Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Part One Introduction
- Part Two Representational theories of culture
- Part Three Psychological functions of culture
- Part Four Manifestations of cultural processes
- 8 Culture and Self-Enhancement
- 9 Cultural Processes Underlying Subjective Well-Being
- 10 Cultural Processes in Teams: The Development of Team Mental Models in Heterogeneous Work Teams
- 11 Harmony, Illusory Relationship Costs, and Conflict Resolution in Chinese Contexts
- Part Five Transcultural processes
- Index
- References
9 - Cultural Processes Underlying Subjective Well-Being
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Part One Introduction
- Part Two Representational theories of culture
- Part Three Psychological functions of culture
- Part Four Manifestations of cultural processes
- 8 Culture and Self-Enhancement
- 9 Cultural Processes Underlying Subjective Well-Being
- 10 Cultural Processes in Teams: The Development of Team Mental Models in Heterogeneous Work Teams
- 11 Harmony, Illusory Relationship Costs, and Conflict Resolution in Chinese Contexts
- Part Five Transcultural processes
- Index
- References
Summary
The subjective well-being (SWB) of an individual refers to her or his own sense of wellness and consists of a variety of cognitive and emotional components. Cognitive SWB includes life satisfaction, which taps into individuals’ own evaluation of their lives. Emotional SWB is commonly assessed by the frequency of pleasant emotions and infrequency of negative emotions. Although survey studies of SWB have been conducted since the mid-20th century (see Diener, 1984), extensive research on SWB – cross-cultural research in particular – did not begin to accumulate until the 1990s. In particular, overall levels of SWB as well as its correlates and possible psychological causes have been of great interest to recent cross-cultural researchers.
In this chapter, we highlight cross-cultural differences in SWB and provide a theoretical foundation for understanding the psychological processes related to those differences. We restrict our comparisons to those between European American and East Asian (Chinese, Korean, and Japanese) samples in part because research on these groups is extensive. In both groups, SWB may be influenced by common psychological factors (e.g., goal attainment, self-esteem). The nature of these factors and the degree to which they covary with SWB may differ across groups, however. For example, self-esteem is more strongly correlated with SWB in Western nations (around .60) than in Asian nations (around .40; Diener, Diener, & Diener, 1995). In other words, how positively individuals perceive themselves might be less predictive of life satisfaction in East Asian cultures. Our interpretation of these differences draws largely on the cultural psychology of self-construals (Markus & Kitayama, 1991), which assumes that individuals can define themselves either in reference to or in isolation from their social roles and that certain cultures may value one type of self-construal over another.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cultural ProcessesA Social Psychological Perspective, pp. 154 - 171Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
References
1999 The role of culture and gender in the relationship between positive and negative affectCognition and Emotion 13 641CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2003 Moral value transfer from regulatory fit: What feels right is right and what feels wrong is wrongJournal of Personality and Social Psychology 84 498CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2004 Regulatory fit and persuasion: Transfer from “feeling rightJournal of Personality and Social Psychology 86 388CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1997 Lay dispositionism and implicit theories of personalityJournal of Personality and Social Psychology 73 19CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2002 Culture and self-concept flexibilityPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28 1508CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1999 Compliance with a request in two cultures: The differential influence of social proof and commitment/consistency on collectivists and individualistsPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin 25 1242CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2002 As seen by the other: Perspective on the self in the memories and emotional perceptions of Easterners and WesternersPsychological Science 13 55CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1995 Factors predicting the subjective well-being of nationsJournal of Personality and Social Psychology 69 851CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1985 The satisfaction with life scaleJournal of Personality Assessment 49 71CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1999 National differences in subjective well-beingWell-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology434New YorkRussell Sage FoundationGoogle Scholar
1995 National differences in reported subjective well-being: Why do they occurSocial Indicators Research 34 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2001 A cross-cultural analysis of avoidance (relative to approach) personal goalsPsychological Science 12 505CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1998 Culture, parental conflict, parental marital status, and the subjective well-being of young adultsJournal of Marriage and the Family 60 319CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2002 Is the interdependent self more sensitive to question context than the independent self? Self-construal and the observation of conversational normsJournal of Experimental and Social Psychology 38 323CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1999 Is there a universal need for positive self-regardPsychological Review 106 766CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2003 Culture-specific patterns in the prediction of life satisfaction: Roles of emotion, relationship quality, and self-esteemPersonality & Social Psychology Bulletin 29 1596CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2010 Let bygones be bygone or alive: A cross-cultural difference in the cause of subjective-well being between Americans and Asiansthe University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignGoogle Scholar
