Cross-Cultural Investigation of Emotion Differentiation and Relationship Quality

Abstract

This study examined the role of emotion differentiation in predicting relationship quality of individuals living in different cultural settings. There were five specific aims: 1) to replicate and expand upon previous findings identifying a link between emotion differentiation and relationship quality in adults using multiple methods, 2) to examine how the link between emotion differentiation and relationship quality might vary across three cultures and in terms of individualism and collectivism, 3) to explore whether beliefs about emotions act as a mediator or moderator of the link between emotion differentiation and relationship quality, 4) to examine the link between relationship quality and life satisfaction in adults and how it might vary across three cultures, and 5) to examine age-related trends in affect, emotion differentiation, and interpersonal relationships across cultures. The sample consisted of 607 participants: 308 Sri Lankans, 103 Indians, and 196 Americans. Seven measures-- emotion differentiation, emotion categorization, positive and negative affect, beliefs about emotions, relationship quality, positive relations with others, and satisfaction with life-- were used to examine emotional differentiation, relationship quality, value of emotion, and life satisfaction. Findings suggested that self-reports of emotion differentiation significantly predicted relationship quality, and this relationship varied across cultures. The belief that positive emotions are valuable mediated the link between emotion differentiation and relationship quality and the belief that emotions are a part of life moderated that relationship. Relationship quality significantly predicted life satisfaction. In addition to identifying specific relationships between these emotion-related and interpersonal relationship variables, this study points to an important consideration regarding culture. Specifically, individualism versus collectivism may not always be a useful organizing structure for understanding cultural differences in emotion. That is, cultures known to be collectivist may vary substantially in both their mean level differences of emotion-related and interpersonal relationship variables, and the relationships between these variables. Thus, examining the values and beliefs unique to each culture may provide a better understanding of the nature of cultures and the emotion-related behavior of individuals.