Four studies using open-ended and experimental methods test the hypothesis that in Japanese contexts, emotions are understood as between people, whereas in American contexts, emotions are understood as primarily within people. Study 1 analyzed television interviews of Olympic athletes. When asked about their relationships, Japanese athletes used significantly more emotion words than American athletes. This difference was not significant when questions asked directly about athletes' feelings. In Study 2, when describing an athlete's emotional reaction to winning, Japanese participants implicated others more often than American participants. After reading an athlete's self-description, Japanese participants inferred more emotions when the athlete mentioned relationships, whereas American participants inferred more emotions when the athlete focused only on herself (Study 3). Finally, when viewing images of athletes, Japanese participants inferred more emotions for athletes pictured with teammates, whereas American participants inferred more emotions for athletes pictured alone (Studies 4a and 4b).
Azuma, H. ( 1994). Two modes of cognitive socialization in Japan and the United States. In P. M. Greenfield & R. R. Cocking (Eds.), Cross-cultural roots of minority child development (pp. 275-284). Hillsdale, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum.
2.
Chentsova-Dutton, Y.E., & Tsai, J.L. ( 2009). Self-focused attention and emotional response: The role of culture. Manuscript submitted for publication.
3.
D’Andrade, R. ( 1984). Cultural meaning systems. In R. Shweder & R. LeVine (Eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self, and emotion (pp. 88-119). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
4.
Elfenbein, H.A., & Ambady, N. ( 2002). On the universality and cultural specificity of emotion recognition: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 203-235.
5.
Elfenbein, H.A., & Ambady, N. ( 2003). When familiarity breeds accuracy: Cultural exposure and facial emotion recognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 276-290.
6.
Ellsworth, P.C. ( 1994). Sense, culture, and sensibility. In S. Kitayama & H. R. Markus (Eds.), Emotion and culture: Empirical studies of mutual influence (pp. 23-50). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
7.
Hamguchi, E. ( 1985). A contextual model of the Japanese: Toward a methodological innovation in Japanese studies. Journal of Japanese Studies , 11, 289-321.
8.
Kitayama, S., Duffy, S., & Uchida, Y.K. ( 2007). Self as cultural mode of being. In S. Kitayama & D. Cohen (Eds.), The handbook of cultural psychology (pp. 136-174). New York: Guilford.
9.
Kitayama, S., Markus, H.R., & Kurokawa, M. ( 2000). Culture, emotion, and well-being: Good feelings in Japan and the United States. Cognition and Emotion, 14, 93-124.
10.
Kitayama, S., Mesquita, B., & Karasawa, M. ( 2006). Cultural affordances and emotional experience: Socially engaging and disengaging emotions in Japan and the United States. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 890-903.
11.
Kitayama, S., Snibbe, A.C., Markus, H.R., & Suzuki, T. ( 2004). Is there any "free" choice? Self and dissonance in two cultures. Psychological Science, 15, 527-533.
12.
Kitayama, S., & Uchida, Y. ( 2005). Interdependent agency: An alternative system for action . In R. Sorrentino, D. Cohen, J. Olson, & M. Zanna (Eds.), Cultural and social behavior: The Ontario Symposium (Vol. 10, pp. 137-164). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
13.
Kondo, D.K. ( 1990) Crafting selves: Power, gender and discourses of identity in a Japanese workplace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
14.
Landis, J.R., & Koch, G.G. ( 1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 33, 159-174.
15.
Lebra, T.S. ( 1976). Japanese patterns of behavior. Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press.
16.
Lebra, T.S. ( 1993). Culture, self, and communication in Japan and the United States. In W. B. Gudykunst (Ed.), Communication in Japan and the United States (pp. 51-87). Albany : State University of New York Press.
17.
Levenson, R.W., Ekman, P., Heider, K., & Friesen, W.V. ( 1992). Emotion and autonomic nervous system activity in the Minangkabau of West Sumatra. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 972-988.
18.
Lewis, C.C. ( 1995). Educating hearts and minds: Reflections on Japanese preschool and elementary education. New York: Cambridge University Press.
19.
Lutz, C. ( 1988). Unnatural emotions: Everyday sentiments on a Micronesian atoll and their challenge to Western theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
20.
Markus, H.R., & Kitayama, S. ( 1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.
21.
Markus, H.R., & Kitayama, S. ( 2004). Models of agency: Sociocultural diversity in the construction of action. In V. Murphy-Berman & J. Berman (Eds.), The 49th annual Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Cross-cultural differences in perspectives on self (pp. 18-74). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
22.
Markus, H.R., Uchida, Y., Omoregie, H., Townsend, S.S.M., & Kitayama, S. ( 2006). Going for the gold: Models of agency in Japanese andAmerican contexts. Psychological Science, 17, 103-112.
23.
Masuda T., Ellsworth, P.C., Mesquita, B., Leu, J., Tanida, S., Van de Veerdonk, E. ( 2008). Placing the face in context: Cultural differences in the perception of facial emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 365-381.
24.
Matsumoto, D., Kudoh, T., Scherer, K.R., & Wallbott, H.G. (1988). Antecedents of and reactions to emotions in the US and Japan. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 19, 267-286.
25.
Mesquita, B., & Karasawa, M. ( 2002). Different emotional lives. Cognition and Emotion, 16, 127-141.
26.
Mesquita, B., Karasawa, M., Haire, A., Izumi, S., Hayashi, A., Idzelis, M., et al. (2006). What do I feel? The role of cultural models in emotion representations. Unpublished manuscript, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC.
27.
Mesquita, B., & Leu, J. ( 2007). The cultural psychology of emotion. In S. Kitayama & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of cultural psychology (pp. 734-759). New York: Guilford.
28.
Nisbett, R.E., & Cohen, D. ( 1996). Culture of honor: The psychology of violence in the South. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Snibbe, A.C., & Markus, H.R. ( 2005). You can’t always get what you want: Educational attainment, agency, and choice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 703-720.
31.
Toriyama, R., Uchida, Y., Duffy, S., & Itakura, S. ( 2007, January). A content analysis of picture books in Japan and the U.S. Poster presented at the annual convention of Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Memphis, TN.
32.
Tsai, J.L., Knutson, B., & Fung, H.H. ( 2006). Cultural variation in affect valuation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 288-307.
33.
Uchida, Y., & Ellsworth, P.C. (2009). Cultural appraisals of shared and non-shared situations. Unpublished manuscript.
