Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg Freiburg, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2012 Oct 25;3:435. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00435. eCollection 2012.
The cognitive appraisal of an event is crucial for the elicitation and differentiation of emotions, and causal attributions are an integral part of this process. In an interdisciplinary project comparing Tonga and Germany, we examined how cultural differences in attribution tendencies affect emotion assessment and elicitation. Data on appraising causality and responsibility and on emotional responses were collected through questionnaires based on experimentally designed vignettes, and were related to culture-specific values, norms, and the prevailing self-concept. The experimental data support our hypothesis that - driven by culturally defined self-concepts and corresponding attribution tendencies - members of the two cultures cognitively appraise events in diverging manners and consequently differ in their emotional responses. Ascription of responsibility to self and/or circumstances, in line with a more interdependent self-concept, co-varies with higher ratings of shame, guilt, and sadness, whereas ascription of responsibility to others, in line with a less interdependent self-concept, co-varies with higher ratings of anger. These findings support the universal contingency hypothesis and help to explain cultural differences in this domain on a fine-grained level.
事件的认知评价对于情感的引发和区分至关重要，而因果归因是这一过程的一个组成部分。在一个比较汤加和德国的跨学科项目中，我们研究了归因倾向的文化差异如何影响情感评估和引发。通过基于实验设计的情景的问卷收集了关于因果归因和责任以及情绪反应的数据，并与特定文化的价值观、规范和普遍的自我概念相关联。实验数据支持了我们的假设，即由于文化定义的自我概念和相应的归因倾向，两种文化的成员以不同的方式认知地评价事件，因此在情感反应上存在差异。与更具相互依存性的自我概念相一致的对自我和/或环境的责任归因，与羞耻、内疚和悲伤的更高评分相关，而与较少相互依存性的自我概念相一致的对他人的责任归因，则与愤怒的更高评分相关。这些发现支持了普遍的权变假设，并有助于在细微层面上解释这一领域的文化差异。
