A cross‐cultural comparison of anxiety responses in an interactional frame of reference1

Abstract

A cross‐cultural comparison of anxiety behavior in an interactional frame of reference was made, employing a Situation by Reaction inventory. Subjects about 16 years of age from Sweden, Japan, and Hungary reported their anxiety on 15 reaction scales for each of 17 hypothetical anxiety provoking situations. The results were presented mainly as comparisons of profiles of reactions across situations of different kinds. The rank order of the included situations after rated reactions was highly similar across countries and across sexes. The situational profiles of reactions showed a remarkable correspondence across the three countries for each sex, and the somatic and the psychic anxiety reaction profiles were highly similar in shape over nations. In terms of level differences, Japanese and Hungarian pupils reported higher anxiety than Swedish pupils for included situations. Girls scored higher than boys in Sweden and in Hungary. No such general sex difference was found for Japanese pupils. It was concluded that cross‐cultural comparisons of anxiety are enhanced by separating situational and reactional aspect of anxiety and by making cross‐cultural descriptions by profiles of reactions across different kinds of anxiety provocative situations.