Self-Ambivalence and Psychological Adjustment in Cultural Context

Focus on Japan

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2314474
AutoresRobert A Brown (0000-0003-2350-110X, Bunkyo University, Chigasaki, Japan)
Año2013
Volumen44
Número8
Páginas1263-1274
Fecha de publicación2013-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-0221 • E-ISSN: 1552-5422
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022022113486002
OpenAlexW2137726591
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas55

Bleuler and Freud claimed that conflicting feelings toward an attitude object, or ambivalence, may be associated with psychological maladjustment. While their viewpoint seems generally accepted in Western cultures, it is less clear whether it applies in other cultures. Two studies investigated whether self-ambivalence (SA; the co-presence of contrary evaluations of the self as an attitude object) is associated with several common manifestations of mental health in America (one study) and Japan (two studies). In Study 1, participants were 152 American and 162 Japanese college students. Results indicated that American participants were significantly higher in self-esteem (SE), and significantly lower in SA and depression than the Japanese participants, but did not differ in pessimism or anxiety, and that SA was associated with higher pessimism, anxiety, and depression in America, but associated with lower pessimism and uncorrelated with anxiety and depression in Japan. In Study 2, involving 165 Japanese participants, a negative relationship was found between SE and neuroticism, pessimism, anxiety, and depression, and a positive relationship between SE and life satisfaction, but no relationship was found between SA and neuroticism, pessimism, life satisfaction, anxiety, or depression. However, SE and SA were modestly correlated, suggesting that SA is not only not inimical to mental health (in Japan) but may actually be (at least modestly) beneficial. Culture-specific mental health implications of SA are discussed

Ambivalence · Anxiety · Context (archaeology · Depression (economics · Developmental psychology · Feeling · Life satisfaction · Mental health · Neuroticism · Personality · Pessimism · Psychiatry · Clinical Psychology · Cultural Differences and Values · Psychological and Temporal Perspectives Research · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology