Cultural Variations in the Self and Underlying Neural Mechanisms: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation.

Abstract

Over the last two decades, substantial progress has been made to examine cultural differences in a variety of psychological processes. This dissertation aims to extend the current literature by exploring how the culturally divergent model of the self as independent vs. interdependent influences three arrays of psychological tendencies, including cognition, emotion, and motivation, in broad socio-cultural contexts. It also seeks to identify the brain mechanisms upon which these psychological operations are based. Specifically, Chapter II seeks to examine cultural variation in cognitive process. I explored cultural difference in implicit cognition by comparing European American and Japanese participants’ implicit value endorsement of independence and interdependence using a modified implicit association test (IAT) paradigm (Study 1). Chapter III includes two studies examining cultural variation in emotional processes. Study 2 tested whether the linkage between anger expression and social status is moderated by culture, depending on the salience and significance of the function of anger either as vented frustration or as dominance display in each culture. Study 3 examined whether the beneficial effects of perceived social support on health is contingent on factors that highlight or conceal the emotional costs associated with receiving supporting, including culture, situational context, and personality. Chapter IV explores the neural bases of cultural variation in motivational processes in two studies. Study 4 identified a neurophysiological signal of the motivational force towards the pursuit of self-interest as an attempt to understand cultural variation in self-serving bias. Study 5 tested whether cultural groups differ in the neural signaling of social evaluative threat and how this threat response influences task vigilance. Finally, in Chapter V, the main findings of Chapters II, III, and IV are summarized. I also discuss implications of the findings and propose future research directions.