2010 Information, perspective, and judgments about the self in Face and Dignity culturesPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36 537CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2008 Explaining self-esteem differences between Chinese and North Americans: Dialectical self (vs. self-consistency) or lack of positive self-regardSelf and Identity 7 113CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2000 Culture, emotion, and well-being: Good feelings in Japan and the United StatesCognition and Emotion93CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2002 A theory of goal systemsAdvances in experimental social psychology331San Diego, CAAcademic PressGoogle Scholar
2003 Why is self-enhancement low in certain collectivist cultures? An investigation of two competing explanationsJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 34 496CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1997 Pancultural explanations for life satisfaction: Adding relationship harmony to self-esteemJournal of Personality and Social Psychology 73 1038CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2007 The soft embodiment of culture: Camera angles and motion through time and spacePsychological Science 18 824CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1991 Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivationPsychological Review 98 224CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1994 The cultural construction of self and emotion: Implications for social behaviorEmotion and culture: Empirical studies of mutual influence89Washington, DCAmerican Psychological AssociationCrossRefGoogle Scholar
2002 Self-esteem as folk theory: A comparison of European American and Taiwanese mother's beliefsParenting, Science and Practice 2 209CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2001 Culture and systems of thought: Holistic versus analytic cognitionPsychological Review 108 291CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2002 The experience and remembering of well-being: A cross-cultural analysisPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28 1398CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2006 The concept of life satisfaction across cultures: An IRT analysisJournal of Research in Personality 40 411CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2001 Goals, culture, and subjective well-beingPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin 27 1674CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2003 Culture and well-being: The cycle of action, evaluation, and decisionPersonality and Social Psychological Bulletin 29 939CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2005 The mediating role of parental expectations in culture and well-beingJournal of Personality 73 1267CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2005 A cross-cultural study of the levels and correlates of life satisfaction among adolescentsJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 36 444CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1999 Culture, dialectics, and reasoning about contradictionAmerican Psychologist 54 741CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2002 Cultural influences on the relation between pleasant emotions and unpleasant emotions: Asian dialectic philosophies or individualism-collectivismCognition and Emotion 16 705CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2004 Emotions across cultures and methodsJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 35 304CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2003 Self-concordance and subjective well-being in four culturesJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 35 209CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2004 Dialectical self-esteem and East-West differences in psychological well-beingPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin 30 1416CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2004 How regulatory fit enhances motivational strength during goal pursuitEuropean Journal of Social Psychology 4 39CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1998 The shifting basis of life satisfaction judgments across cultures: Emotions versus normsJournal of Personality and Social Psychology 74 482CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2002 Culture, identity consistency, and subjective well-beingJournal of Personality and Social Psychology 83 1378CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1994 Authenticity and positivity strivings in marriage and courtshipJournal of Personality and Social Psychology 66 857CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
1988 Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental healthPsychological Bulletin 103 193CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2007 Culture and subjective well-beingHandbook of cultural psychology691New YorkGuilfordGoogle Scholar
1989 The self and social behavior in differing cultural contextsPsychological Review 96 506CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2006 Cultural variation in affect valuationJournal of Personality and Social Psychology 90 288CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2001 Interpersonal sources of happiness: The relative significance in the three culturesToronto, CanadaGoogle Scholar
2002 The concept of life satisfaction across cultures: Exploring its diverse meaning and relation to economic wealthThe universality of subjective wellbeing indicators81Dordrecht, The NetherlandsKluwer Academic PublishersCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 2
- Cited by