Abstract
This study investigated the influence of culture and depression on (1) emotion priming reactions, (2) the recall of subjective experience of emotion, and (3) emotion meaning. Members of individualistic culture (Australia, n = 42) and collectivistic culture (Iran, n = 32, Malaysia, n = 74) with and without depression completed a biological motion task, subjective experience questionnaire and emotion meaning questionnaire. Those with depression, regardless of cultural group, provided significantly fewer correct responses on the biological motion task than the control group. Second, the collectivistic control groups reported greater social engaging emotion than the Australian control group. However, the three depressed groups did not differ culturally. The Australian depressed group reported significantly greater interpersonally engaging emotion than the Australian control group. Third, the collectivistic groups reported significantly greater social worth, belief changes and sharing of emotion than the individualistic group. Depression did not influence these cultural effects. Instead we found that those with depression, when compared to controls, considered emotions as subjective phenomena, that were qualifying for relationships with others, and associated with greater agency appraisals. The applicability of the biocultural framework of emotion in depression was considered.
Highlights
Emotions are both universal and culture-specific[1,2,3]
Subjective experience is situated in an intermediary position concerning the influence of cultural and biological factors and requires some higher-order cognition that is beyond that required for priming reactions[1]
To examine Hypotheses 2 and 3, mean intensity ratings of the emotions that varied in social orientation were computed for each participant and submitted to an analysis of variance (ANOVA) with two between-subjects variables and one within-subjects variables
Summary
Emotions are both universal and culture-specific[1,2,3]. That is, emotions are biologically determined products of our evolutionary past. Matsumoto and Hwang developed a biocultural framework of emotion that integrates the universality (biological-innateness) with cultural-specificity (cultural construction) of emotion[1]. Their framework considers priming reactions, subjective experience, and emotional meanings, and the relative influences of biology and culture on these domains of emotion[1]. Other themes, such as personal achievement, unfair infringement of personal goals, and separateness from others, are emphasized by the independent self and are considered interpersonally disengaging[16] In support of these assertions, individuals in collectivistic cultures report experiencing interpersonally engaging emotions more than interpersonally disengaging emotions. Those from individualistic cultures tend to experience more interpersonally disengaging emotions than engaging emotions[16,17,18,19]
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