Cultural Psych

Social Identity Theory

Perspective that considers when and why individuals consider themselves members of groups

Brain on Bilingualism

When there is more habitual activation in your brain, it tends to change the structure of your brain

Everyone can frame-switch

But biculturals do it more strongly

Much evidence suggests that those in arranged marriages are at least as satisfied as those in love marriages, BUT....

But women in Japanese and Chinese arranged marriages were found to be less satisfied in arranged than love marriages Study: In india, people in love marriages report more love in the first few years of marriage. In later years, those in arranged marriages profess more love than those in love marriage

Priming of Living Abroad Experiences Study

Living abroad condition was only one that had significant significance... Came up with better/creative answers Engagement with and adaptation to a new culture is the key to increased creativity

Authority Ranking

One of the Four Elementary Forms of Relationships People are linearly ordered along a hierarchical social dimension People with higher ranking have more prestige/privileges --But subordinates are often entitled to receive protection and care from those above Think the military

Two forms of adaptation

Psychological --Lack of psychological problems (anxiety/depression), self-esteem, well-being Sociocultural --School adjustment, lack of behavior problems (truancy/petty theft)

Multiculturalism

Recognition for within-culture differences Understanding the cultural system in which certain behaviors occur Appreciation of differences Multicultural engagement

People migrate for different reasons

Refugees To seek wealth To study

Arranged vs Love marriages

Related to the dominant family structure--Marriages based on love more likely in cultures with nuclear family structures (Individualistic cultures) Powerful feelings of romantic love could be irrelevant/problematic for marriage in cultures with strong extended family ties. Large kin networks...love interferes with with people's abilities to respect the wishes of their family members and offers large pressures for the couple to stay together

The influence of contextual information Study

Results: when target (john/taro) is smiling and others are smiling: --everyone thinks they are all happy But when john is smiling and others are not smiling, Americans will still say John is happy But when taro is smiling and others are not smiling, they will say taro is not happy when everyone else is angry

Individualism / Collectivism and Cardiovascular Disease Study

The most individualistic group had the highest rate of heart attacks and the least individualistic group had the lowest rate of heart attacks.

Social Facilitation

The presence of others creates a physiological arousal which facilitates dominate responses and inhibits secondary response tendencies. Better performance on easy tasks when arousal is high Worse performance on hard tasks when arousal is high It is a process that appears to be operating a biological level (no cultural variation)

Close Relationships

The social foundation of human nature is universal in that there are no cultures in which people live as lone individuals But despite this universality, the ways people go about relating to others varies in some predictable and important ways

Cultures vary in the extent to which people are motivated to cooperate or compete with others

Those from collectivistic cultures strive more for cooperative outcomes in their negotiations, whereas those from individualistic cultures approach negotiations in a more competitive way Collectivistic individuals: More likely to seek a cooperative solution The cultural difference generalizes to the strategies that people pursue in negotiations : -Aggression in individualistic cultures -Compromise in collectivistic cultures

Propinquity Study

Trainees at the Maryland state police training academy indicated whom among their fellow trainees they had befriended. 45% of all friendships were among those whose last name was adjacent (or a few letters) to the chooser's name in ABC order (since they sat and lived in dorm rooms based on their last names)

Social Striving

the opposite of social loafing; working better when evaluated as a group than as individuals More common in collectivistic cultures Study: Chinese and Israelis work hardest when they are working with an ingroup. Americans work hardest when working as individuals. Whether people from collectivistic cultures show evidence for social striving or loafing depends on who the others are in their group (work harder when with ingroup)...but the distinction between ingroup/outgroup members has less impact for Americans.

Love and Marriage study

"If your partner had all the other qualities you desired, would you marry them if you were not in love with them?" Indians/Pakistanis 25% said yes (prearranged marriages) More than 80% of Americans/Brits/Aussies/Latinos said they would not Apparently love is viewed as a necessary feature for a marriage in some cultures and not in others

Cultural Distance

A factor that may predict how well a person may adjust to the new host culture How different the host/heritage culture is in their overall ways of life The more similar one's heritage culture is to the host culture, the less acculturative stress they experience

Cultural Fit

A factor that may predict how well a person may adjust to the new host culture The degree to which one's personality is more similar to the dominant cultural values in the host culture People with more independent self-concepts suffer less distress in acculturating to the US than those with more interdependent self-concepts Evidence suggests that people who are high in extraversion fare well in largely extraverted cultures, but have problems fitting in in less extraverted cultures

Acculturation Strategies

A factor that may predict how well a person may adjust to the new host culture Two acculturation Dimensions: Attitudes toward host culture. --Does the individual participate in the larger society of the host culture? --Do they seek to fit in? Attitudes toward heritage culture. --Does the individual seek ways to preserve the traditions of their heritage culture?

