Abstract
The current study investigated to what extent language and culture shape emotional experience. Specifically, we randomly assigned 178 Chinese English bilinguals to report on emotional situations, cultural exposure, engagement, and language proficiency in either English as a foreign language (LX) or Chinese (L1). We established their fit with both the typical patterns of emotions among British and Chinese monolinguals and predicted these fit indices from the survey language, cultural exposure, and engagement. Whereas monolinguals fitted their own culture’s emotional patterns best, bilinguals fitted both the typical LX and L1 patterns equally well. The survey language affected bilinguals’ emotional fit, but there was no evidence for true 'cultural frame switching’. Rather, bilinguals with low exposure to English-speaking contexts encountered a drop in emotional fit when using English. Yet, this negative effect of survey language was buffered when bilinguals had better quality interactions that are likely to foster conceptual restructuring in the LX.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
We also measured bilinguals’ Length of Residency in Chinese-speaking Countries. However, since our bilinguals were all born in China and spent most of their lives there, we do not consider this variable as capturing meaningful variation in exposure to Chinese culture (i.e., its meaning systems and practices). Hence, we do not include this variable in our further analyses. Upon a reviewer’s request, however, we re-ran all analyses including ‘Length of Residency in English-speaking Countries’ by replacing it with “Length of Residency in Chinese-speaking Countries.” The latter variable yielded no significant effects and the pattern of results concerning the other variables did not change. Full details on these analyses can be obtained from the first author upon request.
In a similar way, we also measured bilinguals’ Subjective Chinese Language Proficiency (Cronbach’s alpha = .92). However, since our Chinese English bilinguals all had Chinese as their L1, this variable is characterized by both a ceiling effect (M = 6.41) and not much variance (SD = .77; see OSM, Table B1). Hence, we do not include this variable in our further analyses. Upon a reviewer’s request, however, we ran an additional series of exploratory SEM analyses including Subjective Chinese Proficiency as the predictor of interest . However, these analyses yielded no significant effects of Subjective Chinese Language Proficiency. Full details on these analyses can be obtained from the first author upon request.
Splitting up the sample slightly differently by setting the cut-off at less than one year (< 1 year) spent in an English-speaking country to be included in the Cultural Exposure = 0 = Low group (45% of the sample) and at 1 year or more (≥ 1 year) to be included in the Cultural Exposure = 1 = High group, did not change the directions of the effects reported here. Full details on these analyses can be obtained from the last author.
As the LMS method requires numerical integration, it is insufficient to estimate chi-square statistics or model fit statistics (e.g., Root Mean Square Error of Approximation [RMSEA], Comparative Fit Index [CFI], and Tucker-Lewis Index [TLI] that require means, variances, and covariances [Lodder et al., 2019]). In other words, the interaction term should not influence the model fit statistics because it does not have means, variances, or covariances with other parameters (Muthén & Muthén, 2012). As a result, the Mplus software only reported Akaike information criterion (AIC; Akaike, 1974) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC; Schwarz, 1978). The smaller the information criterion is, the better the model is.
On the basis of the current data and analyses, however, we have no reason to suspect that the content of bilinguals' emotional patterns would be completely independent of those that are typical for their respective heritage and new mainstream cultural contexts: Bilinguals fit about equally well and, importantly, relatively highly with both of these cultural typical patterns (cfr. results of H1).
References
Akaike, H. (1974). A new look at the statistical model identification. IEEE transactions on automatic control, 19(6), 716–723. https://doi.org/10.1109/tac.1974.1100705.
Barrett, L. F. (2006). Solving the emotion paradox: Categorization and the experience of emotion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(1), 20–46. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr1001_2.
Bentler, P. M., & Chou, C.-P. (1987). Practical Issues in Structural Modeling. Sociological Methods & Research, 16(1), 78–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124187016001004.
Boiger, M., & Mesquita, B. (2012). The construction of emotion in interactions, relationships, and cultures. Emotion Review, 4(3), 221–229. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073912439765.
Boiger, M., Mesquita, B., Uchida, Y., & Feldman Barrett, L. (2013). Condoned or condemned: The situational affordance of anger and shame in the United States and Japan. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(4), 540–553. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213478201.
Boiger, M., Ceulemans, E., De Leersnyder, J., Uchida, Y., Norasakkunkit, V., & Mesquita, B. (2018). Beyond essentialism: Cultural differences in emotions revisited. Emotion, 18(8), 1142–1162. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000390.
Caldwell-Harris, C. L. (2014). Emotionality differences between a native and foreign language: theoretical implications. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1055. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01055.
Cham, H., West, S. G., Ma, Y., & Aiken, L. S. (2012). Estimating latent variable interactions with nonnormal observed data: A comparison of four approaches. Multivariate behavioral research, 47(6), 840–876. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273171.2012.732901.
