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Supplemental Materials
Emotional Complexity: Clarifying Definitions and Cultural Correlates
by I. Grossmann et al., 2015, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000084
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Supplementary Procedural Details for Study 3 Instruments
Measures of Dialectical Beliefs. The study included two established measures of
dialectical thinking, concerning expectations of contradiction and change and preference for
proverbs involving contradictions.
Expected change in the future. This task measured how much participants thought that a
contradictory event was likely to happen in the future (e.g., childhood enemies becoming lovers
as adults or newlyweds separating within the next 10 years; Ji, Su, & Nisbett, 2001). Acceptance
of contradictions and changes in the future has been hypothesized to be one of the core
components of lay dialecticism (Nisbett, 2003; Peng & Nisbett, 1999). There were eight items,
and participants were asked to estimate a likelihood of change by indicating percentages (0 to
100%). Following prior research, we averaged estimates across eight items (Cronbach’s α's:
Japan = .70; U.S. = .59).
Preference for dialectical proverbs. Preference for dialectical beliefs was assessed via a
proverb task (Peng & Nisbett, 1999). In the task, participants were given 8 dialectical (“Too
humble is half proud”) and 8 nondialectical (“One against all is certain to fall”) proverbs, and
they reported their preferences for each proverb on a 7-point scale (1 = "not at all" to 7 = "very
much"). In the original study (Peng & Nisbett, 1999), researchers selected both dialectical and
nondialectical proverbs in terms of unfamiliarity, to reduce the likelihood that participants chose
more familiar proverbs. The score was the relative preference for the average of dialectical
proverbs (Cronbach’s α's: Japan = .88; U.S. = .85) vs. the average of nondialectical proverbs
(Cronbach’s α's: Japan = .87; U.S. = .86).
Measures of Independence–Interdependence. We included 4 tasks measuring various
aspects of self-construal and 4 other tasks in which participants interacted or a recalled an
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interaction with the social world. The unique feature of this test battery of independent–
interdependent orientation is that it consisted of behavioral (implicit) as well as survey-based
(explicit) measures, in the hope of alleviating concerns about the reliability of survey-based
measures (Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2002).
Self-inflation. This measure was calculated from the Sociogram task (Kitayama, Park,
Sevincer, Karasawa, & Uskul, 2009). In the task, participants were asked to draw their social
network by using circles to represent the self and others. The size (i.e., diameter) of the selfcircle relative to the other-circles was calculated as an index of self-inflation. The score was the
size of self-circle divided by the average size of other circles.
Inclusion of others in the self. The IOS scale (Aron, Aron, & Smollan, 1992) is a
pictorial measure of closeness. In the IOS scale, a series of two circles is provided, where the
degree of overlap between them progresses linearly, creating a 7-point scale of relational
closeness. Participants selected the pair of circles that best represented their relationships with
family members. We also asked the same question with respect to friends and acquaintances, but
we focused on family members because of previous work that shows that one’s closeness with
family members is most diagnostic of cultural variability in interdependence (Li, 2002).
Self-construal Scale. Participants completed a modified 24-item version of the selfconstrual scale by Singelis (1994). Prior to administering the survey, Singelis’ most recent
version of the 30-item scale was inspected for age-sensitive items (e.g., “I would offer my seat in
a bus to my professor/boss,” “I should take into consideration my parents' advice when making
education/career plans”), such that 6 items were removed, resulting in a 24-item scale. This scale
has two 12-item subscales that measure independent and interdependent self-construals. The
subscales had reasonable reliabilities in both the US (Cronbach’s α independent = .63, Cronbach’s α
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interdependent =
.65) and Japan (Cronbach’s α independent = .79, Cronbach’s α interdependent = .82). To
control for a response bias to endorse both construals, for each participant, the independence
score was subtracted from the interdependence score to yield an index of interdependence.
Twenty Statement Test. Participants were asked to describe themselves in twenty
different ways. We examined whether participants’ descriptions referenced generalized/abstract
traits (e.g., I am kind) or specific, contextualized attributes (e.g., I am kind with children; I am a
member of a tennis club; Cousins, 1989; Rhee, Uleman, Lee, & Roman, 1996). Raters in the US
and Japan coded different categories of self-description. A subsample of American statements (n
= 500), coded by two American judges, showed substantial reliability (Cohen’s k = .98), as did
the comparison of Japanese and American codes for 200 Japanese descriptions translated into
English (Cohen’s κ = .61). Inconsistencies were resolved in discussion between the first author
and a bilingual Japanese graduate student. Nonsense statements were excluded from further
analyses (3% in the U.S., 4% in Japan). Because interdependent and independent statements
were significantly negatively correlated, r = −.88, p < .001, we divided the proportion of
interdependent statements by the proportion of independent statements.
Interference by vocal tone. In the Vocal Stroop task, participants were presented with
either positive or negative words (e.g. “wedding” or “funeral”) that were spoken in either an
emotionally positive or negative tone (Ishii, Reyes, & Kitayama, 2003; Kitayama & Ishii, 2002).
