Western and Middle Eastern Differences in Self-Reported Emotional Expressivity Mediated by Individual-Level Culture
By: Haneefa Murad
Department: Social Psychology
Faculty Advisors: Dr. David Matsumoto
Abstract: Studies on cross-cultural differences are rapidly increasing; however, investigations of cultural differences at the individual level are few. Many researchers have studied the impact of individualism versus collectivism (IC) on the expression of emotions in many countries except the United Arab Emirates and a few others. This research fills that knowledge gap by comparing the United Arab Emirates to the United States at the individual level. The study involved undergraduate and graduate students (N =171) from each country (UAE and USA). All 171 participants were asked to fill out the following measurements: The Individualism-Collectivism Interpersonal Assessment Inventory (ICIAI), the Singelis Self-Construal Scale (SCS), and the Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire (BEQ). The scales were translated to Arabic language and back translated to ensure linguistic equivalence. Results showed that there were differences in IC and self-reported emotional expression between the two countries. BEQ positive expressivity scores were found to be higher in the USA than the UAE; however, participants from both countries scored equally in BEQ negative expressivity. A correlation between IC and BEQ was found, and mediation analyses indicated that individual-level culture accounted for approximately 30% of the difference between the countries. This reflected evidence of that individual-level cultural values mediated between country differences on self-report emotion expressivity.