Consedine, N. S., Chentsova-Dutton, Y. E., & Krivoshekova, Y. S. (2014). Emotional acculturation predicts better somatic health: Experiential and expressive acculturation among immigrant women from four ethnic groups. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 33(10), 867–889. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2014.33.10.867.
Cook, V. J. (2012). Multi-competence. In C. Chapelle (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (pp. 3768–3774). Wiley-Blackwell.
De Leersnyder, J. (2017). Emotional acculturation: a first review. Current opinion in psychology, 17, 67–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.06.007.
De Leersnyder, J., Mesquita, B., & Kim, H. S. (2011). Where Do My Emotions Belong? A Study of Immigrants’ Emotional Acculturation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(4), 451–463. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211399103.
De Leersnyder, J., Kim, H., & Mesquita, B. (2020). My emotions belong here and there: Extending the phenomenon of emotional acculturation to heritage cultural contexts. Cognition and Emotion, 34(8), 1573–1590. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1781063.
De Roover, K., Ceulemans, E., Timmerman, M. E., Vansteelandt, K., Stouten, J., & Onghena, P. (2012). Clusterwise simultaneous component analysis for analyzing structural differences in multivariate multiblock data. Psychological Methods, 17, 100–119. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025385.
Dewaele, J.-M. (2004). The emotional force of swearwords and taboo words in the speech of multilinguals. Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, 25(2-3), 204–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434630408666529.
Dewaele, J.-M. (2013). Emotions in multiple languages (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
Dewaele, J.-M. (2015). Culture and emotional language. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Culture (pp. 357–370). Routledge.
Dewaele, J.-M. (2016). Multi-competence and emotion. In L. Wei & V. J. Cook (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Multi-competence (pp. 461–477). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781107425965.022.
Dewaele, J.-M. (2018). Pragmatic challenges in the communication of emotions in intercultural couples. Intercultural Pragmatics, 15, 29–55. https://doi.org/10.1515/ip-2017-0029.
Dewaele, J.-M., & Pavlenko, A. (2001). Web questionnaire bilingualism and emotions. University of London. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511584305.010.
Dewaele, J.-M., & Salomidou, L. (2017). Loving a partner in a foreign language. Journal of Pragmatics, 108, 116–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2016.12.009.
Ekman, P. (1992). Are there basic emotions. Psychological Review, 99(3), 550–553. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.99.3.550.
Ferguson, G. M., & Bornstein, M. H. (2012). Remote acculturation: The “Americanization” of Jamaican islanders. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 36(3), 167–177. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025412437066.
Ferguson, G. M., & Bornstein, M. H. (2015). Remote acculturation of early adolescents in Jamaica towards European American culture: A replication and extension. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 45, 24–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2014.12.007.
Hoffman, E. (1989). Lost in translation: A life in a new language. New York: Penguin Books.
Hong, Y. Y., Morris, M. W., Chiu, C. Y., & Benet-Martinez, V. (2000). Multicultural minds: A dynamic constructivist approach to culture and cognition. American psychologist, 55(7), 709–720. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.7.709.
Jasini, A., De Leersnyder, J., Mesquita, B., & Phalet, K. (2018). Feeling ‘right’ when you feel accepted: Emotional acculturation in daily life interactions with majority members. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1093. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01093.
Jasini, A., De Leersnyder, J., Mesquita, B., & Phalet, K. (2019). Tuning in emotionally: Associations of cultural exposure with distal and proximal emotional fit in acculturating youth. European Journal of Social Psychology, 49(2), 352–365. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2516.
Jasini, A., De Leersnyder, J., Kende, J. Gagliolo, M., Phalet, K., & Mesquita, B. (2020). Emotional Acculturation in the classroom: a social network study. Manuscript under review.
Kitayama, S., Markus, H. R., & Kurokawa, M. (2006). Culture, emotion, and well-being: Good feelings in Japan and the United States. Cognition & Emotion, 14(1), 93–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/026999300379003.
Klein, A., & Moosbrugger, H. (2000). Maximum likelihood estimation of latent interaction effects with the LMS method. Psychometrika, 65(4), 457–474. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02296338.
Kline, T. J. (2005). Psychological testing: A practical approach to design and evaluation. Sage Publications.
Kramsch, C. (2009). Third culture and language education. In V. Cook & L. Wei (Eds.), Contemporary Applied Linguistics (pp. 233–254). Continuum.
Lemhöfer, K., & Broersma, M. (2012). Introducing LexTALE: A quick and valid lexical test for advanced learners of English. Behavior research methods, 44(2), 325–343. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-011-0146-0.
