Social vs. self-directed events among Japanese and Americans.(cross cultural studies)

Social Forces, December, 2005 by Francis, Linda E.; Smith, Herman W.

Cultural expectations provide meaning to human perceptions of who-does-what-to-whom-where. However, the effects of actions directed at oneself have been much less systematically studied. This article replicates the American factorial design of Britt and Heise (1992) in a Japanese setting. The analysis demonstrates both cultural similarities and differences in psychological principles for attaching meanings to self-directed events. Cross-cultural differences in creating a sense of self-fulfillment or self-actualization are expressed through emotional labeling and trait attribution.

Cross-cultural researchers have become increasingly critical of the conception of individuality as applicable beyond Western cultures (Fiske, Kitayama, Markus and Nisbett 1998; Yuki 2003)....

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