Nezlek, J. B., Sorrentino, R. M., Yasunaga, S., Otsubo, Y., Allen, M., Kouhara, S., & Shuper, P. (in press). Cross-cultural differences in reactions to daily events as indicators of cross-cultural differences in self-Construction and affect. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology.

Every day for two weeks, participants at four sites (2 in the US, 1 in Canada, and 1 in Japan) described their self-esteem and affect and they described the events that occurred each day. Multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses found that the self esteem of Japanese participants changed more in reaction to daily social events (both positive and negative) than it did for North American participants. Also, the positive affect of the Japanese changed more as function positive events than the positive affect of North Americans changed. The Japanese also reacted more than North American to negative social events in terms of depressed mood (ND) and deactive positive affect (PD) than North Americans. In contrast, the Japanese reacted less to negative achievement events than North Americans in terms of PA and anxious mood. The Japanese were more reactive than North Americans to positive achievement events in terms of PA and ND. The results highlight the greater sensitivity of the Japanese to social concerns compared to North Americans, and the greater affective sensitivity of North Americans to failure in achievement domains.