When Gratitude Evokes Indebtedness.

BACKGROUND: Research in the US found that gratitude increases happiness. We conducted three studies to examine whether gratitude increases happiness among Koreans, as well. METHODS: Participants were randomly assigned to a gratitude or a control condition in Studies 1 and 2, and into a gratitude toward someone important or a gratitude toward own health condition in Study 3. Their moods were then measured. RESULTS: Gratitude writing marginally significantly evoked indebtedness among Korean students (Study 1, N = 336) but not among American students (Study 2, N = 219). Equally important, even among Americans, those who wrote about their gratitude toward someone important reported feeling indebtedness marginally more than those who wrote about their gratitude toward something or someone not that important. In Study 3 (N = 181), American participants, randomly assigned to write about their gratitude toward someone important, reported not only more gratitude but also more indebtedness than those assigned to write about their gratitude toward their own health. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these studies suggest that gratitude evokes indebtedness when gratitude is about someone important.

Cultural differences in emotion: differences in emotional arousal level between the East and the West.

Whether emotion is universal or social is a recurrent issue in the history of emotion study among psychologists. Some researchers view emotion as a universal construct, and that a large part of emotional experience is biologically based. However, emotion is not only biologically determined, but is also influenced by the environment. Therefore, cultural differences exist in some aspects of emotions, one such important aspect of emotion being emotional arousal level. All affective states are systematically represented as two bipolar dimensions, valence and arousal. Arousal level of actual and ideal emotions has consistently been found to have cross-cultural differences. In Western or individualist culture, high arousal emotions are valued and promoted more than low arousal emotions. Moreover, Westerners experience high arousal emotions more than low arousal emotions. By contrast, in Eastern or collectivist culture, low arousal emotions are valued more than high arousal emotions. Moreover, people in the East actually experience and prefer to experience low arousal emotions more than high arousal emotions. Mechanism of these cross-cultural differences and implications are also discussed.

Study on the Difference of BIS/BAS Scale between Sasang Types.

Introduction. The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in temperament between So-Yang (SY) and So-Eum (SE) Sasang types using Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System (BIS/BAS) scale to elucidate the biopsychological mechanism underlying the Sasang typology, a traditional Korean personalized medicine. Methods. 248 university students were categorized into three Sasang types, and series of t-tests were conducted, separately for male and female participants, to examine the difference of Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS), Behavioral Activation System (BAS), BAS-Drive (BAS-D), BAS-Fun Seeking (BAS-FS), and BAS-Reward Responsiveness (BAS-RR) scores between SY and SE Sasang types. Results. There were significant differences between Sasang types in the BIS/BAS subscales with consideration of gender. In male participants, BAS-total score of SY type (39.75 ± 4.56) was significantly (t = 2.462, p = 0.016) higher than that of SE type (36.68 ± 4.97). On the other hand, in female participants, BIS score of SY type (20.10 ± 4.01) was significantly (t = -2.097, p = 0.039) lower than that of SE type (21.83 ± 3.91). Discussion. The current study suggested relationship between Sasang typology and Behavior Inhibition and Activation Systems and showed significant differences in BIS/BAS scale between SY and SE Sasang types. Further studies on biological base of Sasang typology are needed.