1) Explain the different values associated with “individualistic” and “collectivistic” cultures. a. Individualistic culture is the dominant model of the self views the self as independent and regards a person as possessing a set of self-defining attributes, which are used to take action in the expression of personal beliefs and the achievement of personal goals. b. Collectivistic Culture the dominant model of the self views the self as interdependent, regards a person as a flexible, connected entity who is bound to others, and considers group goals as primary and personal beliefs, needs, and goals as secondary In these cultures, relationships also take an interdependent form—they are less voluntary and more “given”. 2) Comparing European Americans to individuals of Asian descent, which group is more likely to seek social support? c. In an initial set of studies using both open-ended and closed-ended methods, we found that Asians and Asian Americans reported using social support to help them cope with stress less than did European Americans. 3) The authors propose three different reasons as to why there are differences in social support seeking between European Americans and individuals of Asian descent. Which of the three reasons do they believe is the most likely explanation for the group difference? Explain. 1. First, it may be that Asians and Asian Americans do not have to ask for social support because they have more unsolicited social support available to them than do European Americans. 2. Second, it may be that Asians and Asian Americans have a stronger belief than European Americans that a personal problem should be solved independently because each person should be responsible for his or her own problems. 3. Third, it may be that Asians and Asian Americans are more concerned about the potentially negative relational consequences of support seeking, such as disrupting group harmony or receiving criticism from others. 4) A) Explain the difference between “explicit support” and “implicit support.” B) Then, tell which is an active method of social support. d. We define explicit social support according to the conventional Western definition of the social support transaction, as people's specific recruitment and use of their social networks in response to specific stressful events that involves the elicitation of advice, instrumental aid, or emotional comfort. e. We define implicit social support as the emotional comfort one can obtain from social networks without disclosing or discussing one's problems vis à vis specific stressful events. Implicit support can take the form of reminding oneself of close others or being in the company of close others without discussing one's problems. f. We theorized that implicit social support use that does not involve active disclosure and discussion of the stressor or distress would be more beneficial for Asians and Asian Americans than would explicit social support. In contrast, European Americans may benefit more from explicit social support use than implicit social support use. This hypothesis is also consistent with research showing that for European Americans, the expression of thoughts and feelings is particularly meaningful and beneficial (and that the lack of such expression is particularly harmful). 5) The body releases cortisol when it is stressed. Which type of social support increases cortisol levels in European Americans and in individuals of Asian descent? i. To determine if psychological and biological responses to stress are affected by implicit and explicit social support, we conducted a study with Asian American and European American students. The study examined the hypothesis that Asian Americans' psychological and biological (i.e., salivary cortisol) responses to a stressor would be buffered when implicit support was primed but that their biological and psychological responses to stress would be aggravated when explicit support was primed; European Americans were expected to be benefited more by the priming of explicit than implicit social support. ii. The participants engaged in the Trier Social Stress Task, a well-established laboratory stressor that involves both mental arithmetic and the preparation and delivery of a speech. Before preparing for these tasks, participants were exposed to a manipulation that primed either implicit or explicit support. Participants in the implicit support condition were asked to think about a group that they were close to and then write about the aspects of that group that were important to them. These instructions activated thoughts of participants' support networks without requiring their disclosure of the stressor. Participants in the explicit support condition were told to think about people that they were close to and then to write a letter directly asking for advice and support for the upcoming tasks from these people. Participants in the no-support control condition completed a neutral writing activity. After the writing task, participants engaged in the stress tasks. Participants provided several saliva samples for the assessment of cortisol responses to these tasks and completed a measure of post-task stress. iii. Consistent with the predictions, Asian Americans who completed the implicit support prime experienced less stress and had lower cortisol responses than Asian Americans who completed the explicit support prime. European Americans experienced less stress and had lower cortisol levels when they completed the explicit support prime than when they completed the implicit support prime. In fact, the results suggest that the culturally inappropriate form of social support (i.e., explicit for Asian Americans and implicit for European Americans) may actually have exacerbated stress. That is, Asian Americans in the explicit support condition, in which they wrote a letter asking for help, reported considerable psychological distress from imagining the use of explicit social support and exhibited higher cortisol levels than Asian Americans in the control condition in which no support was primed. By contrast, the European Americans were more stressed in the implicit support condition, where they imagined close others without the opportunity for disclosure or support seeking, than they were in the control condition. iv. By examining salivary cortisol levels in response to an acute stressor, these findings provide direct biological evidence regarding cultural differences in the effectiveness of social support use. These findings, along with those reviewed earlier, suggest that how people obtain the psychological and biological benefits of social support in a given cultural context may depend on the cultural emphasis on relationship goals. In a culture in which maintenance of harmonious social relationships is emphasized, a form of social support that does not bring relational “risks” may be more beneficial and more commonly used. By contrast, in a culture in which self-expression and verbal sharing of thoughts and feelings are emphasized a form of social support that includes explicit disclosure may be more utilized and beneficial. 6) How does the “matching hypothesis” relate to social support? i. Social support researchers have proposed and found support for the matching hypothesis, the notion that the effectiveness of social support is determined by whether or not the support provided matches the support needed and desired by a distressed individual. This matching hypothesis can be extended to social support use among people from different cultural backgrounds. A clear hypothesis that follows from the research reviewed in this article is that there are cultural differences in the normative mode of social support provision. Individuals from Asian and Asian American cultural contexts may prefer providing more implicit and indirect support, such as simply being there without discussing the issue at hand, whereas individuals from European American cultural contexts may prefer providing more explicit and direct support, such as focusing on the issue and offering words of encouragement.
7) What information did you find interesting and/or surprising in this article?