Cultural Differences in the Construal of Suffering and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Issue 6 (August 2021)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Cultural Differences in the Construal of Suffering and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Issue 6 (August 2021)
- Main Title:
- Cultural Differences in the Construal of Suffering and the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Authors:
- Ji, Li-Jun
Khei, Mark
Yap, Suhui
Wang, Xinqiang
Zhang, Zhiyong
Hou, Yubo - Abstract:
- The present research examines how suffering is construed across cultures. Study 1 ( N 1 = 264; N 2 = 745) asked participants to provide free associations for suffering. Chinese individuals generated more positive associations than did Euro-Canadians. Study 2 ( N = 522) had participants create a hypothetical potion of suffering to represent what people would experience while suffering. Chinese participants added more positive ingredients and fewer negative ingredients than Euro-Canadians did. How would cultural differences in the construal of suffering matter in a real-life negative situation? Study 3 ( N = 608) showed that Chinese participants generated a greater proportion of potential positive outcomes for the COVID-19 outbreak and reported more positive affect during the pandemic than did Euro-Canadians. Thus, Chinese construe suffering more positively than Euro-Canadians. These findings are consistent with previous research on cultural differences in dialectical thinking and lay theory of change and have implications for coping and resilience.
- Is Part Of:
- Social psychological & personality science. Volume 12:Issue 6(2021)
- Journal:
- Social psychological & personality science
- Issue:
- Volume 12:Issue 6(2021)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 12, Issue 6 (2021)
- Year:
- 2021
- Volume:
- 12
- Issue:
- 6
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2021-0012-0006-0000
- Page Start:
- 1039
- Page End:
- 1047
- Publication Date:
- 2021-08
- Subjects:
- culture -- suffering -- dialectical thinking -- lay theory of change -- COVID-19 pandemic
Personality -- Periodicals
Social psychology -- Periodicals
Electronic journals
155.2 - Journal URLs:
- http://spp.sagepub.com/ ↗
http://online.sagepub.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1177/1948550620958807 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1948-5506
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
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- 16189.xml