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

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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.