The purpose of this research is to quantitatively compare everyday situational experience around the world. Local collaborators recruited 5,447 members of college communities in 20 countries, who provided data via a Web site in 14 languages. Using the 89 items of the Riverside Situational Q‐sort (RSQ), participants described the situation they experienced the previous evening at 7:00 p.m. Correlations among the average situational profiles of each country ranged from r = .73 to r = .95; the typical situation was described as largely pleasant. Most similar were the United States/Canada; least similar were South Korea/Denmark. Japan had the most homogenous situational experience; South Korea, the least. The 15 RSQ items varying the most across countries described relatively negative aspects of situational experience; the 15 least varying items were more positive. Further analyses correlated RSQ items with national scores on six value dimensions, the Big Five traits, economic output, and population. Individualism, Neuroticism, Openness, and Gross Domestic Product yielded more significant correlations than expected by chance. Psychological research traditionally has paid more attention to the assessment of persons than of situations, a discrepancy that extends to cross‐cultural psychology. The present study demonstrates how cultures vary in situational experience in psychologically meaningful ways.

While the person-situation debate was largely based on a misunderstanding of the magnitude of the correlations that characterize relations between personality traits and behavior, it drew muchneeded attention to the importance of situations. However, few attempts have been made to understand the important elements of situations in relation to behavior. Current work developing the Riverside Situational Q-sort (RSQ) aims to provide a useful way to conceptualize and measure the behaviorally important attributes of situations. A current project is applying this method cross-culturally. New data from the US and Japan show that behavioral correlates of two elements of the situation -the presence of a member of the opposite sex and the experience of being criticized by others -have largely similar behavioral correlates between genders and across cultures. These analyses illustrate how the RSQ illuminates the connections between situations and behavior. Future research will extend such analyses to more situational attributes and other cultures around the world. Keywords: personality, situations, behaviors, cross-cultural research PERSONS AND SITUATIONS 3The Person-situation Debate and the Assessment of Situations Personality traits determine behavior, but what people do also depends critically on the situation. The relative importance of these two influences has long been a contentious issue in personality psychology (Kenrick & Funder, 1988). The first purpose of the present article will be to briefly survey the current state of this debate. Ironically, despite the frequent claims about the importance of situations -especially in comparison to the importance of personality -very little progress has been made over the years in identifying and assessing the specific aspects of situations that make them psychologically important. Therefore, the second part of this article will describe a new research program aiming to improve the conceptualization and psychological assessment of situations, presenting current work considering how the effects of situations on behaviors might be the same or different across diverse cultures around the world. The Person-Situation DebateThe "person-situation debate" was long and complex, and we will not attempt to review all of its history here. Instead, we simply point to one its landmarks, which was the publication of Mischel's (1968) volume Personality and Assessment including the following passage: "…the phrase 'personality coefficient' might be coined to describe the correlation between .20 and .30… when virtually any personality dimension inferred from a questionnaire is related to almost any… external criterion" (Mischel, 1968, p. 78). PERSONS AND SITUATIONS 4This viewpoint became known as the "situationist" position (Bowers, 1973). A fellowadherent to this position, Richard Nisbett, later raised the putative limit for the predictive power of personality to about r = .40 (Nisbett, 1980, p. 124). The claim of such a limit to the predictive power of personality immediately raises ...

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Abstract. Background: The sociocultural context shapes attitudes toward suicide. Japanese literary works such as the Hagakure and the Bunraku Sonezaki-Shinju depict suicide as beautiful and honorable. Although suicide acceptance is likely to affect suicide rates and prevention efforts in Japan, studies in this area are limited. Aims: This study aimed to explore suicide acceptance and related factors among Japanese participants. Method: Using an Internet research company, questionnaires were distributed that measured acceptance of suicide, suicide stigma, mental health, an opinion on suicide prevention efforts, and demographic variables. Data from 2,051 participants were analyzed using t tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and hierarchical regression analysis. Results: We found a two-factor model (comprising beautification and justification factors) for the suicide acceptance scale and confirmed the scale's validity and reliability. The results showed significant differences in suicide acceptance by gender, age, educational level, employment status, and bereavement experience. A hierarchical regression analysis model revealed that suicide beautification was negatively related to positive opinion on suicide prevention efforts. Limitations: This study only focused on Japanese participants; therefore, further studies and cross-cultural comparisons are needed. Conclusion: The results revealed that suicide beautification was negatively associated with positive opinion on suicide prevention efforts after controlling for other variables.

While a large body of research has investigated cultural differences in behavior, this typical study assesses a single behavioral outcome, in a single context, compared across two countries. The current study compared a broad array of behaviors across 21 countries ( N = 5,522). Participants described their behavior at 7:00 p.m. the previous evening using the 68 items of the Riverside Behavioral Q-sort (RBQ). Correlations between average patterns of behavior in each country ranged from r = .69 to r = .97 and, in general, described a positive and relaxed activity. The most similar patterns were United States/Canada and least similar were Japan/United Arab Emirates (UAE). Similarities in behavior within countries were largest in Spain and smallest in the UAE. Further analyses correlated average RBQ item placements in each country with, among others, country-level value dimensions, personality traits, self-esteem levels, economic output, and population. Extroversion, openness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, self-esteem, happiness, and tolerant attitudes yielded more significant correlations than expected by chance.