Acculturation

A process by which people migrate to and learn a culture that's different from their heritage culture

Integration

Acculturation Strategy + host + heritage A culture that values cultural diversity and acceptance of multiculturalism is more likely to encourage integration or assimilation

Assimilation

Acculturation Strategy + host - heritage A culture that values cultural diversity and acceptance of multiculturalism is more likely to encourage integration or assimilation

Separation

Acculturation Strategy - host + heritage People who have distinctly different physical characteristics from host culture are more prone to pursue marginalization or separation

Marginalization

Acculturation Strategy - host - heritage People who have distinctly different physical characteristics from host culture are more prone to pursue marginalization or separation

Acculturation and Adaptation

Acculturative stress: --Cultural distance --Cultural fit Immigrant paradox: Immigrants do best health-wise/are much better off than those who are born & raised in the United States

Cultural variability & recognition of facial expressions

Although overall facial expressions of emotions are universally recognized at better than chance, people are especially adept at recognizing those expressions made by people from their own culture

Language can activate cultural frames

Americans could be led to think like Chinese with the priming information that was related to interdependence. When considering the individual team player, they said securing a win is more important, but when considering the team, they said that avoiding a loss was more important

Evidence for Cultural Variability in Facial Expressions Study

Americans performed best of all at identifying the emotions posed by American actors People are a little bit "autistic" when it comes to interpreting what kinds of emotions other people from other cultures are feeling People show greater activation in the amygdala when they look at fear-faces that are made by people in their own culture (especially attentive to signs of fear as expressed in culturally familiar ways)

Engaging vs Disengaging emotions study

Americans report experiencing disengaging emotions in positive situations (pride) Japanese opposite pattern: experience engaging emotions more in positive situation Basically: Americans experience disengaging emotions in both positive and negative situations whereas Japanese experience engaging emotions in both positive and negative situations

Americans and Indians show embarrassment differently

Americans: Turn head away, look down, pressed smile Indians: Biting tongues

Bicultural

Any individual who has been exposed to and internalized two or more sets of cultural systems (e.g. beliefs, values, behaviors, languages) Immigrants Ethnic minorities Refugees Indigenous/Colonized people People in cross-cultural relationships

Culture & Social Support Seeking Study

Asian Americans sought social support LESS than European Americans because: Independence: Asians don't think its appropriate to ask others for help Unsolicited support: But it is okay to accept help if they offer it to you without asking Relational Concerns Losing face/losing social prestige by disrupting group harmony and burdening others

Study: Wallowing in one's negative self-feelings does not have the same consequences across cultures

Asian-Canadians seem less interested in the idea of doing things for the sake of anticipated positive feelings compared with European-Canadians --Maybe because there may be fewer benefits for them of having especially positive feelings (no less at risk for depression)

Cultural Variation in Intensity of Emotional Experience Study

Chinese-Canadians and European-Canadians were exposed to a rude experimenter. People from both cultures initially responded with similar degrees of anger to the obnoxious experimenter. After being angered, Chinese-Canadians' blood pressure returns to its baseline level more quickly than European-Canadians blood pressure does, suggesting that Chinese experienced their anger less intensely whereas the EuroCanadians suffered from physiological consequences if they did not openly express their anger Cultural display rules alter the ways that people express their emotions which in turn can potentially alter their emotional experiences.

