Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.
Department of Psychology, Stanford University.
Emotion. 2013 Dec;13(6):1122-1131. doi: 10.1037/a0034273. Epub 2013 Oct 7.
Individuals with lower social status have been reported to express more anger, but this evidence comes mostly from Western cultures. Here, we used representative samples of American and Japanese adults and tested the hypothesis that the association between social status and anger expression depends on whether anger serves primarily to vent frustration, as in the United States, or to display authority, as in Japan. Consistent with the assumption that lower social standing is associated with greater frustration stemming from life adversities and blocked goals, Americans with lower social status expressed more anger, with the relationship mediated by the extent of frustration. In contrast, consistent with the assumption that higher social standing affords a privilege to display anger, Japanese with higher social status expressed more anger, with the relationship mediated by decision-making authority. As expected, anger expression was predicted by subjective social status among Americans and by objective social status among Japanese. Implications for the dynamic construction of anger and anger expression are discussed.
据报道，社会地位较低的个体表现出更多的愤怒，但这些证据主要来自西方文化。在这里，我们使用了美国和日本成年人的代表性样本，检验了这样一个假设，即社会地位与愤怒表达之间的关联取决于愤怒是主要用于发泄挫败感（如在美国）还是用于展示权威（如在日本）。与较低的社会地位与生活逆境和目标受阻导致更大挫败感的假设一致，社会地位较低的美国人表现出更多的愤怒，这种关系受到挫败感程度的中介。相比之下，与更高的社会地位赋予展示愤怒的特权的假设一致，社会地位较高的日本人表现出更多的愤怒，这种关系受到决策权威的中介。正如预期的那样，美国人的主观社会地位和日本人的客观社会地位都可以预测愤怒的表达。讨论了愤怒和愤怒表达的动态构建的含义。
