Wolfgang Friedlmeier

The Measurement of Implicit Motives in Three Cultures Power and Affiliation in Cameroon, Costa Rica, and Germany

This article examines methodological issues related to the measurement of implicit motives in culturally divergent samples. Implicit motives are seen as basic needs shared by all human beings. However, crosscultural comparisons are very restricted because many cross-cultural studies on implicit motives with non-Western cultures developed and discussed culture-inherent stimuli. The aim of the study here was to search for a culture-independent set of picture stimuli measuring two basic motives (affiliation and power motive) in three different cultures. Two pretests and one main study were carried out in Cameroon, Costa Rica, and Germany with student and nonstudent samples, respectively, and an extended methodological cross-cultural analysiswas conducted. Construct bias, method bias, and item bias that threaten the cross-cultural comparability of findings were addressed. In analyses, unbiased culture-independent sets of picture stimuli were identified that can be used for cross-cultural comparisons of these two implicit motives.

Face it or hide it: parental socialization of reappraisal and response suppression.

Mastery of cognitive emotion regulation strategies is an important developmental task. This paper focuses on two strategies that occur from preschool age onwards (Stegge and Meerum Terwogt, 2007): reappraisal and response suppression. Parental socialization of these strategies was investigated in a sample of N = 219 parents and their children. Informed by the tripartite model of family impact on childrens emotion regulation, direct relations of emotion socialization components (modeling and reactions to the childs negative emotions) and indirect relations of parental emotion-related beliefs (such as parental emotion regulation self-efficacy) were examined. Data on emotion socialization components and parental beliefs on emotion regulation were collected via self-report. Data on childrens emotion regulation strategies were collected via parent report. Findings showed direct effects of parental modeling and parenting practices on childrens emotion regulation strategies, with distinct socialization paths for reappraisal and response suppression. An indirect effect of parental emotion regulation self-efficacy on childrens reappraisal was found. These associations were not moderated by parent sex. Findings highlight the importance of both socialization components and parental emotion-related beliefs for the socialization of cognitive emotion regulation strategies and suggest a domain-specific approach to the socialization of emotion regulation strategies.

Emotion displays in media: a comparison between American, Romanian, and Turkish children's storybooks

Childrens books may provide an important resource of culturally appropriate emotions. This study investigates emotion displays in childrens storybooks for preschoolers from Romania, Turkey, and the US in order to analyze cultural norms of emotions. We derived some hypotheses by referring to cross-cultural studies about emotion and emotion socialization. For such media analyses, the frequency rate of certain emotion displays can be seen as an indicator for the salience of the specific emotion. We expected that all childrens storybooks would highlight dominantly positive emotions and that US childrens storybooks would display negative powerful emotions (e.g., anger) more often and negative powerless emotions (e.g., sadness) less often than Turkish and Romanian storybooks. We also predicted that the positive and negative powerful emotion expressions would be more intense in the US storybooks compared to the other storybooks. Finally, we expected that social context (ingroup/outgroup) may affect the intensity emotion displays more in Turkish and Romanian storybooks compared to US storybooks. Illustrations in 30 popular childrens storybooks (10 for each cultural group) were coded. Results mostly confirmed the hypotheses but also pointed to differences between Romanian and Turkish storybooks. Overall, the study supports the conclusion that culture-specific emotion norms are reflected in media to which young children are exposed.

Entwicklung der Emotionsregulation bei 2− und 3jährigen Mädchen

Zusammenfassung. Die Emotionsregulation entwickelt sich in den ersten Lebensjahren von externer zu intern gesteuerter Regulation. Dabei ist anzunehmen, dass der mikrogenetische Verlauf negativer emotionaler Reaktionen mit der Sensitivitat der Bezugsperson im Zusammenhang steht, dass sich im interaktiven Prozess Ausdrucks− und Eindrucksbildung parallel entwickeln, und dass die Wirksamkeit der Regulationsstrategien mit dem Verlauf der emotionalen Reaktion zusammenhangt. Die empirische Uberprufung dieser Thesen erfolgte anhand der Erfassung von Emotionsverlauf und −regulation in einer Beobachtungsstudie. 2− und 3jahrige Madchen und ihre Mutter (N = 55 Dyaden) wurden in zwei Situationen videografiert. In einer Enttauschungssituation wurde eine selbstbezogene und in einer Empathiesituation eine fremdbezogene negative emotionale Reaktion induziert. Anhand von Ausdrucksmerkmalen wurde das Ausmas der negativen emotionalen Reaktion zu vier Zeitpunkten eingeschatzt. Auch die Sensitivitat der Mutter und die Regulati...

Significance of Expressions for the Development of Emotions

This reply to three reviews of the book Development of Emotions and Emotion Regulation (2006) discusses the criticisms of our internalization model of emotional development. The model highlights the significance of expressions for the ontogenetic differentiation of emotions. We focus particularly on the reviewers’ remarks on the degree and usefulness of an internalization of emotional expression signs, on the methodological problems when assessing internalized expression signs, and on the development of a strategic use of expression signs in social interactions. Finally, we agree with the reviewers’ emphasis on the need to consider how the interplay between the development of emotions and emotion regulation leads to the emergence of increasing cultural differences throughout the course of ontogenesis.

Emotionen im Kulturvergleich: eine entwicklungspsychologische Perspektive

Das Thema dieses Buches ist Stress und Kultur. Die Stressforschung interessiert sich fur Copingstrategien und fokussiert auf Stressoren, d. h. Prozesse, wie Individuen auf Ereignisse reagieren, die sie als herausfordernd oder bedrohlich einschatzen. Compas et al. (2001) definieren Coping als „conscious and volitional efforts to regulate emotion, cognition, behavior, physiology, and the environment in response to stressful events or circumstances“ (p. 89).

Emotion Norms in Media: Acculturation in Hispanic Children’s Storybooks Compared to Heritage and Mainstream Cultures

Cultural artifacts such as children’s storybooks may serve to facilitate learning of emotion display norms. We compared emotion displays in European American and Mexican books to infer cultural differences between the mainstream and a heritage culture to ultimately explore acculturation orientation in Hispanic storybooks. Totally, 1,059 images were coded from 10 popular storybooks from each cultural group. We focused on emotion type (positive, negative socially engaging, and disengaging) and intensity of expression. Context variables such as social partners and gender were also compared. Positive emotions were dominant in all groups, occurring most in Hispanic storybooks; Mexican and Hispanic storybooks displayed negative socially disengaging emotions less than negative socially engaging emotions. Hispanic storybooks displayed lowest intensity of expression, especially for female characters. Results indicated that Hispanic storybooks showed similarities to the mainstream culture in general features and similarities to the heritage culture in emotion-type display. However, some emotion norms deviated from both groups, indicating minority effects of Hispanic culture.