Social vs. Self-Directed Events among Japanese and Americans

Cultural expectations provide meaning to human perceptions of who-does-what-to-whom-where. However, the effects of actions directed at oneself have been much less systematically studied. This article replicates the American factorial design of Britt and Heise (1992) in a Japanese setting. The analysis demonstrates both cultural similarities and differences in psychological principles for attaching meanings to self-directed events. Cross-cultural differences in creating a sense of self-fulfillment or self-actualization are expressed through emotional labeling and trait attribution.