Self-construal and Emotion Emotions can be classified into those that encourage independence of the self from others and those that encourage interdependence with others (Kitayama, Markus, & Matsumoto, 1995). Kitayama et al. have defined “socially disengaged emotions” as the emotions that tend to separate or disengage the self from social relationships and promote the perceived independence of the self from those relationships. On the other hand, they have defined “socially engaged emotions” as those that tend to assimilate the self in the relationship and enhance the perceived interdependence of the self with relevant others. Conduct a cross-cultural mini-study based on the following procedure and discuss your findings in small groups. 1. Write five happy episodes or situations which you have experienced in the past. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 2. Look at your responses again. Which episodes or situations do you think are associated with “socially disengaged emotions”? Which episodes or situations do you think are associated with “socially engaged emotions”? Write the numbers of the episodes. (a) Socially disengaged emotions: (b) Socially engaged emotions: 3. After you finish, compare your results and your classmate′s results. When you reply to your classmates, mention any similarities and/or differences in the tendency you may have found.?
