Running away from unwanted feelings: Culture matters

Anger among Chinese migrants amid COVID-19 discrimination: The role of host news coverage, cultural distance, and national identity

As the early COVID-19 outbreak sparked xenophobia against people of Asian and Chinese background, we collected data from Chinese migrants worldwide to test how discrimination at a macro-level was perceived by the Chinese during COVID-19 globally. Specifically, we examined (1) whether/how the Chinese migrants were aware of discrimination against their co-nationals during COVID; (2) if so, whether anger was a predominant reaction of these Chinese towards certain exposure to relevant information; (3) how responses of anger transcend across the group of Chinese migrants. Integrating the ecological approach to media and cultural psychology, as well as the intergroup perspective of social psychology, we conducted a study that explored the impact of traditional media exposure to discrimination on collective anger-a process mediated by national identity among the Chinese migrants. Findings provide some evidence that geographically dispersed mono-cultural groups may share or identify with collective emotions when facing xenophobic threats in a macro context. Further examination of cultural distance (between China and the host country) among the Chinese migrants also revealed a particular interaction between host newspaper coverage and cultural distance on national identity. These findings suggest further research to examine the emotional norms of similar cultures bonded via strong collective identities in times of intergroup threat and the theoretical possibility for diasporic identity processes.

Negative views of out-groups and emotion regulation strategies: Evidence for an association with the tendency to suppress emotion expression, but not with cognitive reappraisal or emotion dysregulation

Emotions influence attitudes and appraisals toward out-groups, including prejudice. We hypothesized that individuals who successfully regulate emotions will express more positive attitudes toward out-groups. We conducted an online study of associations between emotion regulation and attitudes toward out-groups in a Finnish population-based sample (N = 320). As hypothesized, expressive suppression was associated with decreased acceptance toward out-groups, but contrary to our hypothesis, cognitive reappraisal was not associated with increased acceptance. In exploratory analyses, we found that individuals with more cognitive reappraisal (vs. expressive suppression) had a higher acceptance of out-groups, and that emotion regulation may not influence attitudes toward all out-groups equally. In conclusion, we present novel results indicating that habitual emotion regulation strategies are differently associated with attitudes toward a broad array of out-groups, and that the sociocultural aspects of emotion regulation toward out-group attitudes may play a role.

Longitudinal Relations between Emotion Restraint Values, Life Stress, and Internalizing Symptoms among Vietnamese American and European American Adolescents

Objective: Recent research has documented cultural differences in the extent and manner in which various forms of emotion regulation are linked with psychological well-being. Most of these studies, however, have been cross-sectional, nor have they directly examined the values underlying the use of emotion regulation. The present study examined emotion restraint values and their interactions with life stress in predicting internalizing symptoms across time among Vietnamese American and European American adolescents. The study focused on adolescence as a critical developmental period during which life stress and internalizing symptoms increase significantly. Method: Vietnamese American (n = 372) and European American (n = 304) adolescents' levels of emotion restraint values, internalizing symptoms, and stress were assessed at two timepoints six months apart. Results: Results indicated differential associations between emotion restraint values, stress, and symptoms over time for the two groups. For Vietnamese American adolescents, emotion restraint values did not predict depressive, anxiety, or somatic symptoms. For European American adolescents, emotion restraint values predicted higher somatic symptoms but buffered against the effects of interpersonal stress on anxiety and depressive symptoms. Conclusions: These results provide increased understanding of the role of values related to emotion restraint in shaping adolescent internalizing symptoms and responses to stress across cultural groups. Implications of the findings for guiding intervention efforts are discussed.

Measurement Invariance and the Five-Factor Model of Personality

This study examined measurement invariance of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), assessing the five-factor model (FFM) of personality among Euro American ( N = 290) and Asian international ( N = 301) students (47.8% women, Mage = 19.69 years). The full 60-item NEO-FFI data fit the expected five-factor structure for both groups using exploratory structural equation modeling, and achieved configural invariance. Only 37 items significantly loaded onto the FFM-theorized factors for both groups and demonstrated metric invariance. Threshold invariance was not supported with this reduced item set. Groups differed the most in the item–factor relationships for Extraversion and Agreeableness, as well as in response styles. Asian internationals were more likely to use midpoint responses than Euro Americans. While the FFM can characterize broad nomothetic patterns of personality traits, metric invariance with only the subset of NEO-FFI items identified limits direct group comparisons of correlation coefficients among personality domains and with other constructs, and of mean differences on personality domains.

Experiential pleasure deficits in different stages of schizophrenia

Prior research has found dampened anticipatory pleasure but relatively intact consummatory pleasure in people with first-episode and more chronic schizophrenia, but no study has examined anticipatory and consummatory pleasure across the schizophrenia spectrum. To confirm the factor structure of the Chinese version of the Temporal Experience Pleasure Scale (TEPS), which measures four components of anhedonia, we recruited 364 people with schizophrenia for confirmatory factor analysis. To examine anhedonia in people across the schizophrenia spectrum, we recruited people with first-episode (n=76) and chronic schizophrenia (n=45), people with schizotypal traits (n=210), first-degree relatives (n=45) of people with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Deficit in abstract anticipatory pleasure appeared to be most severe in people with chronic schizophrenia, while dampened abstract consummatory pleasure was observed in people with schizotypal personality features and in people with chronic schizophrenia. In addition, both abstract anticipatory and abstract consummatory pleasure were negatively correlated with negative schizotypal personality features and schizophrenia symptoms. Our results suggest that deficits in anticipatory pleasure are present across the schizophrenia spectrum, particularly in the abstract domain.

Culture and emotion regulation

While anthropological research has long emphasized cultural differences in whether emotions are viewed as beneficial versus harmful, psychological science has only recently begun to systematically examine those differences and their implications for emotion regulation and well-being. Underscoring the pervasive role of culture in people's emotions, we summarize research that has examined links between culture, emotion regulation, and well-being. Specifically, we focus on two questions. First, how does culture lead individuals to regulate their emotions? And second, how does culture modulate the link between emotion regulation and well-being? We finish by suggesting directions for future research to advance the study of culture and emotion regulation.