Cross-Cultural Examination of Emotional Expressivity, Beliefs About Emotions, and Depression of University Students

Öz

This study investigates the cross-cultural differences between emotional expressivity, beliefs about emotions, and depression levels among university students from different continents, namely, Africa and Asia. Participants (n=114; n=88, Africa and n=26, Asia) were English speaking students of European University of Lefke studying at different faculties (Social Sciences, Engineering, Health, and Agriculture). They completed Beliefs about Emotions Scale (BES), Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire (BEQ), and The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-R). Findings suggested that Asian students’ CESD-R sadness and suicidal ideation subscale scores, as well as BEQ positive expressivity scores, have been found higher than the scores of African students. Female students differed with significantly higher scores than males of CESD-R guilt subscale and BEQ impulse strength subscale score. Further, a significant difference between CESD-R scores according to class was obtained as well, junior students had higher scores than senior students. CESD-R total scores indicate that Health Faculty students’ scores are higher than the scores of Engineering Faculty students. As a result, Asian students found to be more prone to sadness than African students. 

Anahtar Kelimeler

• African
• Asian
• Depression
• Emotional Expressivity
• Beliefs About Emotions
• University Students

Kaynakça

1. Ainsworth, M.D.S., Bell, S.M., & Stayton, D.J. (1974). Infant-mother attachment and social development: ‘‘Socialization’’ as a product of reciprocal responsiveness to signals. In P.M. Richards (Ed.) The integration of a child into a social world. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 99-135.
2. Akın, A.(2012). Emotional Expressivity and Loneliness in Religious and Moral Studies Education Students, TOJCE: The Online Journal of Counselling and Education, 1(3): 31-40.
3. Akın, A., Satıcı, S.A., & Kayış, A.R. (2012). Emotional Expressivity and Submissive Behavior, Journal of Education and Instructional Studies. 2(1): 1-6.
4. Beck, A.T. (1967). Depression: Clinical, experimental a theoreticalcal aspects. New York: Harper and Row Press.
5. Beck, A.T., Emery, G., & Greenberg, R.L. (1985). Anxiety disorders and phobias: A cognitive perspective. New York: Basic Books.
6. Burgin, C. J., Brown, L. H., Royal, A., Silvia, P. J., Barrantes-Vidal, N., & Kwapil, T. R. (2012). Being with others and feeling happy: Emotional expressivity in everyday life. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(3), 185–190.
7. Clark, D.M., & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In: Heimberg R.G., Liebowitz, M.R., Hope, D.A., & Schneier, F.R. editors. Social Phobia: Diagnosis, assessment and treatment (pp 69–93). New York: Guilford Press. Corstorphine, E. (2006Cognitive-emotional-behavioral therapy the eating disorders: Working with beliefs about emotions. Europian Eating Disorders Review.14, 448–461.
8. DeKlerk, H.M, Dada, S., & Alant, E. (2014). Children’s identification of graphic symbols representing four basic emotions: Comparison of Afrikaans-speaking and Sepedi-speaking children. Journal of Communication Disorders, 52:1-15.

