Cultural influences on emotion: Established patterns and emerging trends
Résumé
Over the last decade, significant empirical research has examined the influence of culture on a variety of emotional and affective processes. In this chapter, we review three established empirical patterns of differences in emotion between Western and East Asian cultures that stem from independent versus interdependent models of self. These patterns concern the focus of emotion, the value placed on emotional expression versus suppression, and the value placed on experiencing positive (vs. negative) affective states, and on high-versus low-arousal positive states. This work reveals that many assumptions that stem from Western views of emotion are less applicable to East Asian contexts. We then discuss the importance of considering cultural differences in emotion for health, business, and other applied settings. We end with a description of some emerging trends in the culture and emotion literature that …