The Four Elementary Forms of Relationships

Communal Sharing Authority Ranking Equality Matching Market Price It is possible that people might have relationships with the same people that are governed by all four elements. These four basic elements are common everywhere but different cultures emphasize different elements

Culture and Dialect Theory of Facial Expressions Study

Comparisons between Quebecois and Gabonese. Participants posed for a facial expression, they were asked to make a happy face and a picture was taken, then angry face and take a picture, etc... Used FACS for coding Dialectic Theory of Facial Expression states that there is overlap among facial expressions of different cultures --However, there are substantial systematic cultural differences

Ritualized Displays

Cultural display rules that lead people to express the idiosyncratic facial expressions that differ fro the ostensibly universal facial expressions (Like Indians and tongue-biting for embarrassment)

Factors that may predict how well a person may adjust to the new host culture:

Cultural distance Cultural fit Acculturation strategies

Cultural Display Rules

Culturally specific rules that govern which facial expressions are appropriate in a given situation and how intensely they should be exhibited. Even though people in different cultures vary in how strongly they express certain emotions, it is possible that they are all experiencing the same underlying feelings

Why do cultures vary in their happiness?

Cultures vary in their happiness because they have quite different ideas about what happiness is and what it is derived from

Idealization of Partner

Idealization seems to foster successful relationships because positively distorted views of our partners should protect us from having to entertain thoughts about their unlovable characteristics When partners are viewed in unrealistically good terms, the relationships can be buffered against any ugly truths that might threaten it and romantic love can thrive

Darwin & Facial Expressions

Darwin reasoned that humans and other primates likely shared a common ancestor and thus one place to look for evidence of universals in facial expressions would be to look at other primates, especially chimpanzees (They have similar facial expressions to humans) Study: The Fore of New Guinea had similar facial expressions to most other people around the world

amok

Defined by an acute outburst of unrestrained violence, associated with indiscriminate homicidal attacks, preceded by a period of brooding and ending with exhaustion. i.e. Males in Malaysia, Malaysia

The effects of Depression on Emotional Responding Study

Depressed individuals from the US/Europe show diminished reactivity to: (cannot stir up emotional reaction) Clinical interviews Imagery Slides Films

Discrepancy between ideal and actual emotions and depression

Discrepancy in high positive arousal predicts depressive symptoms among Euro- and Chinese-American participants Discrepancy in low positive arousal predicts depressive symptoms among Chinese American and Chinese participants

Multicultural Experiences and Creativity

Duncker Candle Problem: Requires creative thinking Those that LIVED abroad longer were able to solve the problem more, but NOT those who have traveled abroad

Engaging emotions

Eg Friendly, Ashamed Engaging emotions bring people closer to a group (attracts more people)

Disengaging Emotions

Eg Proud, frustrated Disengaging emotions such as pride and frustration tend to separate individuals from others

People migrate to different contexts

Ethnic enclaves (like Korea Town) Homogenous neighborhoods Cultures that actively discriminate against them

Dialectic Theory of Facial Expressions

Facial expressions of different cultures are SIMILAR BUT NOT EXACT We are better at recognizing facial expressions from our own cultures

Facial Feedback Study

Facial muscle movements can affect the experience of emotion. People holding a pen between their teeth tend to find cartoons more amusing than people holding a pen between their lips

Trying to adjust to a homogenous culture is more challenging

For example taking a Norwegian and bringing them to the US isn't as tricky as bringing them to Japan It is possible that in homogenous societies the adjustment phase just takes longer Nonetheless, the success of people's acculturation experiences seems to be influenced by the homogeneity of the society to which they are trying to acculturate

Friendships

Friendships have been argued to be they key to success Research has revealed that the quality of one's friendships is one of the best predictors of happiness Research has found that having close friends increases the length of one's life

Projected leading causes of disability for the world—2030

HIV/Aids Unipolar Major Depression Ischematic heart disease

Universal Basic Emotions

Happiness sadness anger fear disgust (surprise) Emotion is not inherently a categorical experience, it's more like a continuum (like a color)

High relational mobility

Having flexible relational ties. Relationships are entered into, and are maintained, on a mutually voluntary basis. Independent cultures Relational ties are flexible enough, and opportunities for new relationships are available enough, that people feel that they can dine new relationships and not feel overly bound by their old relationships

Acculturation's U-Shaped curve

Honeymoon phase=super positive feelings towards host culture Culture shock phase=Reality sets in Language and other skills not as good Adjustment phase=Curve goes back up but not as high as original culture shock Sojourners may feel this way as well when they return to their own country

Culture & Workplace Relationships study

How do people from different cultures differ in their relational considerations in the workplace? Mexicans were more likely to see relational issues as important factors in organizational success than Euro-Americans

