• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.171-197
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• 2023

The traditional Korean society has been classified as an Eastern collectivist culture, but in the flow of globalization and digitalization along with the post-Cold War era of the 1970s, Western individualistic culture and values quickly permeated the Korean younger generation. Since rapid changes occurred within a short period of time, there may be differences in cultural self-construal between generations living in the same era. Due to this, psychological problems related to emotional expression and suppression may appear differently depending on generations. Therefore, in the current study, 1,000 Korean adult men and women from their 20s to 60s were investigated for their level of independent and interdependent self-construal, alexithymia, ambivalence over emotional expression(AEE) and emotional suppression(ES). Then the relationship between the variables(self-construal and alexithymia,) and the mediating process of AEE and ES were examined. The generation of participants were divided into the industrialization cohort (birth year < 1970) and the digitalization cohort (birth year starting from 1970). Using the PROCESS macro(Hayes, 2022), we tested a serial mediation model of AEE and ES between the relative independent self-construal(RIS) and alexithymia. The results indicate that the level of alexithymia increases by the serial increase of AEE and ES when RIS decreases. Next, we examined a moderation effect of generatione on the mediation process of AEE and ES, and found that generation moderates the relationship between ES and alexithymia. That is, the effect of ES on alexithymia is significant for the digitalization cohort, while it is not significant for the industrialization cohort. The current results imply that emotion regulation strategies of Koreans have been differently developed according to prevailing cultural values in each generation, and that the negative influence of emotion suppression could be different according to the cultural background of each generation.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.131-157
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• 2017

Loving-kindness & compassion meditation (LCM) is one of the popular intervention on clinical setting to cultivate loving-kindness & compassion for self and other. Shame is known for unconscious and implicit emotion including negative self-concept. Some researchers suggest that people with high shame have difficulty in cultivating loving-kindness & compassion toward oneself because of shame including the negative self-critic. In this research, it is explored the influence of shame for the object of LCM. There are 2 experiments to find out the answer to this question. In experiment 1, participants (N = 108) are randomly assigned to two conditions. The one condition is loving-kindness meditation for self, and the other is loving-kindness meditation for positive others. Dislike and engagement from participants about loving-kindness meditation instruction are measured after meditation for 8 minutes. From the experiment 2, loving-kindness meditation is replaced with compassion meditation from the design of experiment 1. This experiment is conducted because of psychological differences between loving-kindness and compassion. Participants (N = 116) are randomly assigned to two conditions, compassion meditation for self and positive others, respectively. The results of experiment 1 show that dislike of loving-kindness meditation for self seems to high when people have high shame, but shame does not have an influence on engagement. For loving-kindness meditation for positive others, shame seems to not affect on dislike and engagement about loving-kindness meditation instruction. The results of experiment 2 show that dislike is higher for self than for positive others about compassion meditation for people with high shame, but shame does not affect on engagement. For discussion, it is suggested that shame has special features of emotion. For the future, we discuss the therapeutic strategy for people with negative self-concept.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.183-214
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychological characteristics of affecting never married men and women through analyzing the content of in-depth interviews about the idea of marriage and the reason for never married choice. For achieving this purpose, the in-depth interview was conducted with 9 men and women aged mid-20s to late 30s who said to choose never married life for a long time, and then the content of interview was analyzed using consensual qualitative research. As a result of analyzing the content of in-depth interview, it was derived into 2 areas, 10 sub-areas, and 25 categories. The results of the study were as follows. Firstly, it was found that research participants negatively recognized the marriage and had unrealistic expectation rather than no expectation for marriage. Secondly, most of the research participants felt negative feelings about their parents' patriarchal role, and they did not want to live like their parents. They also reported that they did not see their marriage separated from their parents. Thirdly, most of the research participants felt difficulty in forming relationships with intimate person, and it became more difficult to have expectations about spouses and marriage due to repeated relationship conflict patterns. Fourthly, the research participants showed psychological aspect of experiential avoidance and seeking for individuality in terms of never married choice. Most of the research participants predicted the failure of married life, and reported that they were trying to prevent uncomfortable feelings and sufferings by choosing never married life. Also they reported that individuality considered more important than connection with others(togetherness) and individual value considered more important than collective value. Participants in this study showed negative evaluation or had negative influences on the marriage life of parents and acquaintances. This is more likely to be a passive factor in never married choice, so future research should examine the characteristics of active factors in never married choice.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.409-449
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• 2017

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the qualitative nature of Korean adolescents and their parent's perception of elderly parents care. In addition, this research exams the quantitative differences between the two generations in term of their elderly parents care self-efficacy and attitude towards caring for their elderly parents. Further, an examination of the parental influence upon their children's elderly parents care self-efficacy and attitude towards caring for their elderly parents. There were 2,460 participants in this study, with 820 adolescents, and 820 fathers and 820 mothers. The results of the study were as follows: First, in terms the participants perceptions of "the most difficult aspect of caring for elderly parents", the most representative response for adolescents was financial difficulties, while for parents differences in opinions. When it came to "the best aspect of caring for elderly parents" the most representative response for adolescents was harmonious family, while for parents good for children's upbringing. When it came to "actual acts (behavior) of elderly parents care" the most representative response for adolescents was living together with their elderly parents, while for parents looking after their elderly parents. When it came to "the best method of caring for their elderly parents" the most representative response for both adolescents and parents was providing a peace-of-mind for their elderly parents, followed by the second most frequent response of adolescents living together with their elderly parents, and for parents talking with their elderly parents. When it came to "how one feels when not caring for their elderly parents" the most representative response for both groups was a feeling of indebtedness. Second, for the quantitative analyses of the differences between the two generations, the parents showed a lower level of elderly parents care self-efficacy and a higher level of negative attitude towards caring for their elderly parents, when compared to the adolescents. Third, for the parental influence upon the adolescents' elderly parents care self-efficacy and attitude towards caring for their elderly parents, the only significant influence found was the mothers' elderly parents care self-efficacy.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.101-118
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• 2019

Alexithymia refers to a psychological deficit of identifying and describing one's feelings. It has benn reported that the level of alexithymia of East-Asians is generally higher than that of Western Europeans. Recently one research conducted in U.S. suggested that the interdependent self-construal from East-Asians' collectivism culture might be a cause of this cross-cultural difference. In the current study, we examined the relationship between the level of independent and interdependent self-construal of Korean college students and their level of alexithymia, as well as their ambivalence over emotional expressiveness and emotion suppression. The correlation analysis shows that the Korean students' alexithymia level does not correlate with their level of interdependent self-construal, but negatively correlates with their level of independent self-construal. Moreover, it is also correlated with the level of ambivalence over emotional expressiveness(AEE) and emotion suppression(ES). Thus, we setup a double-mediation model between the deficiency of independent self-construal and alexithymia via AEE and ES, and estimate mediation effects using Hayes and Preacher(2014)s' Process analysis. The results show that the deficiency of independent self-construal has a direct effect as well as indirect effects of AEE and ES on the alexithymia level. Further analysis on the indirect effects reveals that the mediation effect of AEE and the double mediation effect of ES via AEE are significant, but the mediation effect of ES is not significant. Current results imply that the interdependent self-construal from the traditional collectivistic culture may not cause Korean college students' problems on the emotional expression, but the relatively lower independent self-construal may cause them. The deficiency of independent self-constural may raise up the level of self-defensive ambivalence over emotional expressiveness and suppress emotional expression by themselves, which can result in alexithymia.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.343-364
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• 2011

This study investigated the objective and perceived level of economy and its relationship with mother's mental health, parenting behaviors, and problem behaviors in preschoolers. Data drawn from mothers and teachers of 238 preschoolers, ages 3-5, were used. Using the objective and perceived level of economy, subjects were classified into four groups. Individuals categorized as high by objective and perceived level of economy, low by objective and perceived level of economy, high by objective and low by perceived level of economy, and low by objective and high by perceived level of economy were categorized as in-agreement/high group, in-agreement/low group, over-estimator group, and under-estimator group, respectively. To investigate the difference between groups, one-way ANOVAs and post-hoc analyses were used. The results showed that in-agreement/low group and under-estimator group showed greater depression and anxiety than in-agreement/high group and over-estimator group. In addition, in-agreement/high group and over-estimator group showed greater affective parenting behaviors and lower aggressive parenting behaviors than in-agreement/low group and under-estimator group. In terms of internalizing problem behavior by mother, in-agreement/high group and over-estimator group were lower than under-estimator group. In terms of externalizing problem behavior by mother, in-agreement/high group was lower than under-estimator group. However, in terms of internalizing and externalizing problem behavior by teacher, there was no difference between groups. In externalizing problem behavior by teacher, in-agreement/low group was lower than over-estimator group.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.81-113
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• 2011

