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The authors propose that cross-cultural differences in sensitivity to social rejection, or the extent to which one is alert to potential rejection from significant others, can be understood as an adaptation to different social ecological contexts varying in the degrees of relational mobility. In societies low in relational mobility, such as East Asia, relationships and group memberships are stable and exclusive, and thus it is difficult for individuals to recover once rejected from current relationships or groups. In these contexts, one would expect people to be continuously paying attention to negative feedback from others to avoid potential rejection. In contrast, this type of anxiety will be less pronounced in societies high in relational mobility, such as North America, because there are a greater number of relationship alternatives available, even if individuals were to be excluded from a particular relationship. Results from two cross-national studies showed that, as expected, individuals’ perceptions of relational mobility partially mediated rejection sensitivity (Study 1) and Taijin Kyofusho, an allocentric subtype of social anxiety (Study 2).

Previous cultural psychological studies suggest that East Asians tend to think more holistically than Westerners and that these cultural differences in cognition are accounted for, in part, by psychological processes associated with a predominant social orientation of the self as independent in the West and as interdependent in the East. In addition to examining these self-construal variables as predictors of holistic cognition, the current study also examined the role that a self-focused manifestation of social anxiety ( social phobia tendencies) common in the United States and the role that an other-focused manifestation of social anxiety ( taijin kyofusho, or TKS tendencies) common in Japan play in holistic cognition. Samples of 142 Japanese and 125 Americans completed an instrument that measures degree of skill in holistic cognition and then completed measures of self-construal, social phobia, and TKS. The current study found that, in unpackaging cultural differences in holistic cognition, social phobia tendencies, given their self-focused nature, were associated with decreased levels of holistic cognition while TKS tendencies, given their other-focused nature, were associated with increased levels of holistic cognition. Thus, holistic cognition served as an important basic cognitive feature which distinguishes between the two culturally divergent versions of social anxiety. Furthermore, independent self-construal was found to be more strongly associated with the self-focused component of social anxiety while interdependent self-construal was only associated with the other-focused component of social anxiety.

Research suggests that Asians consistently score higher than European Americans on measures of emotional distress. Extending previous research, the current study found that self-report measures of depression, social avoidance and distress, and fear of negative evaluation were positively related to a self-report measure of interdependent self-construal, negatively related to a self-report measure of independent self-construal, or both. Furthermore, distress measures varied inversely with relative self-enhancement, an indigenous constituent of the independent self but not of the interdependent self. Results suggest that certain commonly used measures of depression and social anxiety may tend to equate the moderately self-enhancing goals of an independent self with mental health, whereas responses reflecting culturally prescribed goals of an interdependent self may be seen as indicating emotional distress. The cultural appropriateness of standardized measures of emotional distress when applied to Asians was raised as a concern.