Affect Valuation theory

Ideal emotions vary more across cultures than actual emotions --High vs low arousal emotions

Culture and Different forms of Social Support study

Implicit vs Explicit social support Explicit: Specific recruitment of close others in response to specific stressful events that involve the elicitations of advice, instrumental aid, or emotional comfort Implicit: Benefiting from the awareness and/or company of close others without seeking, receiving, or expecting social support regarding specific stressful events Seeking explicit support associated with higher stress responses in Asian Americans Seeking implicit support associated with higher stress responses in European Americans

Depression can interfere with ability to engage with cultural norms

In cultures where people are supposed to express their high-arousal emotions, they show more emotional reactions/responding (US) In cultures with more subdued emotional expression, they are encouraged to suppress emotional responding (less intense emotional responding) Research has shown that when you're depressed, Americans don't show has much emotional responding whereas depressed East Asians show intensified emotional responding --Basically both groups go against cultural expression norms when depressed

Relations with Ingroups and Outgroups

Ingroup relations more important in intERdependent cultures. Study: When in a situation with strangers, collectivists conform as much as individualists do. In a situation with their peers however, collectivists show heightened conformity.

Acculturation Outcomes

Integration leads to best adaptation outcomes Separation and assimilation leads to similar level of success in adaptation But it also depends on the policy of the larger host society

The social context of Facial Behavior

Interdependent cultures: The social context plays an important role in the interpretation of facial expressions of the central figure Independent cultures: The social context is irrelevant to the interpretation of facial expressions of the central figure

SWB and Westerners

Interpersonally disengaging acts feel good SWB is associated with positive feelings People operate under the implicit theory that more positive feelings are better Positive emotions serve as a bulwark against depression High-arousal positive emotions are preferred

SWB and East Asians

Interpersonally engaging acts feel good SWB associated with appropriate role behaviors People operate under the implicit theory that positive emotions are not associated with less depression Low-arousal positive emotions are more sought after

James-Lange theory of Emotions

James proposed that our emotions are the physiological responses or "bodily reverberations" to stimuli; Lange proposed that these physiological response were products of our ANS The theory maintains that our bodies respond to stimuli in the world by preparing us to act in a survival-facilitating way and our emotions are our bodily changes that signal how we should behave Emotions are no longer seen to be JUST the physiological experience, but also include appraisals, nonverbal expressions, neural patterns, and subjective feelings.

Partner Idealization Study

Japanese and Canadian college students were asked to evaluate the quality of their romantic relationships compared with what they thought most other peoples romantic partners were like. People in both countries showed some evidence for idealization (in that they viewed their own romantic relationships as significantly more positive than most other people's romantic relationships) --However, the magnitude of this idealization was significantly greater among European-Canadians than Japanese Idealization of one's romantic relationships appears to be more pronounced among people from more individualistic cultures

Engaging vs Disengaging emotions study

Japanese feel especially good when they're focusing on how their emotional experiences lead them to connect with others (engaging), whereas Americans feel especially good when they're dwelling on those emotional experiences that distinguish them from others (disengaging)

Cultural Variation in Subjective Well-Being and Happiness Study

Japanese participants reported that they felt about the same amount of negative and positive emotions. Their emotional experience was rather evenhanded with respect to the valence of the emotion. Americans and Japanese reported experiencing the same number of negative emotions, but Americans reported experiencing far more positive emotions than Japanese did. Apparently, American emotional experiences are dominated by positive emotions, but Japanese emotions are as likely to be as positive as they are negative.

Cultures differ in how they interpret facial expressions from the parts of the face to which they are attending

Japanese people are more likely to conceal emotions they feel are potentially disruptive by presenting a more neutral/pleasant face. --Eyes are harder to control concealing emotions than mouths are so it may be best to focus on the eyes But if you expect people are accurately broadcasting their emotions through their faces, best to attend to mouths --Study: Japanese focused more on the top half of the photos (i.e. by looking at the eyes) and Americans were more influenced by the bottom half of the photo (i.e. the mouth)

Emotion Suppression

Leads to: Heightened physiological responses Poorer memory performance Interpersonal unresponsiveness

People do not actually have to leave their country to be confronted with the need to acculturate to a new set of values

Like how many indigenous groups had to deal with the onslaught of cultural traditions that were forced on them by European settlers.

