Cross-Cultural Variations in the Phenomenological Experience of Depression

Abstract

Cross-cultural variations in the subjective experience of depression among normal college populations of Japanese-Nationals, Japanese-Americans, and Caucasian-Americans were investigated by examining word associations to the equivalent words of depression and yuutsu. The results indicated that Japanese-Nationals associated more external referent terms, such as "rain" and "cloud," and somatic referent terms, such as "headache" and "fatigue," to the word yuutsu. In contrast, both Japanese-Americans and Caucasian-Americans associated predominantly internal mood state terms, such as "sad" and "lonely," to the word depression. These differences are attributed to variations in the self-structure which mediates the subjective experience of depression in the different cultures. Japanese self-structure was considered to be essentially "unindividuated," while American self-structure was considered to be essentially "individuated."