There has been consistent evidence of cross-cultural variations in emotional arousal levels. This discussion board post selects the expression of emotions in American and Chinese cultures, proposing different mental support approaches for the two demographics. Individualistic and collectivistic traits explain these cultural distinctions. While emotions are universal, they are constantly shaped by society (Fung et al., 2019). Western and Eastern cultures’ emotions are expressed, portrayed, perceived, and controlled variables with studies on emotional trends involving scholars at doctoral levels of research (Tamas, 2022). The Western culture considers nature contact as beneficial for emotional well-being and is associated with a greater sense of happiness and decreased levels of stress and aggression (Mintz & Ayalon, 2022). The difference is based on society’s culturally appropriate behavior. Western culture is associated with high arousal levels, while Eastern culture is associated with low arousal levels.
The American expression of emotions is mainly similar to the Europeans, with physiological reactions affecting the approach to care. Among Americans, varied emotions might be accompanied by changes in heart rate, cutaneous blood flow, flushing or becoming pale, sweating, and gastrointestinal motility (Fung et al., 2019). Chinese respondents generally do not communicate their emotions with psychiatric care, mainly focusing on the patient’s belief systems (Tsai & Lu 2018). Evidence suggests that emotion suppression is the norm forcing the Chinese to repress emotional expression in China, directly affecting behavior and attitude (Heine 2020). The Chinese are culturally conditioned to down-regulate emotional processing. In comparison, American society places a considerably higher premium on emotional expressiveness and the need for physiological support.
The insight into the difference in the culture of emotional expression between the Chinese and the Americans offers guidance in handling people of the two demographics. The Chinese suppress their emotions, while Western expressive culture has peoples’ emotions freely expressed. With open self-expression a norm in Western culture, care intervention might be easier to administer effectively. Interacting with the Chinese might require probing for their emotional needs beyond the confessed feelings, particularly in a mental health support setting.
References
Fung, J., Kim, J. J., Jin, J., Chen, G., Bear, L., & Lau, A. S. (2019). A randomized trial evaluating school-based mindfulness intervention for ethnic minority youth: Exploring mediators and moderators of intervention effects. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 47(1), 1-19.
Heine, S. J. (2020). Cultural Psychology: Fourth International Student Edition. WW Norton & Company. 2(1), 161-297.
Mintz, K., & Ayalon, O. (2022). Give yourself a treat—go out to nature or at least view some nature pictures. Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
Tamas, T. (2022). Post-doctoral position in cross-cultural development of supernatural beliefs – an international association for cross-cultural psychology. International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology.
Tsai, W., & Lu, Q. (2018). Perceived social support mediates the longitudinal relations between ambivalence over emotional expression and quality of life among Chinese American breast cancer survivors. International Journal of Behavioural Medicine, 25(3), 368-373.