This study investigates leisure activity, involvement and self-concept in cyberspace of various age groups of adolescents. A total of 1,388 students (elementary school=337, middle school=326, high school=361, university=364, consisting of 696 male and 692 female) participated in the study. The results are as follows. First, although the vast majority of adolescents (96.9%) had a computer at home, majority of adolescents visited Internet cafe. Second, 70.3% of adolescents visited Internet cafe to play Internet games, followed by engaging in information search, chatting, and participated in cyber community. Third, on average adolescents spent 5.43 hours per week playing Internet games, with more males playing Internet games than female adolescents. As for information search, the weekly average was 2.60 hours, with university students spending more time than the other groups. As for chatting, the weekly average was 1.69 hours, with no significant differences among the groups. The weekly average of Internet use was 9.65 hours, with older groups spending more time. The weekly average use of computer was 10.91 hours, with older groups spending more time and more males using more computer than females. Fourth, as for self-concept in cyberspace, elementary and middle school students reported that they had fun, while high school and university students reported that they were the same as in the regular daily life. In addition, adolescents reported that they spent leisure activity in cyberspace and they become a fictional character in cyberspace. Fifth, when they played Internet games, regardless of age and gender, adolescents reported that they had fun, followed by that they were absorbed, that they became aggressive, and that they were the same as in the regular daily life. Sixth, when they chatted on Internet, regardless of age and gender, adolescents reported that they had fun, followed by that they were not interested, that they were the same as in the regular daily life, and that they do not chat on Internet. Seventh, when they interacted with their friends on Internet, regardless of age and gender, majority of adolescents reported that they had fun, followed by that they conversed, that they were the same as in the regular daily life, and that they felt closer. These results indicate that Korean adolescents view Internet as a place to spend their leisure time and that they enjoyed spending time on Internet.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.505-532
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among the growth period wounds, inferiority complex and personality disorder of teenaged students, which affected their mental health. The subjects in this study were 2,110 secondary students. After a survey was conducted, the collected data were analyzed. Whether there would be any differences among the adolescents in those factors were analyzed, and multiple regression analysis and path analysis were carried out. As a result, there were relatively more significant problems with the growth period wounds, inferiority complex, personality disorder and mental health of the students who were girls, who were high schoolers, whose household economy was more vulnerable and whose academic standing was lower. The growth period wound that exerted the largest significant influence on inferiority complex was happiness, followed by wound of security and wound of recognition, and the growth period wound that had the greatest significant impact on personality disorder was happiness, followed by wound of security, wound of confidence, wound of love and wound of equity. The growth period wound that exercised the biggest influence on mental health was happiness, followed by wound of security, wound of confidence, wound of love and wound of equity. As for the influence of the variables related to mental health, the indirect effects of the growth period wounds through personality disorder and inferiority complex were greater than their direct effects. The findings of the study suggest that growth period wounds are likely to lead to inferiority complex and personality disorder and ultimately to the injury of mental health, and indicate the importance of healthy family environments and of educational environments in the growth period.and mental health was analyzed, there was a statistically significant positive(+) correlation among all the variables. Third, the wound factors related to happiness and stability were identified as the factors that affected inferiority complex among the growth period wound factors. Personality disorder was found to be under the influence of the wound factors related to happiness, stability, love, confidence and a sense of equality in the growth period, and mental health was found to be affected by the wound factors related to happiness, stability, confidence, love and a sense of equality. Fourth, the growth period wounds had a direct impact on mental health, and inferiority complex played a significant mediating role at that time. Every subfactor of personality disorder also produced significant mediating effects except the wound factor of pride. The above-mentioned findings suggest that every possible effort should be made to let secondary students get hurt less to promote their mental health and resolve their mental health problems, and that professional counseling intervention and institutional assistance are required to help them to remove their inferiority complex and personality disorder.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.187-205
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• 2009

Based on the Motivational States Theory(MOST), the present research expanded and complemented Kim(2007)'s proposal to add the Life Satisfaction Expectancy Scale(LSES) to Diener et al's Satisfaction With Life Scale(SWLS) to measure subjective well-being(SWB). In the present study, the Life Satisfaction Motivation Scale(LSMS) was introduced to measure the strength of motivation for life satisfaction in general. Two hundred and eighty six college students participated in this study. Factor analyses revealed a two-factor structure, with the factors corresponding to life satisfaction and life satisfaction expectancy. Measures of internal and temporal reliability show the LSMS to be a good complement for the measure of SWB(The LSMS showed high internal and test-retest reliability). It was found that the addition of the LSES provided a significant increment in predictive power over the SWLS in the prediction of various factors related with well-being prediction. Exceptionally, in the prediction of anger the LSMS had the most predictive power. There were some differences between male and female students in the correlations among life satisfaction, life satisfaction expectancy and life satisfaction motivation and well-being-related factors. The merits of including LSES in the measurement of subjective well-being and the limitations of this study are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.385-422
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• 2010

This study examines adolescent delinquent behavior and the influence of friends, focusing specifically on friends' delinquent behavior and the influence of self-efficacy, parent-child conflict and parental control. A total of 1,399 adolescents attending five different high schools (male=642, female=756, consisting of 915 student attending high school and 484 students attending vocational high school) completed a questionnaire developed by Ahn, Hwang, Kim and Park (1997) and Bandura's (1995a) self-efficacy scale. Results indicate that those students who attend high school had parents with higher education, socio-economic status and better studying environment at home, while students attending vocational high school had higher parent-child conflict. Students attending high school had higher self-efficacy scores, while students attending vocational high school had higher scores on delinquent behavior. The results of LISREL analyses revealed a similar pattern for high school and vocational high school students. Combined analysis indicate that friends' delinquent behavior, parent-child conflict and parental control had direct and positive effect on students' delinquency behavior. Self-efficacy had a direct and negative influence of delinquency behavior. Similar pattern was obtained for friends' delinquency behavior, in which self-efficacy had a direct and negative influence of their delinquency behavior and their parent-child conflict and parental control had direct and positive effect on their delinquency behavior. In summary, those students who had lower self-efficacy, higher parent-child conflict and parental control, and with friends who are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior, had higher scores on delinquent behavior. Also, those students who had friends with lower self-efficacy scores and with higher parent-child conflict and parental control are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior, which in turn influenced their delinquent behavior. Friends' delinquent behavior had the greatest influence on students' delinquent behavior indicating the role of friends in influencing delinquency among adolescents.