Lewis Michael, Takai-Kawakami Kiyoko, Kawakami Kiyobumi, Sullivan Margaret Wolan
Institute for the Study of Child Development, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ.
Int J Behav Dev. 2010 Jan 1;34(1):53-61. doi: 10.1177/0165025409348559.
The emotional responses to achievement contexts of 149 preschool children from three cultural groups were observed. The children were Japanese (N=32), African American (N=63) and White American of mixed European ancestry (N=54). The results showed that Japanese children differed from American children in expressing less shame, pride, and sadness, but more of both exposure and evaluative embarrassment. African American and White American children did not differ from one another. American children however showed more evaluative as opposed to exposure embarrassment. This finding supports the idea that success and failure are interpreted differently by Japanese children during the preschool years. The low amount of sadness and shame expression, and the limited range of number of different expressions observed in the Japanese children agree with the general finding that East Asian infants and young children differ from Western infants and children primarily in the display of negative expressions. These results demonstrate that cultural differences, whether due to temperament or direct socialization of cultural values, influence how children respond to achievement situations.
观察了来自三个文化群体的149名学龄前儿童对成就情境的情绪反应。这些儿童分别是日本儿童（N = 32）、非裔美国儿童（N = 63）和具有欧洲混合血统的美国白人儿童（N = 54）。结果显示，日本儿童与美国儿童在情绪表达上存在差异，日本儿童表现出较少的羞耻、自豪和悲伤情绪，但暴露性尴尬和评价性尴尬情绪更多。非裔美国儿童和美国白人儿童之间没有差异。然而，美国儿童表现出更多的评价性尴尬而非暴露性尴尬。这一发现支持了这样一种观点，即日本学龄前儿童对成功和失败的解读有所不同。日本儿童悲伤和羞耻情绪表达较少，且观察到的不同情绪表达数量范围有限，这与东亚婴幼儿与西方婴幼儿在负面情绪表达上存在差异的总体发现一致。这些结果表明，文化差异，无论是由于气质还是文化价值观的直接社会化，都会影响儿童对成就情境的反应。
