As a growing number of ethnic minority individuals seek health services in the United States, it is becoming increasingly clear that certain diagnostic and treatment techniques of Western clinical practice are less effective with individuals of non-Western cultural descent. For example, many clinicians have found it difficult to diagnose and treat affective disorders in ethnic minority populations because of cultural differences in the presentation of affective symptoms. Clinicians have assumed that cultural differences in the presentation of affective symptoms arise from cultural differences in conceptions of emotion and in styles of emotional responding; however, little research has actually examined this hypothesis empirically. In fact, only a handful of empirical studies have examined how culture influences emotional responding by general (i.e., the changes in physiology, subjective experience, and expressive behavior that occur when we are emotional). Such investigations will help us understand the sources of cultural differences in affective symptomology and will improve clinicians' abilities to diagnose and treat mental illness in different cultural groups. The proposed study is part of a larger research program that aims to understand: (1) how culture influences emotional processes and (2) whether cultural differences in the presentation of affective symptoms are related to cultural differences in emotional responding. Specifically, the study: (1) tests the generalizability of a working model of culture and emotion to Hmong and European American college students, (2) examines whether differences in conceptions of emotion between Hmong and European American cultures predict cultural differences in emotional responding, and (3) studies within-group differences in emotional responding. To achieve these aims, the study employs: (1) a structured interview to assess participants' conceptions of emotion and (2) an empirically validated relived emotions task to elicit emotional responding in participants. These data will provide the empirical basis for future studies of cultural influences on emotion with community and clinical populations and will ultimately facilitate the development of effective clinical assessment and treatment techniques for use with ethnic minority populations.
| Nix, Robert L; Bierman, Karen L; McMahon, Robert J et al. (2009) How attendance and quality of participation affect treatment response to parent management training. J Consult Clin Psychol 77:429-38 |
| Nix, Robert L; Pinderhughes, Ellen E; Bierman, Karen L et al. (2005) Decoupling the relation between risk factors for conduct problems and the receipt of intervention services: participation across multiple components of a prevention program. Am J Community Psychol 36:307-25 |
| Tsai, Jeanne L; Mortensen, Heather; Wong, Ying et al. (2002) What does ""being American"" mean? A comparison of Asian American and European American young adults. Cultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol 8:257-73 |
| Tsai, Jeanne L; Chentsova-Dutton, Yulia; Freire-Bebeau, Liliana et al. (2002) Emotional expression and physiology in European Americans and Hmong Americans. Emotion 2:380-97 |
