Emotion control values and responding to an anger provocation in Asian-American and European-American individuals

Abstract

The present research examined whether Asian-American (AA) versus European-American (EA) women differed in experiential, expressive, or autonomic physiological responding to a laboratory anger provocation and assessed the mediating role of values about emotional control. Results indicate that AA participants reported and behaviourally displayed less anger than EA participants, while there were no group differences in physiological responses. Observed differences in emotional responses were partially mediated by emotion control values, suggesting a potential mechanism for effects of cultural background on anger responding.

Keywords:

• Emotional responding
• Asian-American and European-American cultural background
• Mediation
• Cultural values
• Anger experience
• Anger expression
• Autonomic physiology

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Yulia Chentsova Dutton, Catharine Evers, James Gross, and Amanda Shallcross for their help with this research and for comments on a draft of this article.

This research was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant AG031967.

Notes

¹Small cell sizes did not permit us to adequately test whether generation of ancestors born in the USA, country of origin, or years spent in the USA affected results.

²Portions of the data used in Study 2 are reported in Mauss, Cook, Cheng, and Gross (2007), Mauss, Cook, and Gross (2007), and Mauss, Evers, Wilhelm, and Gross (2006). These articles are concerned with questions different from the ones discussed in the present article; therefore, there is no conceptual overlap with the present article.

³The p value for CO was .11, with AA participants exhibiting a trend towards lower CO than EA participants. All other ps were>.18.

⁴Groupwise t-tests comparing AA and EA participants on non-target self-reported emotions indicated that there was a significant group difference in self-reported relaxation such that AA participants reported greater relaxation as compared to EA participants, p<.05. There were no significant cultural-group differences in non-target negative emotions, including guilt, p=.35, sadness, p=.18, shame, p=.71, or anxiety, p=.74.