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Project

"Two Hearts That Beat as One": Emotional Co-regulation in German and Japanese Couples.

Emotions in ongoing relationships are inherently interpersonal processes. In particular, the emotions of romantic partners have been found to be mutually dependent, which may be the result of dyadic co-regulationthat is, partners mutual regulation of each others emotions. This project is a systematic cross-cultural investigation of emotional co-regulation in German and Japanese couples. The general hypothesis guiding this project is that there are cultural differences in co-regulation that can be understood from the different relationship ideals. Relationship ideals in Germany and Japan are maximally distinctive: In the German cultural context, close bonds are negotiated commitments based on the autonomy of the partners; in contrast, close bonds in Japan are based on loyalty and emphasize connectedness between partners. Previous research found that emotions that are consistent with the cultural relationship ideals tend to be up-regulated (e.g., anger in Western and s hame in East contexts). The current project will extend these findings to the realm of dyadic co-regulation in romantic relationships: We expect that emotional co-regulation between partners serves to promote those emotions that match the respective cultural relationship ideals. More specifically, we expect systematic cultural differences in the endpoints, processes, and conditions of emotional co-regulation in German and Japanese couples.
Date:1 Oct 2013 →  4 Oct 2014
Keywords:Emotion, Culture, Social dynamics, Emotion Regulation, Close Relationships, Dyads
Disciplines:Social psychology