Study: Amusing Film

Looked at facial behavior (how much they laugh) EuroMericans: Depressed people laughed WAAAAY less Asian Americans: Depressed people laughed a little less but this was NOT STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT They also measured physiological responses Euromericans: Depressed people less physiologically responsiveness to the funny film clip Asian Americans: Depressed people laughed WAAAAAY more physiological responding

Balance and Health in East Asia

Loss of balance as cause of illness Health is seen as having a Possession of balance

Love

Love is the glue that keeps couples together for the purpose of raising offspring. The experience of romantic love appears to be found in all cultures, yet it plays a different role in marriages across cultures.

Mojaverian & Kim 2013 Study 1

Math tutor solicited/unsolicited support Euromericans asked for more help than Asians Asian Americans benefitted more from unsolicited support Americans didn't show as much of a difference in conditions in solicited vs unsolicited support on self-esteem

Migrants

Migrants are those who move from a heritage culture (their original culture) to a host culture (their new culture) and include those who intend to stay only temporarily (called sojourners) and those who intend to move permanently (called immigrants) Both immigrants and sojourners

What happens when we move

Moving to a new culture involves psychological adjustment, which can often be associated with stress

Equality Matching

One of the Four Elementary Forms of Relationships Based on the idea of balance and reciprocity People keep track of what is exchanged and they are motivated to pay back what has been exchanged in equivalence terms Perhaps the least familiar to Westerners Think the exchange of Christmas cards, turn-taking, and car-pooling

Market Price

One of the Four Elementary Forms of Relationships Concerned with proportionality and ratios Both sides of the exchange usually occur at once and different kinds of goods can be exchanged Members of a party calculate the ratios of the goods that are exchanged so that the transaction with be equivalent in value for both parties The relative status of individuals in the transaction is irrelevant Popular in western societies, especially since market pricing can operate without any close relations between two individuals

Communal Sharing

One of the Four Elementary Forms of Relationships Members of a group view themselves by emphasizing their common identity rather than by considering their idiosyncrasies Every person is treated the same (they have the identical rights and privileges as everyone else) --Like in a family (older sister does not get a larger slice of pie than younger brother) Equality among all the members of the group Resources tend to be pooled as belonging to the larger whole

Ghana & Enemyship

Participants from Ghana were more likely to say they have an enemy. They think people who think they dont have enemies are naive. Both Ghanians and Americans think negatively of those who claim they dont have friends --But Ghanians have a negative perception of those who say they don't have enemies; neutral if they say they have hidden enemies --US: Think positively of the person who says they don't have enemies and think negatively of the person who thinks they have hidden enemies. Ghanians think that people who say they don't have enemies aren't exploring the full continuum of relationships Americans who DO feel that they have enemies were more likely than the Ghanians to view those enemies as coming from outside of their group. In contrast, Ghanians were more likely to view their enemies as coming from within their ungroups.

Propinquity Effect

People are more likely to become friends with people with whom they frequently interact But this does not generalize to the same degrees in all cultures

Universality of emotional expression study

People are right on about guessing a happy emotion from that picture (Westerners, Easterners, Illiterates) Illiterate/isolated: aside from happiness, not high accuracy/agreement on facial emotions Photos used an American face=design flaw

Low relational mobility

People have few opportunities to form new relationships and are guided by communities and obligations to existing relationships Relationships are viewed as stable, often lifelong connections that provide both benefits to the individuals involved and costs in order to maintain them. Relationships in low-mobility contexts are not always positive

SWB geography study

People in New England and the Mountain states fare better on most domains of well-being than other regions in the US.

Basis of a good life study

People in individualistic societies were more likely than those in collectivistic societies to base their life satisfaction on how many positive emotions they were experiencing. Positive emotions appear to be seen as the basis of a good life in individualistic cultures. People in collectivistic cultures showed a higher correlation between their life-satisfaction scores and being respected by others for living up to cultural norms seems to be viewed as the basis of a good life. European-Americans and Asian-Americans give similar overall satisfaction ratings about their experiences. However, when both groups look back on their experiences, European-Americans recall them as more satisfying that do Asian-Americans

Frame-switching

People maintain multiple self-concepts and switch between them depending on context Study: Priming with either American icons or Chinese icons tends to activate that culture within a person

Similarity-Attraction Effect

People tend to be attracted to those who are most like themselves (Attitudes, economic background, personality, religion, social background, and activities) But Zajonc showed that chickens were NOT more attracted to more-similar others (suggests it is not a psychological universal like the mere exposure effect is)

A variety of factors influence which strategy a migrant is likely to pursue

People will not strive to fit into the host culture if that culture shows a good deal of prejudice. People who have physical features that distinguish them from the majority of those in their hot culture will likely experience more prejudice.

