title: Going for the gold. Models of agency in Japanese and American contexts.
abstract: Two studies examined how Olympic performance is explained in American and Japanese contexts. Study 1, an analysis of media coverage of the 2000 and 2002 Olympics, shows that in both Japanese and American contexts, performance is construed mainly in terms of the actions of persons. However, Japanese and American accounts differ in their explanations of the nature and source of intentional agency, that is, in their models of agency. In Japanese contexts, agency is construed as conjoint and simultaneously implicates athletes' personal attributes (both positive and negative), background, and social and emotional experience. In American contexts, agency is construed as disjoint, separate from athletes' background or social and emotional experience; performance is explained primarily through positive personal characteristics and features of the competition. Study 2, in which participants chose information to be included in an athlete's description, confirms these findings. Differences in the construction of agency are reflected in and fostered by common cultural products (e.g., television accounts).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Jordan Hall, Building 420, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2130, USA. hmarkus@psych.stanford.edu
authors.forename: Hazel Rose
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Markus
authors.forename: Yukiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Uchida
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Omoregie
authors.forename: Sarah S M
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Townsend
authors.forename: Shinobu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kitayama
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D044466:Asian People; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D033262:Narration; D012660:Semantics; D013177:Sports; D014481:United States