This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (2) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Yamaguchi, S. Articles by Zemba, Y. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Cultural Psychology of Control

Illusions of Personal Versus Collective Control in the United States and Japan

University of Tokyo

Michele Gelfand

University of Maryland

Megumi M. Ohashi

Yuriko Zemba

University of Tokyo

This study focused on the cultural psychology of control in the United States and Japan. The authors tested a hypothesis that Japanesewould tend to overestimate their ability to control their outcomes collectively compared to personally, whereas Americans would show the reverse tendency. As expected, Japanese participants in the group condition, relative to those in the individual condition, were more optimistic about obtaining a favorable outcome. American men, on the other hand, were more optimistic in the individual condition. Interestingly, similar to the Japanese participants, American women showed a reverse but nonsignificant tendency to be more optimistic in the group condition. These results indicate that the psychology of control is both gendered and cultured.

Key Words: illusion of control • control orientation • cross-cultural • cultural psychology

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Vol. 36, No. 6, 750-761 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0022022105280513


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?