lecture 6 Flashcards
emotional experience in USA vs Germany
- Germany is an independent culture, but emotional experience is
different from USA
Study 1
Examined differences in reaction to grief between European
Americans and Germans
Participants imagined their reactions to a close acquaintance losing a loved one
results of study 1
European Americans (vs. Germans) reported greater desire to avoid negative
emotions
Led to differences in how sympathy was expressed
European Americans more likely to send sympathy card that focuses on the positive
Germans more likely to send sympathy card that focuses on negative
multicultural identity
sense of belonging to 2 or more cultural groups
who is multicultural identity experienced by
immigrant families, ethnic minorities, indigenous people
acculturation
Process of learning and incorporating the values, beliefs, language,
customs and mannerisms of the new country/majority culture
Evidence of acculturation on
a psychological level
Study 2
915 immigrant women from Eastern Europe and Caribbean
living in USA compared to USA-born non-immigrant women
results of study 2
Longer amount of time they had spent in USA, the more
they fit mainstream American emotional norms ( r = 0.11)
- i.e. More expressivity and less inhibition of emotions
generational emotional acculturations
How well does each immigrant generations’ emotional experience fit
with characteristic majority culture pattern?
study 3
Compared emotional fit between Turks and Belgians
* Turkish people in Turkey (“Turkish majority”)
* 1st generation Turkish immigrants in Belgium
* 2nd generation Turkish immigrants in Belgium
* Belgians in Belgium (“Belgian majority”)
how did they assess emotional fit by in study 3
- Self-report answers to emotional experiences questionnaire
- Average emotional experiences for each group
- Compare Turkish majority and immigrants’ scores to Belgian majority
results of study 3
More contact a generation has with
Belgian culture, more emotional acculturation
* Turkish majority least like Belgians emotionally
* 2nd generation Turkish immigrants indistinguishable
from Belgians
what does study 3 show
evidence of emoional acculturation from one generation to the next
implications of acculturation findings
Minority individuals become psychologically more similar to majorityculture individuals
- Does this mean that they lose their heritage culture?
- Can new culture and heritage culture co-exist?
cultural frame switching
Multicultural individuals’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioural
reactions are context specific
- Depend on which cultural identity is activated by the situation
cultural fram switchin in emotion study 4
Examined 2nd generation Turkish
immigrants’ emotional experience in Belgium
results of study 4
Work/school: emotions more consistent with
characteristic Belgian pattern
Home: emotions fit characteristic Belgian and
Turkish patterns equally well
what does study 4 result suggest
multicultural individuals flexibly
shift behaviour to fit culture that’s most salient
in a situation
cultural frame switching in self-concept study 5
Do multicultural individuals engage in cultural frame-switching in
their self-descriptions?
study 5 method
Recruited European-Canadian and Chinese born students
at a Canadian university
- Wrote open-ended self-description: “Describe what you’re like as a person”
- Coded writing for references to others and collective self-statement
- Questionnaire assessing agreement with Chinese cultural views
Experimental manipulation for
Chinese students
- Study done in Chinese or study done in English
- Language acting as a cultural prime
- European Canadians all did study in English
results study 5
Chinese participants’ self-descriptions are more characteristically Chinese when answering in Chinese than in English
implications of cultural frame switching
Even though multicultural individuals undergo acculturation, their
heritage cultural identity and mainstream cultural identity can coexist
Can flexibly shift between cultures depending on which is most
salient
