Shame, personality, and social anxiety symptoms in Chinese and American nonclinical samples: a cross-cultural study.
Shame has been observed to play an important role in social anxiety in China [Xu, 1982]. Shame and personality factors, such as neuroticism and introversion-extraversion, are also related to social anxiety symptoms in Chinese college students [Li et al., 2003]. The aim of this study was to explore cross-cultural differences of the effects of shame and personality on social anxiety using the Experience Scale of Shame, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Scale and Social Anxiety Inventory. Data were collected from both a Chinese sample (n=211, 66 males and 145 females, average ages 20.12+/-1.56 years) and an American sample (n=211, 66 males and 145 females, average ages 20.22+/-1.90 years) of college students. The structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed separately for the Chinese and American samples. The SEM results reveal a shame-mediating model, which is adaptive and only in the Chinese sample. This suggests that shame is a mediator between the Chinese personality and social anxiety. The shame factor did not play the same role in the American sample. This empirical study supports the hypothesis that shame has a more important effect on social anxiety in the Chinese culture compared to its effect on Americans.
Zhong
Jie
J
Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China. jzhong@pku.edu.cn
Wang
Aimin
A
Qian
Mingyi
M
Zhang
Lili
L
Gao
Jun
J
Yang
Jianxiang
J
Li
Bo
B
Chen
Ping
P
D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D011594:Psychometrics; D012752:Shame; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012945:Social Values; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States