9. Eaton, W.W., Muntaner, C., Smith, C., Tien, A., & Ybarra, M. (2004). Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale: Review and revision (CESD and CESD-R). In: Maruish ME, Ed. The Use of Psychological Testing for Treatment Planning and Outcomes Assessment. 3rd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 363-377.
10. Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V., O’Sullivan, M., Chan, A., Diacoyanni-Tarlatzis, I., & Heider, K. (1987). Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expression of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(4), 712–717.
11. Ferster, C.B., (1973). A functional analysis of depression. American Psychologist. 28, 857– 870.
12. Freud, S. (1957). Repression. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 14, pp. 143–158). London: Hogarth Press (Original work published 1915).
13. Greenberg, L.S., & Pascual-Leone, A. (2006). Emotion in psychotherapy: A practice-friendly review. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62, 611–630.
14. Gross, J.J., & John, O.P. (1995). Facets of emotional expressivity: Three self-report factors and their correlates. Personality and Individual Differences, 19, 555-568. http://doi.org/cks
15. Gross, J.J., & John, O.P., (1997). Revealing feelings: Facets of emotional expressivity in self-reports, peer ratings, and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72:435-448.
16. Gross, J.J., John, O.P., & Richards, J.M. (2000). The Dissociation of emotion Expression from Emotion Experience: A Personality Perspective, Personal, ty and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(6):712-726.
17. Iwata, N., & Buka, S. (2002). Race/ethnicity and depressive symptoms: a cross-cultural/ethnic comparison among university students in East Asia, North and South America, Social Science & Medicine, 55:2243-2252.
18. Jenkins, J.M., & Oatley, K. (1996). Emotional episodes and emotionality through the lifespan. In C. Magai & S.H. McFadden (Eds.), Handbook of emotioadult developmentent and aging (pp. 421–441). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
19. Johnson, D. W. (1997). Reaching out: Interpersonal effectiveness and self-actualization. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.Juretić, J., & Zivcić-Bećirevic, I. (2013). Social Anxiety, Beliefs About Expressing Emotions and Experiencing Positive Emotions, New Insights into Anxiety Disorders, Dr. Federico Durbano (Ed.), InTech, DOI: 10.5772/55110. Available from: https://www.intechopen.com/books/new-insights-into-anxiety- disorders/ social-anxiety-beliefs-about-expressing-emotions-and-experiencing-positive-emotions.
20. Karabuschenko, N.B., Ivashchenko A.V., Sungurova, N.L. & Hvorova, E.M. (2016). Emotion Recognition in Different Cultures, Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 9(48); 1-17.
21. Kahn, J.H., Barr, L.K., &Schneider, J.W. (2008). Individual Differences in Emotion Expression: Hierarchical Struand relationsations with Psychological Distress.Faculty Publications – Psychology. 2.http://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/fppsych/2.
22. King, L. A. (1993). Emotional expression, ambivalence overexpression marital satisfaction. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 10, 601–607.
23. Kring, A.M., Smith, D.A., & Neale, J. M. (1994). Individual differences in dispositional expressiveness: Development and validation of the Emotional Expressivity Scale. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 934-949. http://doi.org/ckwLehti, A.H., Johansson, E.E., Bengs, C., Danielsson, U., & Hammarstrom, A. (20The western gaze' –an analysis of medical research publications concrete expression sessions of depression, focusing on ethnicity and gender. Health Care Women International. 31,100–112.
24. Leising, D., Grande, T., & Faber, R. (2010). A longitudinal study of emotional experience, expressivity, and psychopathology in psychotherapy in patient psychologically healthy persons. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 66 (10), 1027-1043.
25. Leising, D., Müller, J., & Hahn, C. (2007). An adjective list for assessing emotional expressivity in psychotherapy research. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 14, 377–385.
26. Lu, W., & Wang, Z. (2012). Emotional expressivity, emotion regulation, and mood in college students: A cross-ethnic study. Social Behavior and Personality, 40(2), 319-330.
27. Mann, S.J. (1996). Severe paroxysmal hypertension: An autonomic syndrome and its relationship to repressed emotions. Psychosomatics: Journal of Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry, 37, 444–450.
28. McCullough, L. (2001). Assimilative integration: Short-term dynamic psychotherapy for treating affects phobias. Clinical Psychology-Science and Practice, 8, 82–97.
29. Rachman, S., Grüter-Andrew, J., & Shafran, R. (2000). Post-event processing in social anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 611–617.
30. Radloff, L.S. (1977). The CES-D scale: a self-report depression scale for research the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1,385-401.
31. Rimes, K.A., & Chalder, T. (2010). The Beliefs about Emotions Scale: validity, reliability and sensitivity to change. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 68,285-292.
32. Russell, J.A., Bacharowsk, J.A., Fernandez-Dols, J.M.(2003) Facial and vocal expression of emotion. Annual review of psychology. 54(1):329-49.
33. Shioiri, T., Someya, T., Helmeste, D., & Tang, S. W. (1999). Misinterpretation of facial expression: A cross-cultural study. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 53,45–50.
34. Sloan, D. M., Strauss, M.E., & Wisner, K.L. (2001). Diminished response to pleasant stimuli by depressed women. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 488–493.
35. Wells, A., Clark, D.M., Salkovskis, P., Ludgate, J., Hackmann, A., & Gelder, M.G. (1995). Social phobia: The role of in-situation safety behaviors in maintaining anxiety and negative beliefs. Behavior Therapy, 26, 153–161.
36. Young, C.B., Fang, D.Z., & Zisook, S. (2010). Depression in Asian-American and Caucasian undergraduate students, Journal of Affective Disorders, 125: 379-382.