People in different cultures have strikingly different construals of the self, of others, and of the interdependence of the 2. These construals can influence, and in many cases determine, the very nature of individual experience, including cognition, emotion, and motivation. Many Asian cultures have distinct conceptions of individuality that insist on the fundamental relatedness of individuals to each other. The emphasis is on attending to others, fitting in, and harmonious interdependence with them. American culture neither assumes nor values such an overt connectedness among individuals. In contrast, individuals seek to maintain their independence from others by attending to the self and by discovering and expressing their unique inner attributes. As proposed herein, these construals are even more powerful than previously imagined. Theories of the self from both psychology and anthropology are integrated to define in detail the difference between a construal of the self as independent and a construal of the self as interdependent. Each of these divergent construals should have a set of specific consequences for cognition, emotion, and motivation; these consequences are proposed and relevant empirical literature is reviewed. Focusing on differences in self-construals enables apparently inconsistent empirical findings to be reconciled, and raises questions about what have been thought to be culture-free aspects of cognition, emotion, and motivation.

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Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation.

Many prominent theorists have argued that accurate perceptions of the self, the world, and the future are essential for mental health. Yet considerable research evidence suggests that overly positive selfevaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control or mastery, and unrealistic optimism are characteristic of normal human thought. Moreover, these illusions appear to promote other criteria of mental health, including the ability to care about others, the ability to be happy or contented, and the ability to engage in productive and creative work. These strategies may succeed, in large part, because both the social world and cognitive-processing mechanisms impose niters on incoming information that distort it in a positive direction; negative information may be isolated and represented in as unthreatening a manner as possible. These positive illusions may be especially useful when an individual receives negative feedback or is otherwise threatened and may be especially adaptive under these circumstances. Decades of psychological wisdom have established contact with reality as a hallmark of mental health. In this view, the well-adjusted person is thought to engage in accurate reality testing, whereas the individual whose vision is clouded by illusion is regarded as vulnerable to, if not already a victim of, mental illness. Despite its plausibility, this viewpoint is increasingly difficult to maintain (cf. Lazarus, 1983). A substantial amount of research testifies to the prevalence of illusion in normal human cognition (see Fiske& Taylor, 1984;Greenwald, 1980; Nisbett & Ross, 1980; Sackeim, 1983; Taylor, 1983). Moreover, these illusions often involve central aspects of the self and the environment and, therefore, cannot be dismissed as inconsequential. In this article, we review research suggesting that certain illusions may be adaptive for mental health and well-being. In particular, we examine evidence that a set of interrelated positive illusions—namely, unrealistically positive self-evaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control or mastery, and unrealistic optimism—can serve a wide variety of cognitive, affective, and social functions. We also attempt to resolve the following para

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Illusion and well-being: a social psychological perspective on mental health

This paper presents a critical appraisal of resilience, a construct connoting the maintenance of positive adaptation by individuals despite experiences of significant adversity. As empirical research on resilience has burgeoned in recent years, criticisms have been levied at work in this area. These critiques have generally focused on ambiguities in definitions and central terminology; heterogeneity in risks experienced and competence achieved by individuals viewed as resilient; instability of the phenomenon of resilience; and concerns regarding the usefulness of resilience as a theoretical construct. We address each identified criticism in turn, proposing solutions for those we view as legitimate and clarifying misunderstandings surrounding those we believe to be less valid. We conclude that work on resilience possesses substantial potential for augmenting the understanding of processes affecting at-risk individuals. Realization of the potential embodied by this construct, however, will remain constrained without continued scientific attention to some of the serious conceptual and methodological pitfalls that have been noted by skeptics and proponents alike.

/pdf/the-construct-of-resilience-a-critical-evaluation-and-2zm15ij070.pdf

The Construct of Resilience: A Critical Evaluation and Guidelines for Future Work

The emerging field of emotion regulation studies how individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express them. This review takes an evolutionary perspective and characterizes emotion in terms of response tendencies. Emotion regulation is denned and distinguished from coping, mood regulation, defense, and affect regulation. In the increasingly specialized discipline of psychology, the field of emotion regulation cuts across traditional boundaries and provides common ground. According to a process model of emotion regulation, emotion may be regulated at five points in the emotion generative process: (a) selection of the situation, (b) modification of the situation, (c) deployment of attention, (d) change of cognitions, and (e) modulation of responses. The field of emotion regulation promises new insights into age-old questions about how people manage their emotions.

http://www.elaborer.org/cours/A13/lectures/Gross1998.pdf

The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review.

