An Online Survey Testing Factorial Invariance of the Optimization in Primary and Secondary Control Scales among Older Couples in Japan and the US.

This study examines the factorial invariance of the Optimization in Primary and Secondary Control (OPS) scale and its associations with subjective well-being among older couples in Japan and the US. To this end, 200 older couples in Japan and 220 in the US were recruited through paid vendors and completed the questionnaire online. Couples were eligible if husbands were 70 years or older and wives were 60 years or older.

Social Support in Two Cultures: Everyday Transactions in the U.S. and Empathic Assurance in Japan.

We studied received social support using the cross-cultural method of situation sampling. College students from the US and Japan described and rated recent examples of received social support, both everyday support as well as support in response to stress. Middle class, European-American (EuA) students' situations fit a model in which support is frequent and offered freely in interactions, even for relatively minor issues.

Social orientation and diabetes-related distress in Japanese and American patients with type 2 diabetes.

Objective: Recent evidence in cultural and social psychology suggests Eastern cultures' emphasis on harmony and connection with others and Western cultures' emphasis on self-direction and autonomy. In Eastern society, relational harmony is closely linked to people's well-being. The impact of this cultural and social orientation on diabetes-related distress was investigated.

Culture and social support provision: who gives what and why.

The present research examined cultural differences in the type and frequency of support provided as well as the motivations underlying these behaviors. Study 1, an open-ended survey, asked participants about their social interactions in the past 24 hours and found that European Americans reported providing emotion-focused support more frequently than problem-focused support, whereas Japanese exhibited the opposite pattern. Study 2, a closed-ended questionnaire study, found that, in response to the close other's big stressor, European Americans provided more emotion-focused support whereas Japanese provided equivalent amounts of emotion-focused and problem-focused support.

Measuring culture outside the head: a meta-analysis of individualism-collectivism in cultural products.

Although cultural psychology is the study of how sociocultural environments and psychological processes coconstruct each other, the field has traditionally emphasized measures of the psychological over the sociocultural. Here, the authors call attention to a growing trend of measuring the sociocultural environment. They present a quantitative review of studies that measure cultural differences in "cultural products": tangible, public representations of culture such as advertising or popular texts.

Is perceived emotional support beneficial? Well-being and health in independent and interdependent cultures.

Previous studies show there is little or no association between perceived emotional support and well-being in European American culture. The authors hypothesized that this paradoxical absence of any benefit of perceived support is unique to cultural contexts that privilege independence rather than interdependence of the self. Study 1 tested college students and found, as predicted, that among Euro-Americans a positive effect of perceived emotional support on subjective well-being (positive affect) was weak and, moreover, it disappeared entirely once self-esteem was statistically controlled.

Secondary control reviewed and defined.

Conclusions about secondary control have been hindered by researchers' disparate interpretations of the construct. The current review offers a definition that reflects commonality among researchers and the spirit of the original article (F. Rothbaum, J.

American and Japanese women use different coping strategies during normal pregnancy.

In this longitudinal study, pregnant women in Japan and the United States reported on three coping strategies. Two are individually phrased: personal influence over outcomes and acceptance of outcomes. The third, social assurance, is grounded in relationships, noting that close others can influence outcomes.

Stereotype accuracy of ballet and modern dancers.

The authors recorded preprofessional ballet and modern dancers' perceptions of the personality traits of each type of dancer and self-reports of their own standing, to test the accuracy of the group stereotypes. Participants accurately stereotyped ballet dancers as scoring higher than modern dancers on Fear of Negative Evaluation and Personal Need for Structure and accurately viewed the groups as equal on Fitness Esteem. Participants inaccurately stereotyped ballet dancers as lower on Body Esteem; the groups actually scored the same.

Use and definition of herbal medicines differ by ethnicity.

Background: While past studies have investigated uses of and attitudes toward herbal medicines by different ethnic groups, none have assessed how people may define them.

Objective: To determine definitions of and attitudes toward herbal medicines in different ethnic groups.

Methods: Surveys were distributed to 300 people of different professions and ethnic backgrounds in northern Pennsylvania.