Problems in European and East Asia Cultures - Research Paper Example

? Dealing With Problems in European & East Asia Cultures Deal with problems (social support) and how this is linked to cultural differences and interactions in regards to Eastern European and East Asia populations Introduction The interaction between the ideal affective faculty of human being and his/her inherent or cultural affective state underpins human behavior, which is overtly manifested in visibly impressionable and expressional affective state. Expressional or impressionable affective aspect of human behavior is thus neither a copyright of his/her inherently and culturally neither cognized affective instincts nor does it reflects the ideal affective state of the human cognizant. Researches have dichotomized the overt behaviorally expressional or impressionable affective state of human being from the covert affective state of the human cognizant. These researches have thus realized two distinct affective state of human being, which comprises the covert ideal state of the human cognizant and the actual affective state, which is overtly manifest in the expressed or impressionable human behavior. Despite this dichotomy, these researches have evaded the difficult task of investigating the inherent and cultural dualism of the ideal affective state of the human cognizant. This research thus explores the inherent and cultural dualistic nature of ideal affective state of human being and its neutral, retrogressive or appreciative manifestation in the impressionable of expressional actual affective state that defines human behavior. Literature Review Tsai et al (2007) model an exclusive culturally cognized ideal state in human beings. The ideal affective state in human being is purely cognized from their cultural background with no inherent temperamental influence in the shaping of the ideal affective state of human being (Kim, 2006). Kim et al (2010) adopts a behavioral modeling rationality in the realization of an exclusive a culturally cognized ideal affective state of human being. Kim (2006) goes on to maintain that the ideal affective state is modeled from the culturally distinct rituals, institutions and artifacts of a specific community (Taylor et al, 2007). The difference in the Asian and European ideal affective state is thus more of the differences in their ritualistic, institutional and iconographic culture models rather than in their inherent biological differences. Affective state theories acknowledge the role of culture in shaping affective state. Nevertheless, these theories generalize the functional role of cultural influence on affective state without specifying the cultural factors dichotomous influence on either actual or affective state distinctively. The cultural-affective functional model goes beyond this general functional correlation between culture and affective state to establish the disparity influence of culture on ideal affective state at the expense of the actual affective state (Taylor et al, 2004). Research establishes the influence of social environment in the expression of the affective genomes in human beings. This translates to the development of depressive symptoms depending on the congruence or incongruent interaction between the actualized environmental social support and the perceptive social support defined by the ideal affective genome in human being. The differential ideal affective genome between the Asian and European communities thus influences their depression propensity under various social support environmental scenarios in the American society. A populist Happy Arousal Positive (HAP) ideal affective state associated with the European Americans thus increases their propensity to depression in dull social support environment, whereas the Low Arousal (LAP) ideal affective state of the Asian is vulnerable to depression under highly social supportive environment. Tsai et al (2007) refutes the convectional modeling of ideal affective state from impressionable and expressional behavior and instead adopts a vise versa approach whereby the ideal affective state is postulated to influence rather than conform to behavior. In this instance the cognitive motivation of individuals becomes the ideal effective state whereby an individual struggles to reorient his behavior to match with the ideal affective goal. The motivation to attain the ideal affective state involves an adjustment to diminish the gap between the actual and ideal affective state. On the other hand, cultural differences amongst ethnic communities are translates to different cognitive ideal affect state. Cultural difference in ideal effect then emerges as an individual’s ideal affective state is neutralized or retrogressed to settle for an actual affective state dictated by the environment rather than the individuals ideal affect motivation. Research Hypotheses Hypotheses 1. Whether ideal affective state is distinct to cultural ethnicity? 2. Whether the ideal affective state is epistemologically or dualistically shaped by the cultural background of an individual? 3. How ideal affective states copes with various environmental stimulus that positively or negatively impinge on its actualization. 4. How the ideal affective state interacts with the various cultural and temperamental factors? 5. How human behavior is influenced by the interaction between ideal affective state and the cultural and temperamental factors. 6. The neutral, retrogressive or appreciative actualization of an ideal affective from the interaction between dualistic and epistemological affects with the ideal affective state of human being. Research Design: participants, data collection, and statistical analysis plan The research designs involves an initial control of the cultural differences and interaction variables that influences the transition of actual affective state to the ideal affective state that defines a normalized, desirable and balanced personal affective state. Control of the cultural differences and interaction variables in the ideal affective state functionalism hypothesis is realized through sampling the affective state data from a distinct rather than a hybrid multicultural community comprising of the European and Asian ethnic community. A structured questionnaire is disseminated to a sample of 81 college students from a population comprising exclusively of European and East Asia population. The questionnaire is structured into a set of open questions designed using Jean L. Tsai and Brian Knutson affect valuation index (AVI) (Tsai et al, 2007). The AVI index enables the collection of ideal and actual affective data as a set of quantitative samples of the various actual and ideal affective states designated as either valence or arousal neuropsychological dimensions. The valence neurophysiological dimension is used to sample ideal and actual affective states in nature of personally confessed qualitative variables such relating to the individual affective perception of gain or loss from environmental interaction. Arousal dimension on the other hand is used to sample qualitative information on the personal affective perception/feelings of the affective demand posed by the environmental for the actualization of a desirable personal affective state. The various qualitative valence and arousal dimensions are quantitatively weighted using the AVI model to derive various multicultural affective states categories comprising a hybrid of valence and arousal neurophysiological dimensional weights. A total of eight multicultural affective states categories are realized from AVI model and are illustrated in the diagram below TABLE 1 Octants of the Affective Circumplex and Their Associated States Octant of Affective circumplex Abbreviation Items High arousal positive HAP Enthusiastic, excited, elated Positive P Happy, satisfied, content Low-arousal positive LAP Calm, relaxed, peaceful Low arousal LA Idle, inactive, passive Low-arousal negative LAN Dull, sleepy, sluggish Negative N Sad, lonely, unhappy High-arousal negative HAN Fearful, hostile, nervous High arousal HA Aroused, surprised, astonished The structured questionnaire is used to collect weighted quantitative data on the multicultural affective states categories qualitative variables listed in the table above. AVI 5 point scale is then used to ascribe a qualitative value to each of the valence and arousal affective state dimensions (Taylor et al, 2004). The set of the weighted valence and arousal dimensional variables from each questionnaire are then computed using SPSS statistics to realistically map each individual actual or ideal affective state into its respective category in the AVI table. The collective and populist fit of the sampled population into the various multicultural affective state category designated in the AVI table is then interpreted to realize a distinctive ideal affective state amongst the sampled population, which is attributed to their controlled cultural difference and interaction variables specifics of the European and Asian ethnicity. References Kim, H.S et al. (2010) Culture, distress, and oxytocin receptor polymorphism (OXTR) interact to in?uence emotional support seeking, PNAS, 107(36): 15717-15721 Kim, H.S. (2006). Pursuit of Comfort and Pursuit of Harmony: Culture, Relationships, and Social Support Seeking. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(12):1595-607 Taylor, S.E., et al (2007). Cultural Differences in the Impact of Social Support on Psychological and Biological Stress Responses. Psychological Science, 18(9):831-837. Taylor, S.E., et al (2004). Culture and Social Support: Who Seeks It and Why? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(3):354-62. Tsai, J.L. (2007). Ideal affect: Cultural causes and behavioral consequences. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(3), 242-259. Tsai, J.L., et al. (2007). Influence and Adjustment Goals: Sources of Cultural Differences in Ideal Affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1102–1117. Read More