Emotions can be classified into those that encourage independence of the self from others and those that encourage interdependence with others. Kitayama et al. have defined “socially disengaged emotions” as the emotions that tend to separate or disengage the self from social relationships and to promote the perceived independence of the self from those relationships. On the other hand, they have defined “socially engaged emotions” as those that tend to assimilate the self in the relationship and enhance the perceived interdependence of the self with relevant others. Conduct a cross-cultural mini study based on the following procedure and discuss your findings in small groups. Identify five happy episodes or situations which you experienced in the past. Which episodes or situations do you think are associated with “socially disengaged emotions?” Which episodes or situations do you think are associated with “socially engaged emotions?” Tabulate how many of your happy situations fall into either engaged or disengaged category. Interview someone who has different cultural backgrounds with yours in the dimensions, such as ethnic background, gender, generation, etc.

Ask your partner to tell you about five happy episodes or situations s/he experienced in the past. Look at your interview results, and analyze whether each episode or situation described by your partner is associated with either socially disengaged emotions or socially engaged emotions. Write the numbers of the episode.

Compare your results and your partner’s results. Did you find any similarities and/or differences in the tendency?