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Culture and savoring of positive experiences Lindberg, Tracy L.
Abstract
Savoring is the process by which people enhance, intensify, or prolong their affective reactions to positive events (Bryant, 1989). Drawing on recent research regarding cultural variation in affective norms and experience, I examined savoring and related constructs in Japanese, Asian North American and European North American respondents. As defined in previous research with American samples, the construct of savoring was found to generalize to East Asian samples, with equivalent factor structure and similar relations on measures of convergent and discriminant validity. As predicted, East Asian respondents endorsed lower capacity for anticipating, savoring in the moment and reminiscing. Mediation analyses suggested that attitudes regarding the importance of enhancing positive feelings and beliefs about change played a role in mediating the relation between culture and savoring, but self-construal did not. In self-nominated positive events, East Asian individuals included more interpersonal and achievement events and made reference to positive events from the distant past or anticipated future in addition to current events. In contrast, European North Americans nominated more leisure events, and were temporally oriented to the present and recent past. Predictions with respect to cultural differences in savoring strategies were generally supported, with European North Americans endorsing more Self-Congratulation, Behavioral Expression and Sensory Perceptual Sharpening both in self-nominations and ratings on the Ways of Savoring Checklist (WOSC). Although the majority of strategies nominated across cultures were captured by the WOSC strategies of Sharing and Memory Building, several novel savoring strategies were reported by East Asian respondents, including Making Greater Effort and Continuing Connection with Others Involved. These results are generally consistent with other research finding both elements of universality and cultural variation in the experience of positive feelings.
Item Metadata
Title |
Culture and savoring of positive experiences
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
2004
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Description |
Savoring is the process by which people enhance, intensify, or prolong their affective
reactions to positive events (Bryant, 1989). Drawing on recent research regarding cultural
variation in affective norms and experience, I examined savoring and related constructs in
Japanese, Asian North American and European North American respondents. As defined in
previous research with American samples, the construct of savoring was found to generalize to
East Asian samples, with equivalent factor structure and similar relations on measures of
convergent and discriminant validity. As predicted, East Asian respondents endorsed lower
capacity for anticipating, savoring in the moment and reminiscing. Mediation analyses
suggested that attitudes regarding the importance of enhancing positive feelings and beliefs about
change played a role in mediating the relation between culture and savoring, but self-construal
did not. In self-nominated positive events, East Asian individuals included more interpersonal
and achievement events and made reference to positive events from the distant past or
anticipated future in addition to current events. In contrast, European North Americans
nominated more leisure events, and were temporally oriented to the present and recent past.
Predictions with respect to cultural differences in savoring strategies were generally supported,
with European North Americans endorsing more Self-Congratulation, Behavioral Expression and
Sensory Perceptual Sharpening both in self-nominations and ratings on the Ways of Savoring
Checklist (WOSC). Although the majority of strategies nominated across cultures were captured
by the WOSC strategies of Sharing and Memory Building, several novel savoring strategies were
reported by East Asian respondents, including Making Greater Effort and Continuing Connection
with Others Involved. These results are generally consistent with other research finding both
elements of universality and cultural variation in the experience of positive feelings.
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Genre | |
Type | |
Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-12-21
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0092290
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
2005-05
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.