Chinese immigrant and European American parents' emotional expressions in childrearing activities: Cultural norms of emotions.

摘要

Both European Americans and Chinese immigrants value emotional expressions that are true to inner feelings, and adhere to social norms dictating what expressions are appropriate in different social situations. However, the two groups differ in how they coordinate the values of being faithful to inner feelings and to social norms. In the European American culture, expressing emotions genuinely entails making inner feelings as explicit as possible, employing individualized styles, and not allowing social norms to unduly dictate one's behavior. In comparison, Chinese immigrants are more concerned about social norms than explicit, individualized expressions of inner feelings. As a result, Chinese immigrants may be less likely to express inner feelings in social situations that are heavily regulated by cultural norms, and more likely to express feelings in lightly regulated situations. In comparison, European Americans may differ less in emotional expressions across social situations due to the greater emphasis on self-consistency.; This study compared Chinese immigrant and European American parents' emotional expressions while discussing heavily or lightly regulated situations. Two childrearing activities, sleeping and privacy-related activities, were selected according to cultural norms. Findings indicated that the two ethnic groups had different patterns in how their emotional expressions changed according to situation, and the patterns fit their respective cultural norms. Chinese immigrant parents' emotional expressions were more positive than negative and more voluntary than absent in sleeping (lightly regulated) than privacy-related (heavily regulated) activity. The European Americans' emotional expressions were more positive than negative and more voluntary than absent in privacy-related (lightly regulated) than sleeping (heavily regulated) activity.; The self-consistent orientation of European Americans was supported in that they were more likely to voluntarily express feelings than to avoid providing emotional information in both activities. Contrary to prediction, European Americans changed their positive versus negative emotional expressions across situations. The findings suggested that like Chinese immigrants, European Americans changed their emotional expressions to fit cultural norms, but only through variations in positive versus negative expressions. The discussion centered on the interactions among (1) situations, (2) measures of emotional expressions, and (3) cultural norms.