Somatic and Social: Chinese Americans Talk about Emotion

• Published in: Personality & social psychology bulletin 2004-09, Vol.30 (9), p.1226-1238
• Main Authors: Tsai, Jeanne L., Simeonova, Diana I., Watanabe, Jamie T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acculturation; Adolescent; Adult; Asian Americans - psychology; Chinese American people; Chinese languages; Conflict (Psychology); Courtship; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Cultural aspects; Culture; Description; Emotional experiences; Emotional words; Emotions; English language; European Continental Ancestry Group - psychology; Humans; Interview, Psychological; Linguistics; Multilingualism; Object Attachment; Psycholinguistics; Semantics; Somatic symptoms; USA; Verbal Behavior
• ISSN: 0146-1672; 1552-7433
• DOI: 10.1177/0146167204264014

Empirical findings suggest that Chinese and Americans differ in the ways that they describe emotional experience, with Chinese using more somatic and social words than Americans. No one, however, has investigated whether this variation is related to differences between Chinese and American conceptions of emotion or to linguistic differences between the English and Chinese languages. Therefore, in two studies, the authors compared the word use of individuals who varied in their orientation to Chinese and American cultures (European Americans [EA], more acculturated Chinese Americans [CA], and less acculturated CA) when they were speaking English during emotional events. Across both studies, less acculturated CA used more somatic (e.g., dizzy) and more social (e.g., friend) words than EA. These findings suggest that even when controlling for language spoken, cultural conceptions of emotion may shape how people talk about emotion.