Uncertainty Orientation and Affective Experiences: Individual Differences Within and Across Cultures

This study examined whether people with the same self-regulatory style of coping with uncertainty differed in their affective experiences as a function of what may be the dominant coping style of their culture. Two hundred twenty men and women from universities in Japan and Canada described the exte...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cross-cultural psychology 2008-03, Vol.39 (2), p.129-146
Main Authors: Sorrentino, Richard M., Nezlek, John B., Yasunaga, Satoru, Kouhara, Sadafusa, Otsubo, Yasunao, Shuper, Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affective experiences
Behavior
Canada
Coping
Coping style
Cross cultural studies
Cultural differences
Emotions
Japan
Negative emotions
Self regulation
Social psychology
Students
Uncertainty
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Summary:This study examined whether people with the same self-regulatory style of coping with uncertainty differed in their affective experiences as a function of what may be the dominant coping style of their culture. Two hundred twenty men and women from universities in Japan and Canada described the extent to which they experienced various emotions. Consistent with their expectations, the authors found that participants whose uncertainty orientation matched that of their country (i.e., uncertainty-oriented students in Canada, certainty-oriented students in Japan) experienced more active emotions than mismatched participants (i.e., certainty-oriented students in Canada, uncertainty-oriented students in Japan), who experienced more passive emotions. Moreover, those who matched their country's coping style also reported experiencing more positive and fewer negative emotions than mismatched students. These results suggest that the theory of uncertainty orientation has important implications for research on affective experiences within and across cultures.
ISSN:0022-0221
1552-5422
DOI:10.1177/0022022107312586