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.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/5/110/206.full.pdf

The american psychological association.

Experiences of emotion are content-rich events that emerge at the level of psychological description, but must be causally constituted by neurobiological processes. This chapter outlines an emerging scientific agenda for understanding what these experiences feel like and how they arise. We review the available answers to what is felt (i.e., the content that makes up an experience of emotion) and how neurobiological processes instantiate these properties of experience. These answers are then integrated into a broad framework that describes, in psychological terms, how the experience of emotion emerges from more basic processes. We then discuss the role of such experiences in the economy of the mind and behavior.

/pdf/the-experience-of-emotion-2a7oja10qb.pdf

The Experience of Emotion

Autonomy and agency are used extensively and often interchangeably; there is a debate regarding their intersections with relatedness and separateness. This scholarship occurs within mainly a Euro-American cultural context that provides an ideological background of individualism, shedding light on psychological thinking. The article attempts to provide a broad overview of the issues involved. Two distinct dimensions, agency and interpersonal distance, are seen to underlie the self constructs involving autonomy and relatedness that are developed in different spheres of psychological inquiry. Autonomy and relatedness are viewed as basic human needs, and though apparently conflicting, are proposed to be compatible. Problems of conceptualization and operationalization are noted that have prevented the recognition of this compatibility. A model is put forward that involves a fourfold combination of the two dimensions, leading to different types of self and the societal and familial contexts in which they develo...

Autonomy and Relatedness in Cultural Context Implications for Self and Family

In this chapter we review theoretical and empirical advances in research on adolescent development in interpersonal and societal contexts. First, we identify several trends in current research, including the current emphasis on ecological models and the focus on diversity in and relational models of adolescent development. Next, we discuss recent research on interpersonal relationships, with an eye toward identifying major research themes and findings. Research on adolescents' relationships with parents, siblings, other relatives, peers, and romantic partners, and adolescents' involvement in community and society is reviewed. Future directions in research on adolescent development are discussed.

Adolescent development in interpersonal and societal contexts.

Findings from research on parent-child and adult mate relationships suggest that there are different paths of development in Japan and the United States. In Japan, the path is one of symbiotic harmony, as seen in the emphasis on union in infancy, others' expectations in childhood, the stability of relationships with parents and peers in adolescence, and assurance about the mate relationship in adulthood. In the United States, the path is one of generative tension, as seen in the tug between separation and reunion in infancy, the emphasis on personal preferences in childhood, the transfer of closeness from parents to peers in adolescence, and the emphasis on trust-a faith and hope in new relationships-in adulthood. The notion that there are different paths of development challenges Western investigators' presumption that certain processes-separation-individuation, use of the relational partner as a secure base for exploration, and conflict between partners-are central in all relationships. The notion of different paths also challenges the assumption of many cross-cultural investigators that relationships in the United States are less valued or weaker than those in Japan; this article highlights cultural differences in the meaning and dynamics, as opposed to the importance and strength, of relationships. The model suggests a need to investigate the processes underlying, and the adaptive consequences of, these two alternative paths.

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jweisz/files/2000b.pdf

The Development of Close Relationships in Japan and the United States: Paths of Symbiotic Harmony and Generative Tension

Attachment theorists maintain that cultural differences are relatively minor, and they focus on universals. Here the authors highlight evidence of cultural variations and note ways in which attachment theory is laden with Western values and meaning. Comparisons of the United States and Japan highlight the cultural relativity of 3 core hypotheses of attachment theory: that caregiver sensitivity leads to secure attachment, that secure attachment leads to later social competence, and that children who are securely attached use the primary caregiver as a secure base for exploring the external world. Attachment theorists use measures of sensitivity, competence, and secure base that are biased toward Western ways of thinking: The measures emphasize the child's autonomy, individuation, and exploration. In Japan, sensitivity, competence, and secure base are viewed very differently, calling into question the universality of fundamental tenets of attachment theory. The authors call for an indigenous approach to the psychology of attachment.

http://cfw.tufts.edu/files/rothbaum_articles/attachment%20and%20culture%20%28AP,%202000%29.pdf?origin=publication_detail

Attachment and culture. Security in the United States and Japan.

Family influences on school readiness and achievement in Japan and the United States: An overview of a longitudinal study.

no differences between the two groups along this dimension (which is closely related to the presumed Japanese emphasis on interdependence—as compared with the presumed Western emphasis on independence—as proposed by Markus & Kitayama, 1991). The existence of such emic concepts as amae, wa, and kanjin cannot be taken as evidence that the denoted attributes are unique to Japan or more prevalent in Japan than in other countries. For example, Kashima et al. (1995) conducted a survey on the kanjin orientation (which Hamaguchi, 1985, claimed is a unique, emic category) and found that Japanese participants scored lower on this orientation than did participants from any of the four other countries surveyed. Regarding the ostensibly emic amae, it is worth noting that Doi, trained as a psychoanalyst, developed his notion of amae on the basis of Western Freudian theory. Hence, the opposition of Japan and the West becomes more difficult to uphold in this respect. Rothbaum et al.'s (2000) argument for greater attention to indigenous concepts in psychology may at first seem reasonable. However, it must be asked, indigenous to what or to whom? As Azuma (2000) noted, the term indigenous reflects a view of culture as \"circumscribed, fixed, and internally homogeneous\" (p. 9). The view of Japanese culture as internally homogeneous and externally distinctive has been widely discredited in contemporary anthropological and cultural studies (e.g., Gjerde & Onishi, 2000), and Rothbaum et al.'s references to Japanese culture and Japanese parents seem both essentialized and dated. But perhaps their most important fallacy is the failure to distinguish between cultural values and the actual lived experience of contemporary Japanese. Japanese cultural values, often ideologically tainted (Befu, 1993), may not accurately reflect the daily lived experiences of Japanese. Cultural values and subjective experience may be linked, but this linkage may not be perfect and should not be taken for granted without further investigation. As social scientists, we must not reify cultural values and mistake them for actual lived experience. For example, is amae experienced as true dependence, or is it sometimes a disingenuous or strategic behavioral expression of other attitudes or desires? We simply do not know. Until we do, an evaluation of the authors' arguments about amae and secure attachment is premature.

Deeper into attachment and culture

/pdf/a-cross-national-study-of-mother-and-infant-activities-and-2t7h7mulkj.pdf

Kazuo Miyake

Papers

The Development of Close Relationships in Japan and the United States: Paths of Symbiotic Harmony and Generative Tension

Attachment and culture. Security in the United States and Japan.

Family influences on school readiness and achievement in Japan and the United States: An overview of a longitudinal study.

Deeper into attachment and culture

A Cross-National Study of Mother and Infant Activities and Interactions：Some Preliminary Comparisons between Japan and The United States