Incorporating Culture Into the Study of Affect and Health

Abstract

Curhan and colleagues (2014) have correctly pointed out that culture is likely to play a critical role in understanding affect-health associations. Despite wide recognition of crosscultural variation in experienced affect, affect ideals, and other emotion-related cognitions (e.g., Markus & Kitayama, 1991;Mesquita, 2001;Tsai, 2007;Williamson et al., 2012), affect-health research rarely includes cultural variables. We take this point to heart and agree that health-related science should pay more attention to the role that this distinction may play. While we agree with this greater point, the intent of our work (Pressman, Gallagher, & Lopez, 2013) was not to suggest that there is no cultural variation in affect-health connections. Rather, the goal was to highlight that emotion matters for physical well-being despite the many known differences across the 142 countries in our sample. Indeed, across all countries assessed, positive and negative affect (PA and NA, respectively) were both associated with physical health. While the relative strength of the associations of PA and NA with health was not tested in our study, we agree that it may to some extent reflect the values that specific societies place on different emotions.We took the opportunity raised by the response article to revisit our sample and examine whether the pattern observed by Curhan et al. (2014) would be replicated in Gallup World Poll data. That is, we tested whether NA was less connected to poor health in East Asian countries, as would be expected given the greater acceptance of negative feelings in East Asian societies (Tsai & Levenson, 1997;Williamson et al., 2012).

The role of affect in the positive self: Two longitudinal investigations of young adolescents in the United States and China.

“…The picture of universality is consistent with prior research demonstrating that affect has fairly comparable effects over time on American and Chinese children's autonomous motivation during early adolescence (Pomerantz & Qin, 2014). It is also in line with findings that affect plays a comparable role in health during adulthood in a variety of countries, including the United States and China (Pressman et al, 2013(Pressman et al, , 2014. However, other studies point to the possibility that the role of affect differs in the West and East Asia.…”

“…However, Pomerantz and Qin (2014) found that children's negative affect predicted dampened autonomous motivation in school over time during early adolescence similarly in the United States and China, with positive affect predicting heightened autonomous motivation only in China. Research has yielded mixed findings as to whether the effects of affect on health vary among adults in the West and East Asia, leading to debate over the issue (e.g., Curhan et al, 2014;Pressman, Gallagher, & Lopez, 2013;Pressman, Gallagher, Lopez, & Campos, 2014). In terms of spe-This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”

Hepatitis B Stigma and Knowledge among Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City and Chicago

“…Stigma leads to avoidance behaviors including resistance to seeking information about health, a reluctance to disclose personal information to social networks, and caution about seeking treatment and adhering to treatment protocols [14, 15]. Negative feelings about oneself and associated stigma are associated with poorer health outcomes [17]. Asian fatalism might provide another barrier to seeking medical care including vaccination, testing and treatment [15], since life may be believed to be unpredictable and that people have limited control over their own destiny.…”

What is the Role of Culture in the Association of Relationships with Health?

“…Emotions are central to relationships (e.g., Keltner & Haidt, 2001;Shiota, Campos, Keltner, & Hertenstein, 2004) and have long been recognized as a rich space of sociocultural variation (Mesquita, Frijda, & Scherer, 1997). Recent studies highlight the importance of this topic for health (e.g., Curhan et al, 2014;Pressman, Gallagher, Lopez, & Campos, 2014;Soto et al, 2011). The few studies that have examined cultural variation in emotion within relationship Culture,Relationships,and Health 669 settings suggest that this is an important area for future research.…”