ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R

Advances in Psychological Science ›› 2016, Vol. 24 ›› Issue (10): 1647-1654.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2016.01647

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Cultural differences on function of emotional expression suppression

LIU Ying1; SANG Biao1; GONG Shaoying2; DING Xuechen1; PAN Tingting1   

  1. (1 School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China) (2 Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior (CCNU), Ministry of Education; School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China)
  • Received:2015-12-21 Online:2016-10-15 Published:2016-10-15
  • Contact: SANG Biao, E–mail: bsang@psy.ecnu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Expressive suppression refers to the “conscious inhibition of one’s own emotionally expressive behavior while emotionally aroused”. Many studies have shown that expression suppression is not an useful or effective strategy. But what we should not ignore is that cultural factor is an important moderator between expression suppression and outcome variables. That is to say, expression suppression often plays a negative role in individualistic culture. While in collectivistic culture, expression suppression is not completely an inappropriate regulation strategy. This may be associated with cultural values, one's attitude to “face” and parents' way of coping with affairs. Future studies of expression suppression should be aimed at the role of expression suppression in collectivistic culture and different subculture. At the same time, it is necessary to pay more attention to the role of expression suppression and its cultural differences in academic domain and the diversification of sampling subjects.

Key words: expressive suppression, individualistic culture, collectivistic culture, cultural differences