Research Summary:My research examines the role of social and cultural influences in the emotions and health of diverse populations. In particular, I investigate diversity in the subjective experience of emotions and the recognition of emotions in faces. My research also translates the relevance of social and cultural psychology to the study of immigrant health. Two interrelated questions guide my research: 1) In what ways are the building blocks of emotional behavior informed by cultural models of selfhood and emotion regulation? 2) How do changes in an individual’s cultural environment influence his/her behavior and health?
Emotions and cognition are mutually informing, such that perceptions or appraisals of the surrounding world constitute the emotional experience. Therefore, one method of studying cultural variation in emotion is to study cultural variation in cognitive appraisals of emotion. The appraisal of emotional valence, or the judgment of pleasantness or unpleasantness, is assumed by most Western psychologists to be universal. However, I theorize that while the dominant American model of emotion regulation centers on the pursuit of pleasantness as a cultural ideal, many East Asian models of emotion view moderation away from both pleasant and unpleasant extremes as a cultural ideal. The behavior of East Asians may be informed by an emphasis on emotional balance and moderation away from both extreme positive and negative emotions, reflecting Daoist and Buddhist values. In contrast, European Americans may see happiness as optimizing good feelings, and view positive emotional states and positive events as a goal in life, reflecting Enlightenment notions about the right of the individual to pursue what is rewarding.
A second line of research examines the relationship between psychosocial variables and health among individuals who negotiate changing cultural contexts, such as immigrants and biculturals. This line of research highlights the dynamic intrapersonal tension between different distributions of cultural beliefs, practices, and values within the US. A growing body of evidence links social position to health outcomes, suggesting that both material and psychological measures of how one stands relative to others in society is a predictive measure of health outcomes. Even after controlling for income, occupation, and education, the higher one’s perceived social position (or subjective social standing), the smaller the incidence of disease. However, my research suggests that the relationship is complicated by age at immigration among immigrant Americans. For example, Asian immigrants who arrived in the US after the age of 25 demonstrated a significant association between subjective social status and mental health. However, Asian immigrants who arrived before or at the age of 25 demonstrated a much weaker relationship. Therefore, age at immigration may be a significant sociological marker distinguishing between qualitatively different immigrant experiences that are patterned by developmental experiences. I am now examining the role of family conflict, weaker ethnic identification, and greater reports of discrimination in predicting mood dysfunction among the Asian immigrants who arrived before or at the age of 25.
Recent Publications:- Leu, J.; Yen, I.; Gansky, S.; Walton, E.; Adler, N.; Takeuchi, D., (2008), The Association between Subjective Social Status and Mental Health among Asian Immigrants: Investigating the Influence of Age at Immigration, Social Science & Medicine, 66: 5, 1152-1164.
- Masuda, T.; Ellsworth, P. C.; Mesquita, B.; Leu, J.; Tanida; van de Veerdonk, E., (2008), Placing the Face in Context: Cultural Differences in the Perception of Facial Emotion, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94: 3, 365-381.
- Nuru-Jeter, A.; Parker Dominguez, T.; Powell, W.; Leu, J.; Egerter, S.; Skaff, M.; Braveman, P.; Jones, C., (2008), It's the skin you're in: African American women talk about their experiences of racism, Maternal and Child Health, May.
- Mesquita, B.; Leu, J., (2007), The Cultural Psychology of Emotions, Handbook of Cultural Psychology, Kitayama, S.; Cohen, D., Guilford Press, New York.
- Benet-Martínez, V.; Lee, F.; Leu, J., (2006), Biculturalism and Cognitive Complexity: Expertise in Cultural Representations, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37: 4, 386-407.
- Chua, H.; Leu, J.; Nisbett, R. E., (2005), Culture and Diverging Views of Social Events. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31: 7, 925-934.
- Mahalingam, R.; Leu, J., (2005), Culture, Essentialism, Displacement and Representations of Gender, Theory and Psychology, 15: 6, 841-862.
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Ph.D. 2004, University of Michigan.
