NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) for FY 2013 in Japan

Bowen Kimberly S, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds Kimberly Suzanne Bowen of the University of Utah to conduct a research project in the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences area during the summer of 2013 at Kyoto University Kokoro Research Center in Kyoto, Japan. The project title is "Social Support and Health: Examining Cultural Pathways of Belonging Social Support and Giving Social Support to Mental and Physical Well-Being." The host scientist is Yukiko Uchida, Ph.D. The Intellectual Merit of the research project includes examining individual and cultural similarities and differences in the psychological pathways linking interpersonal social support to individual well-being. It compares the effectiveness of different types of social support in increasing or reducing well-being as a function of affirming or threatening culturally-relevant self-concepts, such as the self as efficacious, independent, and accomplished (in independent cultures) or the self as socially connected and harmonious (in interdependent cultures). It also examines whether findings in the United States that giving and receiving support similarly affect well-being are replicable in other cultural settings. To address this, participants from the United States and Japan are completing daily measures of social support, self-esteem, social connectedness, mental well-being, and physical health over three weeks of daily life. Additionally, greater understanding of these cultural processes have implications for improved intervention design in international disaster relief and educational diversity. Broader impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. It meets the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce. Findings will be disseminated through guest presentations at both Japanese and American universities, poster presentations at conferences, as well as teaching guest lectures in undergraduate courses on cultural psychology and social support.