Good moods/emotion in Japan and the US ; their characteristics and social functions

本研究旨在探讨文化实践和集体意义是如何塑造和构成情感体验的。具体来说，它测试了日本和美国的大学生，以确定文化和集体过程之间动态相互依赖的本质，以及在产生“好情绪/感觉”和“坏情绪/感觉”时的心理功能。从被试所产生的情境内容分析（研究1）可以发现，在日本和美国，产生良好情绪和感受的情境类型最常见的是“个人成功”和“促进人际关系”，而产生不良情绪和感受的情境类型最常见的是“人际关系破裂”和“目标实现受阻”。在研究中，我们从研究1中的日本受试者和美国受试者产生的情境中随机抽取了2200种情境，总共400种。每一种情境都被呈现给一组新的日本和美国受试者，让他们判断自己在这种情境中会有什么样的情绪，或者他们所在大学的典型学生在这种情境中会有什么样的情绪。研究结果支持了一个假设，即美国人比日本人更有可能体验到良好的情绪或感觉；但与日本人相比，他们不太可能经历糟糕的情绪或感觉。此外，这些影响被这些情况的起源（即，最初由日本人或美国人产生）和判断类型所缓和。总的来说，数据模式表明了集体建构主义方法的有效性，该方法假设情感体验的质量根据每种文化中构建和共享的情感相关情境的性质而显著差异。

This study aimed at exploring ways in which emotional experience is shaped and constituted by cultural practices and collective meanings. Specifically, it tested both Japanese and American college students to determine the nature of dynamic interdependencies between cultural and collective processes and psychological functionings in the generation of "good moods/feelings" and "bad moods/feelings." From content analysis of situations generated by the subjects as ones in which these moods/feelings were experienced (Study 1), it was found, both in Japan and the United States, that frequent types of situations for good moods and feelings include "own success" and "promotion of interpersonal relations" and that those for bad moods and feelings include "fracture in interpersonal relations" and "hindrance of goal achievementj." In Study 2,200 situations each, 400 in all, were randomly sampled from those generated by the Japanese subjects in Study 1 and from those generated by the American subjects. Each of these situations was presented to a new group of both Japanese and American subjects, who made a judgment about either what emotions they would feel in the situation if they were in it or what emotions a typical students of their university would feel in the situation. Results lent support to the hypothesis that Americans are more likely than Japanese to experience good moods or feelings ; but they are less likely than Japanese to experience bad moods or feelings. Further, these effects were moderated by both the origin of these situations (i.e., originally generated by either Japanese or Americans) and the type of judgment. Overall, the data pattern suggests the usefulness of a collective constructionist approach, which assumes that the quality ofemotional experience diverges dramatically according to the nature of emotion-relevant situations constructed and shared in each culture.