Reciprocity of sympathy and Japanese self : Implicit self-esteem and happiness

在本研究项目中，我们对“同情的互惠性：日本人自我的建构”进行了一系列的理论和实证研究。在之前的一个关于日本人自我的项目中，我们指出，首先，日本人自我的一个重要方面是基于各种各样的人际交往实践，包括同情，其次，一些自我相关的过程，如自我批评，这是日本和其他东亚文化相对独特的，可以通过考虑这些文化实践来更好地理解。利用这项工作，目前的项目有助于进一步了解“日本自我”。具体来说，我们指出，自我意识，如独立性和相互依存性，最好被视为牢固地建立在人际交往过程中。这样，就有可能为自我的文化差异发展一个更全面的理论框架。随后，我们将这样一个理论框架应用于主观幸福感，并回顾了现有的证据。借鉴类似的理论框架，我们也进行了实证研究。具体而言，我们研究了日本人和美国人的情绪经验与日记的方法。此外，我们提出，有两个路径的幸福，一个涉及主观评价的自我和其他涉及主体间确认的关系，并实证检验了这种分析的一些影响。最后，我们还检验了内隐自我评价现象，这一现象已被证明是文化和自我理论的一个相当重要的理论组成部分。总的来说，这些研究强调了一个假设，即日本人的自我比美国人的自我更注重关系。然而，他们也认为，自我的这种跨文化差异最好是在认知，情感和行为的在线过程的措施，而不是在更传统的态度措施。

In the current research project, we have carried out a series of theoretical and empirical studies on "Reciprocity of sympathy : Construction of Japanese selves". In a preceding project on Japanese self, we pointed out, first, that one significant aspect of Japanese selves is grounded in an assortment of interpersonal practices that involve sympathy and, second, that some self-related processes such as self-criticism that are relatively unique to Japan and other East Asian cultures can be better understood by taking such cultural practices into consideration. Drawing on this work, the current project contributed to a further understanding of "Japanese selves". Specifically, we pointed out that self-construals such as independence and interdependence may best be seen as solidly grounded in interpersonal processes. In this way it has become possible to develop a fuller theoretical framework for cultural variations in the self. We subsequently applied such a theoretical framework to subjective well-being and reviewed existent evidence. Drawing on a similar theoretical framework, we have also conducted empirical studies. Specifically, we examined emotional experience of both Japanese and Americans with a diary method. Further, we proposed that there are two routes to happiness one involving subjective assessment of the self and the other involving inter-subjective confirmation of relationship, and empirically tested some implications of this analysis. Finally, we also tested a phenomenon of implicit self-evaluation, which has proved to be a quite important theoretical Component of a theory of culture and self. Overall, these studies underscore the hypothesis that Japanese selves are far more relationship-oriented than American selves. However, they also suggest that this cross-cultural difference of the self is best revealed in measures of on-line processes of cognition, emotion, and behavior rather than in more traditional attitudinal measures.