The World at 7:00: Comparing the Experience of Situations Across 20 Countries

Abstract

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.

Situation Change: Stability and Change of Situation Variables between and within Persons

“…As for the commonalities, the situations of both participants could be characterized, on average, as more social and positive than deceptive, adverse, and negative. This is consistent with other research finding that the typical situation, even across different countries, is mildly positive and social (Guillaume et al, 2015 ). However, there were also differences between both participants.…”

Principles of Situation Research: Towards a Better Understanding of Psychological Situations

“…186/187; Edwards & Templeton, , p. 706; Rauthmann et al, ). To date, there is only one standardized and validated instrument to measure a broad range of characteristics, the Riverside Situational Q‐sort (RSQ: Wagerman & Funder, ; see Guillaume‐Hanes & International Situations Project Group, in press; Morse, Neel, Todd, & Funder, in press; Morse, Sauerberger, Todd, & Funder, in press; Sherman et al, , , ), which enables comparing situations on many characteristics.…”

“…in longitudinal burst designs; Ram et al, 2014); and (v) across relevant groups (e.g. cultures, nations) to examine group‐level differences in and moderators of situation experiences and their effects on behaviour (Guillaume‐Hanes & International Situations Project Group, in press). Taken together, designs fulfilling at least two of the aforementioned attributes—real‐life, multi‐method, multi‐situation, multi‐time, multi‐group—are likely to yield valuable new insights into how persons form situations and situations form persons.…”

“…Buss, , ; Funder, ; Morse, Neel, et al, in press); (iii) cross‐cultural comparisons of situations (e.g. Funder, Guillaume, Kumagai, Kawamoto, & Sato, ; Guillaume‐Hanes & International Situations Project Group, in press); (iv) the ‘strength’ of a situation and its consequences for (variation in) behaviour (e.g. Cooper & Withey, ; Judge & Zapata, in press; Meyer & Dalal, ; Meyer et al, 2010); (v) inter‐individual and intra‐individual differences in situation perceptions (e.g.…”

Assessing the Similarity of Injunctive Norm Profiles Across Different Social Roles: The Effect of Closeness and Status in the United States and China

“…The Effect of Closeness and Status in the USA and P. R. China Despite the prima facia importance of the effect of situations on behavior, psychology research on behavioral norms associated with specific situations is rare and in need of development (Funder, 2016;Pettigrew, 2018;Takano & Osaka, 2018). Psychologists have only recently begun made advances in how to define situations so as to create tractable research questions about their effects (Guillaume et al, 2016;McAuley, Bond, & Kashima, 2002;Rauthmann & Sherman, 2016). In particular, the effects of social role-one's relationship vis-àvis others in the situation-should be an important factor in determining behavior.…”