The Effects of Cultural Differences and Constructive Capitalization Responses on Different Social Support Outcomes

Abstract

This study looked to investigate the effects of constructive capitalization responses on different cultural groups. It was proposed that there would be cultural group differences in the effects of different kinds of constructive capitalization responses on self-esteem, happiness, relationship satisfaction, and relationship closeness as mediated by cultural values (self-construals, harmony values, emotion expression, modesty bias). The current study hypothesized that Asian Americans (AAs) would benefit more from passive constructive capitalization responses (PC) than European Americans (EAs), while EAs would benefit more from active constructive capitalization responses than AAs. It was also hypothesized that AAs would benefit more from collectivistically oriented active constructive responses (AC-C) and EAs would benefit more from individualistically oriented active constructive responses (AC-I). The study was composed of open-ended free response questions assessing previous capitalization experiences, questionnaires that assessed cultural values, and an experimental section with a 2 x 3 between subjects design using scenarios and self-report items. Results revealed a marginal interaction effect between cultural group and capitalization response condition on relationship satisfaction. In addition, we observed a marginally significant main effect of cultural group on relationship closeness (such that EAs were higher in relationship closeness) and marginally significant main effect of capitalization response condition on self-esteem and relationship satisfaction (such that AC-I responses yielded higher responses in self-esteem and relationship satisfaction). Based on our findings, we believe that certain types of constructive capitalization responses may benefit cultural groups differently.