Guilty Americans and Shameful Japanese? An Affect Control Test of Benedict’s Thesis

Herman W. Smith and Yap MiowLin

Chapter 9 in Purpose, Meaning, and Action, 2006, pp 213-236 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Benedict (1946) offers one of the most cited and enticing—but least tested—thesis in cross-cultural social psychology. In essence, she argues that the basic motivator of Japanese behavior is shame, with guilt providing the major driving force among Americans. Other scholars have extended the same thesis of Asian shame cultures to India and China (Hsu 1949) and Burma (Hitson 1959). Benedict based her thesis on Freud’s somewhat unsystematic observations. (Freud and Breuer 1966) noting that his patients (all of whom were women) expressed shame, and his adult male colleagues felt guilt. His implication was that shame was a childish, feminine emotion outgrown by mature adults.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-137-10809-8_9

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