Levenson, R. W. (2011). Basic Emotion Questions. Emotion Review, 3(4), 379–386. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073911410743.
Lindquist, K. A., & Gendron, M. (2013). What’s in a Word? Language Constructs Emotion Perception. Emotion Review, 5(1), 66–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073912451351.
Lodder, P., Denollet, J., Emons, W. H., Nefs, G., Pouwer, F., Speight, J., & Wicherts, J. M. (2019). Modeling interactions between latent variables in research on Type D personality: A Monte Carlo simulation and clinical study of depression and anxiety. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 54(5), 637–665. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273171.2018.1562863.
Mesquita, B., & Leu, J. (2007). The cultural psychology of emotions. In S. Kitayama & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of Cultural Psychology (pp. 734–759). Guilford Press.
Mesquita, B., Boiger, M., & De Leersnyder, J. (2017). Doing Emotions: The role of culture in everyday emotions. European Review of Social Psychology, 28(1), 95–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2017.1329107.
Mesquita, B., De Leersnyder, J., & Jasini, A. (2019). The Cultural Psychology of Acculturation. In S. Kitayama & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of Cultural Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 502–535). Guilford Press.
Muthén, B., & Asparouhov, T. (2015). Causal effects in mediation modeling: An introduction with applications to latent variables. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 22(1), 12–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2014.935843.
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2012). MPlus: statistical analysis with latent variables-User's guide.
Panayiotou, A. (2004). Switching codes, switching code: Bilinguals’ emotional responses in English and Greek. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 25, 124–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434630408666525.
Panicacci, A., & Dewaele, J. M. (2017). ‘A voice from elsewhere’: acculturation, personality and migrants’ self-perceptions across languages and cultures. International Journal of Multilingualism, 14(4), 419–436. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2016.1273937.
Panicacci, A., & Dewaele, J.-M. (2018). Do interlocutors or conversation topics affect migrants’ sense of feeling different when switching languages? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39, 240–255. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2017.1361962.
Pavlenko, A. (2009). Conceptual representation in the bilingual lexicon and second language vocabulary learning. In A. Pavlenko (Ed.), The Bilingual Mental Lexicon: Interdisciplinary Approaches (pp. 125–160). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781847691262-008.
Perunovic, E. W. Q., Heller, D., & Rafaeli, E. (2007). Within-person changes in the structure of emotion: The role of cultural identification and language. Psychological Science, 18(7), 607–613. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01947.x.
Rimé, B. (2009). Emotion Elicits the Social Sharing of Emotion. Theory and Empirical Review. Emotion Review, 1(1), 60–85.
Rolland, L., Costa, B., & Dewaele, J.-M. (2020). Negotiating the language(s) for psychotherapy talk: A mixed methods study from the perspective of multilingual clients. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12369.
Schwarz, G. (1978). Estimating the dimension of a model. The annals of statistics, 6(2), 461–464. https://doi.org/10.1214/aos/1176344136.
Tsai, J. L., & Clobert, M. (2019). Culture influences on emotion: Established patterns and emerging trends. In Handbook of cultural psychology (pp. 292–318). Oxford University Press.
Umbach, N., Naumann, K., Brandt, H., & Kelava, A. (2017). Fitting nonlinear structural equation models in R with package nlsem. Journal of Statistical Software, 77(7), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v077.i07.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Acknowledgement
We wish to thank YongQi Cong (University of Amsterdam) for translating the questionnaires from English into Chinese.
Author Contribution
CZ, CO, JMD and JDL designed the study and developed the materials; CZ and CO collected the data under supervision of JMD; CZ and JDL analyzed the data; CZ prepared all Tables, Figures and OSM; CZ wrote the first draft of this manuscript; JDL rewrote the manuscript while JMD commented and added to it.
Funding
Part of the research time was funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship awarded to JDL. Grant agreement ID: 799493.
Data Availability
All data, syntax, code, and materials can be found here: https://osf.io/se9wn/. The current research was not officially pre-registered, but a date-stamped analysis plan prior to any analyses was created as part of course fulfillments at the University of Amsterdam by the first and third authors.
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
Ethics approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Psychology Department of the University of Amsterdam (2018-SP-8848). The study was performed to ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki, and all participants received and signed an Informed Consent prior to taking the survey.
Informed Consent
All participants provided informed consent prior to participation.
Additional information
Handling Editor: Kristen Lindquist
Supplementary Information
ESM 1
(PDF 997 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhou, C., Dewaele, JM., Ochs, C.M. et al. The Role of Language and Cultural Engagement in Emotional Fit with Culture: an Experiment Comparing Chinese-English Bilinguals to British and Chinese Monolinguals. Affec Sci 2, 128–141 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-021-00037-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-021-00037-x