Although being from a distinct cultural background is sometimes associated with stereotype threat, being from a distinctive group can also have psychological benefits

People with a distinctive cultural background are more likely to come to strongly identify with their group and to increase their loyalty toward it Their distinctive group membership becomes an important source of meaning and self-esteem in their lives

Multicultural People may be more Creative

People with creative personalities are more likely to desire multicultural experiences Adjusting to life in another culture might provide the perspective that allows people to see things differently

Cultural Variation in Kinds of Emotional Experiences

People with independent or interdependent selves will interpret situations differently--Either looking at situations as providing opportunities to distinguish themselves from others (individualistic) or to affect their relations with others (interdependent) Japanese emotions are experienced more as interpersonal states that connect people to each other whereas for americans, emotions are experienced as more personal states that lie within individuals.

Blending

People's self-concepts reflect a hybrid of their two cultural worlds. This is especially evident with Asian Americans whose ways of thinking are sandwiched between American ways and Asian ways

Cultural accent of facial expression Study

Photos of Japanese & Japanese-Americans Participants judged the nationality of photos Participants were able to correctly guess the nationality of photos more than the chance level Americans had to guess if they were looking at a Japanese face or a Japanese American one People were good at judging other's nationality based on facial expression Americans also better at guessing if the target is Japanese or Japanese-American just by looking at the target's face but only when the target is expressing an emotion on their face (not with neutral faces)

Cultural factors affecting psychological states related to...

Physical health outcomes

Study: Mimicking a facial expression led to...

Physiological changes & subjective emotional experiences for Americans Only physiological changes, but NOT subjective emotional experiences for the Minangkabau Making a smiley face leads people to feel a little bit happier. But Minangkabau people were not impacted by the manipulation of the subjective emotional experiences For Americans, internal state is more important but also receive clues from own body when smiling to infer own happiness

Emotion and Language

Problem of more English terminology (no term for disgust in Polish) There is tremendous diversity in emotional experience across cultures in terms of how it is described in words, but whether this diversity is captured in people's own thoughts and internal states is debatable.

Bases of Interpersonal Attraction

Propinquity Effect Mere Exposure Effect

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

Proposes that one source of information we utilize when inferring our feelings is our facial expressions So if we are feeling happy, one clue that we may consider is whether or not we are smiling

Solicited vs Unsolicited Social Support

Solicited support: support that is given after the support recipient asks for help Unsolicited support: support that is given without prompting from the recipient

Not all positive emotions are created equal

Some involve a great deal of arousal (excitement or elation) Americans tend to seek out positive emotions that are high in arousal whereas Asians prefer low-arousal emotions

Not all biculturals should necessarily frame-switch to the same degree

Some see their two cultural identities to be compatible with each other They integrate aspects of both cultures into their everyday lives Others see their two cultural identities to be opposite Can identify with one cultural identity but not both simultaneously They may feel like they have to choose between their identities depending on the situation

Facial Behavior Study: Interdependent Cultures

Source of Behavior: Facial behavior is also responsive to situational demands Meaning of Face: Multiple meanings depending on situation "She is smiling right now because the professor looked at her and made a joke. Maybe she thought the joke was funny or she just didn't want to lose face with the professor" Information Derived from: Target face in social context

Facial Behavior Study: Independent Cultures

Source of Behavior: Facial expressions that express the emotion Meaning of Face: Correspondence with Emotion Information Derived from: Target face

The Two-Factor Theory of Emotions

States that emotions are interpretations of our bodily responses: physiological arousal and cognitive label. Called two-factor because: 1. The factors of the physiological signals 2. The interpretation of those signals

How to Define Psychological Abnormality

Statistical approach Impairment or inefficiency Deviance from social norms Subjective distress

Soliciting support in collectivistic cultures is less beneficial

Stress of Support-Seeking Relationship concerns (disrupting group harmony) But receiving unsolicited support may be beneficial Whereas in individualistic cultures, Received social support is not always beneficial....it may seen as Intrusive support

Evidence for Blending

Study: After living in Canada for 7 months, Japanese show a significant increase in self-esteem whereas living in Japan for 7 months, Canadians show a significant decrease in self-esteem For self esteem, it appears to take 3 generations to become fully acculturated On average, the more exposure one has to North American culture , the higher one's self-esteem is

Does the similarity-attraction effect operate similarly in different cultures?