Attachment--and loss.

Pathways to emotion regulation: Cultural differences in internalization.

Publisher Summary This chapter demonstrates that the helplessness-reactance model provides a viable explanation for clinical syndromes in children. A number of approaches have been adopted in attempting to support the value of this model. The link between clinical states (which provide the clearest support for the helplessness-reactance model) and clinical syndromes is strengthened by drawing from evidence regarding clinical stages. The chapter demonstrates that syndromes relate to generalized expectations of control in a manner consistent with the helplessness-reactance model. Finally, it is shown that the evidence regarding childrearing practices is consistent with the hypothesized relationships between generalized expectations of control and syndromes.

Children's clinical syndromes and generalized expectations of control.

Attachment, Learning, and Coping

Parents have a long history of seeking child-rearing information in the popular media. This trend continues on the World Wide Web, with the number of parents online still on the rise. The Web offers speed, 24-hour access, and extremely large quantities of child rearing information. Although the availability of huge quantities of child-rearing information has many positive aspects, there is a serious risk of exposure to erroneous and potentially harmful information due to the absence of monitoring of online material. This article summarizes the literature on parents' Web use and describes several steps that, if taken, will help to lessen the chance of parents' exposure to risky online material. The steps include: making parents aware of the risks, providing them with sets of screened sites that they can trust, and teaching them a few simple Web skills to improve their searching and their assessment of sites' trustworthiness. A clear majority of American parents use the Internet regularly to find child-rearing information (Allen & Rainie, 2002; Fox, 2005), and this proportion is expected to grow as access becomes easier and more universal. While the availability of huge quantities of online information has many positive aspects, there is a serious risk of exposure to erroneous, potentially harmful information. Parent educators and practitioners who work with parents are in a unique position to help parents find reputable sites and impart a few basic skills that will improve their chances of finding reliable information. An initial key step is for practitioners who work with parents to understand the importance of helping their clients use the Internet successfully and responsibly. Parent educators and practitioners need to move the issue of Web skills to the center of their radar screens, develop and refine their own Web skills, develop an understanding of what parents need to know about using the medium, and find a way to impart this information. Parents' Use of the Internet The public increasingly is relying on the popular media, including books and magazines, as a source of parenting information (ClarkeStewart, 1978; Crase, Carlson, & Kontos, 1981; Hughes & Durio, 1983; Koepke & Williams, 1989; Zero to Three, 1997, 2000). For example, from 1960 to 1964, six new books on child development were published each year, as compared to 20 new books a year from 1970 to 1974 and more than 100 new books a year in the 1990s (Bocella, 1995; Clarke-Stewart; Simpson, 1997). Parents' use of the newest media outlet, the World Wide Web, is consistent with this trend. In a national survey by Zero to Three (2000), for example, 38% of parents reported mat they used the Internet regularly (four or more hours a month) to find child development information. As Internet penetration of American households rises, more and more parents are likely to use it for this purpose. The percentage of Americans with home Internet access has risen from 55% in the fall of 2000 (Rainie & Packel, 2001) to 68% in the fall of 2005 (Fox, 2005). Among Americans with children under age 18,70% of the parents were online in 2002, as compared to 53% of nonparents (Allen & Rainie, 2002). The Internet is an attractive source of information for parents because of its round-the-clock availability, speed, and enormous range of information (Lee & Horrigan, 2005). Parents' reliance on the Internet as a source of information is evident in several findings: * As early as 2002, 67% of online parents were found to be looking for health information, and 58% were found to be looking for school-related information (Allen & Rainie, 2002). * A 2004 study by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare reveals that parents of autistic children chose the Internet above all other resources for information about autism. * While 58% of Internet consumers of health information reported that they would choose the Internet the next time they needed such information, only 35% reported they would choose a medical professional (Fox & Fallows, 2003). …

Thinking Critically about the Internet: Suggestions for Practitioners.

How do grass-roots agencies and programs lacking the expertise and the budget to publicize their work get their message out to the communities they serve? How do scholars and researchers, who publish their work primarily in professional journals, make the latest in child development research accessible to the public? CAMEO Feature News (CFN), an internet-based project at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, brings together the community and the university in a novel partnership that addresses both of these questions.

Fred Rothbaum

Papers

Pathways to emotion regulation: Cultural differences in internalization.

Children's clinical syndromes and generalized expectations of control.

Attachment, Learning, and Coping

Thinking Critically about the Internet: Suggestions for Practitioners.

CAMEO Feature News: University and Community Partnership Disseminates Child Development Information