Positive emotions are often seen as critical aspects of healthy living, but new research suggests that the link between emotion and health outcomes may vary by cultural context. The findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, show that experiencing positive emotions is linked with better cardiovascular health in the US but not in Japan.
新的研究表明,情感和健康结果之间的联系可能因文化背景而有所不同。这项发表在APS期刊《心理科学》杂志上的研究结果表明,在美国,积极的情绪与心血管健康的改善有关,而在日本则不然。
积极情绪通常被视为健康生活的关键方面,但“Our key finding is that positive emotions predict blood-lipid profiles differently across cultures,” says psychological scientist Jiah Yoo of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “American adults who experience high levels of positive emotions, such as feeling ‘cheerful’ and ‘extremely happy’, are more likely to have healthy blood-lipid profiles, even after accounting for other factors such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, and chronic conditions. However, this was not true for Japanese adults.”
跨文化研究中,以积极情绪预测血脂的高低,其结果是不同的。”,“即使是在考虑到年龄、性别、社会经济地位和慢性病等因素后,那些体验了诸如了“快乐”和“极度幸福”的这些较高积极情绪的美国人,更有可能拥有健康的血脂。然而,这对日本成年人来说,并非如此。”
威斯康星-麦迪逊大学的心理学家Jiah Yoo说:“我们的关键发现是,在
“我们的研究结果强调了文化背景在理解情绪和健康之间关系的重要性,这些东西已经很大程度上被文献著作忽略了。”Yoo补充说,“尽管一些研究已经研究了积极情绪和健康功能之间的文化差异,但这项工作是新颖的,因为它包括了健康的生物学测量以及来自两国大量有代表性的样本。”
The fact that positive emotions are conceived of and valued differently across cultures led Yoo and colleagues to wonder whether the health benefits observed in tandem with positive emotions might be specific to Western populations.
事实上,LED Yoo和同事们设想并验证了积极情绪在跨文化中是不同的,他们想知道,同积极情绪相关联的、观察到的健康益处是否可能只对西方人群有效。
“In American cultures, experiencing positive emotions is seen as desirable and is even encouraged via socialization. But in East Asian cultures, people commonly view positive emotions as having dark sides – they are fleeting, may attract unnecessary attention from others, and can be a distraction from focusing on important tasks,” says Yoo.
Yoo说:“在美国文化中,积极情绪的体验似乎是值得拥有的、甚至通过社会化的进程得到了鼓励。但是在东亚文化中,人们普遍人为,作为有着阴暗面的积极情绪,它们会转瞬即逝,有可能会吸引别人不必要的关注,并且会分散对重要任务的的关注。”
The researchers designed a cross-cultural comparison, examining data from two large representative studies of adults: Midlife in the United States and Midlife in Japan, both funded by the National Institute on Aging. Data included participants’ ratings of how frequently they felt 10 different positive emotions in the previous 30 days and measures of blood lipids, which provided objective data on participants’ heart health.
研究人员设计了一个跨文化的比较,以检验两个有代表性的成人研究的的数据:美国的中年人和日本的中年人,这些由国家老龄研究所资助。数据包括了参与者对前30天10种不同积极情绪的评分,并测量了血脂水平,血脂水平为参与者的心脏健康提供了客观的数据。
“Because of the global prevalence of coronary artery disease, blood lipids are considered important indices of biological health in many Western and East Asian countries,” Yoo explains.
“由于冠心病的全球流行,许多西方和东亚国家认为血脂生物健康水平的重要指标,”Yoo解释说。
As expected, the data indicated that experiencing frequent positive emotions was associated with healthy lipid profiles for American participants. But there was no evidence of such a link for Japanese participants.
正如预期的那样,数据表明,积极情绪的频次与美国参与者的健康血脂状况有关。但没有证据表明日本参与者与此有联系。