Contributing to others
We all have the desire to be liked, respected, and valued. We all care how others evaluate us because we believe that by getting high evaluation from others, we can raise our self-esteem and feel good about ourselves. Yet, research (Crocker & Canevello, 2012) has shown that the goal to construct and maintain desired images of the self undermines happiness whereas the goal to contribute to others' well-being promotes relationships, and ultimately one's own happiness. Our lab conducts experiments and surveys to examine how we can contribute to others' happiness from a social psychological approach.
Finding commonalities amidst cultural differences
People's thinking, feelings, and behaviors differ according to culture. Although we find it important to examine these cultural differences, we are interested in how people share similarities despite large differences in their cultural backgrounds. For example, the Japanese "amae" does not have an equivalent word in other languages but my research suggests that the phenomenon does exist in other cultures as well and that it can equally promote relationships. Our research challenges stereotypical views associated with interdependence and independence and seek to gain a deeper understanding of the goals we pursue for the self in East Asian and North American cultures.
NEWS
| 2024/11/21 The end of the year presentations of graduating students will be on Saturday, January 25th in the afternoon. Eight students will (hopefully) graduate this year. We hope the alumni can join us too! |
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| 2024/11/19 I will present a poster at SPSP in Denver next year. Meet you there! |
| 2024/10/13 I will be organizing a roundtable at the APS Global Psychological Summit with Dr. Keiko Ishii from Nagoya University. I look forward to an active exchange of ideas. |
| 2024/10/07 Please visit the Self and Culture Seminar--the open seminars are scheduled on 10/7 and 10/14 |
| 2024/09/19 It is a shame the poster session for the Japanese Association for Social Psychology got cancelled due to the typhoon! I hope we can still have some fruitful through the online discussion. |
| 2024/06/21 Dr. Miyagawa and I validated the Compassion Scale in Japan. Please check out the paper, which is now available online from Mindfulness. |
| 2024/06/17 I was fortunate to be interviewed by PHABRIQ MEDIA to share my views on helping others. The interview is in Japanese only. Check out the interview |
| 2024/04/14 We happily welcomed 8 new students to the lab. Let's make this another fruitful year! |