant la recherche de feedback de la part des nouveaux arrivants peuvent voir leur validité remise en cause en debors des Etats‐Unis. En particulier, les nouveaux arrivants vivant dans des sociétés communautariste et à grande distance hiérarchique sont moins susceptibles de faire appel à la rétroaction centrée sur le supérieur pour réduire l’incertitude et gérer leur efficacité professionnelle. Research on newcomer feedback seeking may be based on assumptions that are not universally valid: that newcomers are self‐assertive, that they perceive their boss as approachable (low power distance), and that they need to be proactive to obtain the information that they need (informal, individual socialisation process). In this study, individuals from the United States reported more newcomer feedback inquiry than individuals from Hong Kong. This difference was related to cultural differences in self‐assertiveness and power distance. These results suggest that some of the implicit assumptions about newcomer feedback seeking may be less valid outside of the US. In particular, newcomers within low‐individualism and high power distance societies may be less likely to rely on supervisor‐focused feedback inquiry for reducing uncertainty and managing their performance.     

Long life to emotions: emotional response categorisation across the lifespan

People perceive and organise their social world on the basis of their previous semantic knowledge as well as on the basis of their emotional responses. We tested the hypothesis that emotional response categorisation, namely the tendency to group stimuli on the basis of the emotion they evoke, increases across the lifespan. Young and older adults were asked to categorise target words and either conceptual or emotional response similarity could be used to perform the task. Results showed that older adults were more likely than younger adults to rely on emotional equivalence to categorise stimuli. In addition, current affective state was significantly related to emotional response categorisation. These findings are discussed in relation to recent models that propose a prominent role for emotions in the social life of older adults.     

Passionate reasoning as emotional understanding: pragmatism and using emotions in inquiry

Pragmatists have been eager to employ the method of science in philosophy, which meant, too, that they paid a great deal of attention to the attitudes that regulate the process of scientific or systematic inquiry. At the same time, they, at least in the nonstandard theories of emotion to be found in Charles Sanders Peirce and John Dewey, espoused a cognitivist view of emotion, which resonates with some of the concerns that have been at the forefront of the contemporary philosophy of emotion (COPE). In particular, they converge upon the view that something like ‘emotional understanding’ is very important. While COPE, especially in the case of Julien Deonna’s and Fabrice Teroni’s ‘attitudinal theory of emotion’ which has some pragmatist affinities, is focused on showing how emotional understanding is central to moral agency, it is my aim in this paper to offer a pragmatist account of emotional understanding as ‘passionate reasoning’ that goes one step further. By highlighting the way in which emotions ought to be interpreted even in the context of scientific or systematic inquiries it makes a case for moralizing science from within, i.e. without submitting it to values that are alien to inquiry. In particular, passionate reasoning helps addressing three problems of inquiry: the problem of the lack of context, the problem of the problem wrongly put, and the problem of (not/just) my problem.