Cross-cultural research is a vital research area that investigates intercultural parallels and variations and the implications of contextual parameters on conduct and perspectives. The study “Cultural Values and the Perception of Emotion in African Americans and Chinese Americans” by S. Ting-Toomey, S. Gao, and M. Chu is one instance of cross-cultural research that examines African American and Chinese cultures (2011). The study sought to investigate African and Chinese Americans’ cultural values and emotional perceptions. According to the study’s hypothesis, African Americans are more outspoken and individualized in their sense of sentiment, whereas Chinese Americans are more restrained and egalitarian.
The investigation included 240 African American and Chinese American volunteers who completed a cultural values measure and an emotion assessment scale. Researchers used statistical procedures such as t-tests and ANOVA to evaluate the data (Kuo, 2010). The study’s discoveries revealed that the theory was partially validated, with African American participants scoring higher on expressiveness and individuality in their emotional perception and Chinese American participants scoring more on reserve and collectivism. The analysis did, however, discover some cultural parallels between the two groups, with both groups performing comparably in several areas of emotion recognition. The introspection results show that African Americans and Chinese Americans perceive and display emotions differently, which could affect how individuals of these cultures communicate and engage.
Overall, this research adds to people’s understanding of the cultural variations and affinities in the experience of emotion between African American and Chinese American cultures. It also emphasizes the need to include cultural variables in cross-cultural research. African Americans scored higher on expressiveness and individualism in their assessment of emotion, while Chinese American participants rated more on reserve and collectivism.
Reference
Kuo, B. C. (2010). Culture’s consequences on coping. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 42(6), 1084–1100. Web.