CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 36Mindfulness and Compassion InterventionsRacial and Ethnic Identity ResearchReligion, Spirituality, and Psychology

Acceptance-based coping and the psychological adjustment of asian and caucasian Americans

Open access
Cook, Dosheen, Hayes, Steven C.·2010·International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy
DOI 10.1037/h0100907
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Coping with unwanted psychological experiences is important to mental health. Adjustment strategies can be control-focused or acceptance-based (Hayes, 2004). Control-focused coping involves direct manipulation of private stimuli such as unwanted thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations; an acceptance-based approach involves the deliberate taking in or actively contacting psychological experiences without needless defense. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that acceptance-based coping is predictive of more positive outcomes across a broad array of human problems (e.g., Hayes, Luoma, Bond, Masuda, & Lillis, 2006; Hayes, Strosahl, et al., 2004). There is a need for culturally relevant information on these strategies, and Asian Americans are a particularly important group to study for two reasons. First, studies repeatedly have shown that Asian Americans are at risk for developing mental health problems (Abe & Zane, 1990; Hurh & Kim, 1990) and yet tend to underutilize mental health services (e.g., Sue, Fujino, Hu, Takeuchi, & Zane, 1991). The lack of culturally-responsive care is generally pointed to as a possible source of such findings (Sue & Sue, 1990), but to be more specific about this idea it is necessary to understand some of the specific factors that might influence the therapeutic process in different cultural groups. Secondly, the distinction between these control and acceptance strategies relates to two strong Asian cultural and religious traditions. Some have argued that Asian Americans, influenced by Buddhism and Taoism, tend to employ more acceptance-based strategies (Ho, 1984), while others have pointed to the role of Confucian philosophy and argued that Asian Americans try to control their psychological events through personal will power and discipline (Sue & Sue, 1990). The ultimate goal in Buddhism is self-liberation, and the practice of mindfulness and self-surrendering is a pathway to this goal (Snelling, 1943). Mindfulness entails contacting experiences without attachment or judgment (Snelling, 1943). Tao philosophy likewise embraces acceptance in its emphasis of equilibrium of elements in the universe. All emotions such as joy, fright, anger, grief, pensiveness, melancholia, and apprehension are viewed as complimentary: one emotion cannot exist without the other (Rhee, 1980). Conversely, the most salient value in Confucianism is harmony in relationships; the interest of the group often takes precedence over the interest of the individual (Caplan, Whitmore, & Choy, 1989). Behaviors such as self-control, self-discipline, suppression of both negative and positive emotions (Caplan et al., 1989), and being conciliatory and receptive (Tung, 1985) are valued as a result. Asians have been argued to be more likely to believe that avoidance of unpleasant thoughts prevents them from having inappropriate emotions, and that the unwanted cognition can be controlled by the exercise of willpower and one's determination (Huang, 1991). This style of adjustment seems very different than the tradition of mindfulness and self-surrender in Buddhism. Empirical studies of these factors in Asian American populations are limited and suffer from a lack of conceptual clarity in key areas. A number of crosscultural studies have found that Japanese Americans were less expressive in their emotion when compared to Caucasian counterparts (Hsu, Tseng, Ashton, McDermott, & Char, 1985; McDermott et al., 1984; Morris, 1990), but this may be more a matter of the control of the social display of emotions than felt emotion (Ekman, Friesen, & Ellsworth, 1972). Hwang (1979) found that traditional Chinese men in Taiwan who used more acceptance coping in dealing with crowded conditions were found to exhibit fewer psychosomatic symptoms compared to men who used coping strategies such as assertiveness. Another study (Grover & Fry, 1982) found that Asian elders who endorsed more acceptance-based coping styles tended to be more depressed, but a closer look shows that the concept of acceptance tested was closer to resignation. …

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1037/h0100907

Cites

29 of 29 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Cook, D., & Hayes, S. C.
ORCID
Hayes, Steven C.
Venue
International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2010
Volume
6
Issue
3
Pages
186-197
ISSN
1555-7855 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1037/h0100907
OpenAlex
W1993502268
Cited by
36
References
29
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 4
FWCI
1.76
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy (publishedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
  • Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
Keywords
psychological adjustment, Asian Americans, White Americans, cultural differences in coping, mindfulness, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, cultural values, mental health service utilization, culturally responsive care, emotion regulation, acceptance and commitment therapy, acculturation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review