University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
Int J Psychol. 2010 Apr 1;45(2):111-21. doi: 10.1080/00207590903281104.
Cognitive theories of emotion assert that emotional reactions to events depend on the manner in which events are interpreted and appraised. From this perspective, the same outcome can produce different emotions. For example, a score of 85% on a test can evoke positive feelings if it is considered a success or negative feelings if it is considered a failure. Among the various appraisal dimensions that have been identified, causal attributions are thought to play a particularly influential role in shaping emotional reactions to various events. For example, success can evoke pride if it is attributed to high ability, gratitude if it is attributed to help from others, relief if it is attributed to a stroke of good fortune, or guilt if it is attained fraudulently or at the expense of others. These cognitive-affective linkages are thought to be universal. In this paper, we report two studies that tested the cross-cultural generality of some of these assumptions. In Study 1, participants from the People's Republic of China were led to succeed or fail on an (alleged) test of their intelligence and creativity. Consistent with previous findings with Western samples, attributions to ability predicted participants' emotional reactions to their test performance, with high ability attributions linked to greater pride following success. In Study 2, we extended these findings with American and Chinese participants, using a different experimental manipulation of success and failure, and a measure of attributions to effort. For both cultural groups, attributions to ability (but not attributions to effort) predicted greater emotional reactions to success. We conclude that attribution-emotion linkages have cross-cultural validity, and that pride is maximized when success is attributed to high ability.
情绪的认知理论认为，对事件的情绪反应取决于对事件的解释和评价方式。从这个角度来看，相同的结果可能会产生不同的情绪。例如，在考试中得到 85 分，如果被认为是成功的，就会产生积极的感觉；如果被认为是失败的，就会产生消极的感觉。在已经确定的各种评价维度中，归因被认为在塑造对各种事件的情绪反应方面起着特别重要的作用。例如，成功如果归因于高能力，就会引起自豪感；如果归因于他人的帮助，就会引起感激之情；如果归因于好运，就会感到宽慰；如果归因于欺诈或牺牲他人，就会感到内疚。这些认知-情感联系被认为是普遍存在的。在本文中，我们报告了两项研究，检验了其中一些假设的跨文化普遍性。在研究 1 中，来自中华人民共和国的参与者在（据称）测试他们的智力和创造力时成功或失败。与以前对西方样本的发现一致，能力归因预测了参与者对自己测试表现的情绪反应，高能力归因与成功后更大的自豪感相关。在研究 2 中，我们使用不同的成功和失败的实验操作以及努力归因的衡量标准，扩展了这些发现，包括美国和中国的参与者。对于这两个文化群体，能力归因（而不是努力归因）预测了对成功的更大情绪反应。我们的结论是，归因-情感联系具有跨文化的有效性，当成功归因于高能力时，自豪感最大。