Study: Whereas Canadians better liked a stranger they considered more similar to themselves, Japanese attitudes toward strangers were unaffected by perceived similarity

Competing vs Cooperating Study

Study: Younger American kids were largely able to realize the benefits of cooperation, but 7-10 year old less so. --Even when the strategy for winning marbles was made clear to these children they often could not resist their competitive urges But Mexican children tend to perform better than American children on a cooperation task

Universal Interpersonal attraction

Symmetrical faces Average features Clear complexion Not universal: Types of female body types. Westerners prefer thin, Africans prefer thicker

Social Loafing

Tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable People loaf more on simple tasks than on difficult ones (If a task is challenging, it is intrinsically motivating enough that people are less motivated to catch a free ride if they can) People loaf less socially when they are with friends than strangers Groups of all women loaf less than groups of all men If people care about their relations with their groups, they are less motivated to catch a free ride at the group's expense Loafing is not as universal...Asians and Social Striving

The Two-Factor Theory of Emotions Study

The emotional experience came from participants interpreting their arousal in light of their beliefs of the situations they were in. People look to environmental cues to help them label their physical sensations

Stereotype threat

The fear that one might do something that will inadvertently confirm a negative stereotype about one's group. It is not necessary to believe the stereotypes to be affected by them

Difficulties in Studying Acculturation

The literature on acculturation remains more diverse/contradictory/less coherent/less empirical Few commonalities occur for all acculturating individuals which makes it challenging to identify common patterns Little to no generalizability

Mere Exposure Effect

The more we are exposed to a stimulus the more we grow to like it (classical conditioning, stimulus eventually perceived as non-threatening) This is universal across cultures Zajonc found that even chickens are more attracted to other chickens they were exposed to the most

Does Emotional Experience vary across Cultures?

Two aspects of emotions have received the most study: Facial expressions (objectively visible) People's descriptions of their emotional experiences (subjective)

Mojaverian & Kim 2013 Study 2

Vignettes about solicited/unsolicited support transactions Asians benefitted more from unsolicited support and rated higher positive emotions on unsolicited condition Americans: no difference among conditions on self-esteem and didn't significantly differ in their emotions There is cultural variation in the benefits of social support: --Unsolicited support is more beneficial for Asian Americans --No preference for support type in Euromericans

Factors that influence SWB:

Wealth up until it meets basic needs Human rights People feel good when their rights are not threatened and they have opportunities that are comparable to those of their neighbors Income Equality

Happiness and emotion

When Japanese experience engaging emotions, they report more happiness Americans same pattern, just not as strong Japanese people low correlation for experiencing disengaged emotion Americans high correlation in disengaging emotion (like feeling pride leads to happiness in Americans, not so much with Japanese)

Display Rules Study

When watching an unpleasant film in private, Japanese and American participants both spontaneously reacted with a similar expression of disgust. When watching in the presence of an authority figure, Japanese participants tended to conceal their expression (either by muting it or attempting to cover it with a hand). The facial expressions of Americans same for both.

Is facial expression of emotion universal?

Yes, what varies is the degree to which the emotion is expressed

Social Identity Study

You overheard some dude on a plane. Across all conditions, Japanese had higher levels of trust (in order from highest: Ingroup + Potential, Outgroup, Baseline) --Having a potentially personal connection is equally important as being in the same group as them Americans: Ingroup highest trust, then potential, outgroup, baseline

Implicit support

benefiting from company of close others without directly disclosing problems (preferred by Asians)

Explicit support

direct recruitment of assistance (preferred by Euro Americans)

The greatest frame-switching should occur among those who are

high in bicultural identity integration Because these people can fluidly react to external cues in culturally consistent ways When people are low in bicultural identity integration, Chinese feel especially Chinese in American contexts and vice versa