1. Is Longing Only for Germans? A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Sehnsucht in Germany and the United States
- Author
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Fredda Blanchard-Fields, Susanne Scheibe, Alexandra M. Freund, Maja Wiest, Social Psychology, University of Zurich, and Scheibe, S
- Subjects
Male ,Culture of the United States ,Emotions ,3317 Demography ,Personal life ,Personal Satisfaction ,GOALS ,Developmental psychology ,German ,Germany ,Adaptation, Psychological ,Developmental and Educational Psychology ,Everyday life ,PERSPECTIVE ,media_common ,Aged, 80 and over ,REGRETS ,10093 Institute of Psychology ,cross-cultural comparison ,life longings ,Middle Aged ,SELF ,personal utopia ,language ,Female ,HEALTH ,Psychology ,Social psychology ,Attitude to Health ,Adult ,Adolescent ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Young Adult ,Utopias ,DEVELOPMENTAL-PSYCHOLOGY ,EMOTION ,Humans ,Life-span and Life-course Studies ,Demography ,Aged ,HAPPINESS ,3204 Developmental and Educational Psychology ,DECLINE ,Life satisfaction ,Cross-cultural studies ,language.human_language ,Self Concept ,United States ,Sehnsucht ,3319 Life-span and Life-course Studies ,Well-being ,Happiness ,150 Psychology - Abstract
Sehnsucht, the longing or yearning for ideal yet seemingly unreachable states of life, is a salient topic in German culture and has proven useful for understanding self-regulation across adulthood in a German sample (e.g., Scheibe, Freund, & Baltes, 2007). The current study tested whether findings for German samples could be generalized to the more individualistic and agentic U.S. American culture. Four samples of U.S. American and German participants (total N = 1,276) age 18 to 81 years reported and rated their 2 most important life longings and completed measures of subjective well-being and health. Measurement equivalence was established at the level of factor loadings for central life longing characteristics. German and U.S. American participants did not differ in self-reported ease of identifying personal life longings or their intensity. In comparison to Germans, however, U.S. Americans associated life longings less with utopian, unattainable states and reported less salience of the concept in everyday life. Associations with measures of adaptation suggest that life longings can be both functional and dysfunctional for development in both cultures.
- Published
- 2011