They were asked to judge whether each word is positive or negative, and we measured the
reaction time for 14 congruent trials (positive words in positive tone or negative words in
negative tone) and 14 incongruent trials (positive words in negative tones or negative words in
positive tones) as an index of their interference/sensitivity to social cues, averaged across 14
incongruent–congruent pairs (Cronbach’s α's: Japan = .94; U.S. = .84). The interference score of
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vocal tone—reaction times (log, to normalize the distribution) for incongruent trials—was
regressed on total reaction times (log, to normalize the distribution). Unstandardized residuals
were used as a score for subsequent analyses.
Search for contextual information. We investigated the amount of information
participants considered before making a judgment (Choi, Dalal, Kim-Prieto, & Park, 2003).
Participants imagined that they were a detective investigating a murder case. They were provided
with 97 clues that might or might not be relevant to the case (e.g., the number of pets the victim
owned and the victim’s history of sexual abuse by his/her parents) and asked to exclude clues
which they thought were causally irrelevant. The score was the number of items they thought
were causally relevant to the event.
First- vs. Third- person perspective. The task measured the degree to which participants
took a third-person (self-distanced, contextualized) vs. first-person (self-immersed
decontextualized) perspective when they thought about their past (Cohen & Gunz, 2002;
Grossmann & Kross, 2010). Following Cohen and Gunz (2002), participants were asked to recall
and reflect on a specific instance of two social situations (when you had a conversation with a
friend or when you were embarrassed). Subsequently, participants indicated whether the memory
was a first-person memory (in which only the context is seen) or a third-person memory (in
which the person in relation to the context is the focus) on an 11-point scale (1= “entirely a firstperson memory” to 11=”entirely a third-person memory”). The resulting ratings were highly
correlated, rJapan = .34, p < .001, rU.S. = .52, p < .001), and therefore averaged into a single index.
The variable showed a skewed distribution, and was log-transformed for subsequent analyses.
Context- vs. main agent-focused recall. The task examined whether participants focused
on the main character vs. other supporting characters (Chua, Nisbett, & Leu, 2005). Specifically,
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participants watched two video clips (Mr. Bean comedy episodes: Swimming Pool and Library,
without an audio-track) and read two one-page stories (about a working mother, Kathy and a
college graduate, Lea). After watching/reading each episode, participants were asked to recall
what they saw or read, and raters counted the number of statements about focal characters and
the number of statements about other supporting characters (see Chua et al., 2005, for further
details on the procedure). Scores in recall of video-clips were highly correlated to scores for
written stories, focal characters: rJapan = .60, p < .001, rU.S. = .67, p < .001, supporting characters:
rJapan = .31, p < .001, rU.S. = .29, p < .001, and therefore averaged. The score for the task was the
averaged frequency that other characters were mentioned minus the frequency that focal
characters were mentioned.
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References
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structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(4),
596–612. http://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.63.4.596
Choi, I., Dalal, R., Kim-Prieto, C., & Park, H. (2003). Culture and judgment of causal relevance.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(1), 46–59. http://doi.org/10.1037/00223514.84.1.46
Chua, H. F., Nisbett, R. E., & Leu, J. (2005). Culture and diverging views of social events.
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Cohen, D., & Gunz, A. (2002). As seen by the other...: The self from the “outside in” and the
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Grossmann, I., & Kross, E. (2010). The impact of culture on adaptive versus maladaptive selfreflection. Psychological Science, 21(8), 1150–1157.
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Ishii, K., Reyes, J. A., & Kitayama, S. (2003). Spontaneous attention to word content versus
emotional tone: Differences among three cultures. Psychological Science, 14(1), 39–46.
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12(6), 450–456.
Kitayama, S., & Ishii, K. (2002). Word and voice: Spontaneous attention to emotional speech in
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Nisbett, R. E. (2003). The geography of thought: How Asians and Westerners think
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Table S1.
Countries, Indices of Independence–Interdependence and Online Text Database Descriptives in Study 1
IND-COL
(Hofstede et
al., 2010)
In-group
Collectivist
Practices
(House et al., 2004)
Interdependence
(z-scores)
(Only) Blogs
Total
Web
Web
Web
Web
Country (Code)
sites
pages
Words
sites
pages
Words
−1.63
United States (US)
48116 106385 133061093 82260 275156 386809355
91
4.22
−1.41
Canada (CA)
16745 54048 43814827 33776 135692 134765381
80
4.22
−1.70
United Kingdom (UK)
35229 149413 131671002 64351 381841 387615074
89
4.08
Ireland (IE)
−.57
5512 26715 20410027 15840 102147 101029231
70
5.12
−1.68
Australia (AU)
13516 47561 43390501 28881 129244 148208169
90
4.14
−1.85
New Zealand (NZ)
4970 27817 22625584 14053 82679 81390476
79
3.58
.59
Malaysia (MY)
4591 16299 13357745 8966 45601 42420168
26
5.47
Singapore (SG)
.84
4255 17127 13711412 8339 45459 42974705
32
6.14
.94
Philippines (PH)
5979 17951 13457087 10224 46342 43250093
20
5.66
−.47
South Africa (ZA)
4.8
4566 16993 13645623 10308 45264 45364498
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Note. Countries with creole English (e.g., Jamaica), and small island nations with population under 1 million (e.g., Isle of Man) are not included.
IND-COL = country scores of individualism [independence]-collectivism [interdependence] from the most recent reexamination of the dimension
by G. Hofstede and colleagues.
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