ArticleFrontiers in psychology2025
A study of the effects of situational strength on self-efficacy and happiness: comparing individualist and collectivist cultures.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Agentic Loafing: An AI Decision Delegation Risk.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2026Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
When individual values, attitudes, and behaviors do not align with dominant cultural expectations, organizational societies often employ situational strength to promote behavioral conformity. While this may enhance organizational efficiency by minimizing variability in individual performance, it can also suppress self-expression and elevate stress-particularly for individuals in collectivist cultures who face stronger normative control. Notably, countries such as South Korea and Japan report lower average levels of happiness compared to Germany and Finland, despite comparable levels of economic development. This study investigates the psychological mechanisms underlying this disparity by examining the role of situational strength within cultural contexts. Using survey data from 608 participants across South Korea, Japan, Finland, and Germany, this study explores how perceptions of situational strength influence self-efficacy and happiness across different cultural orientations. The results indicate that situational strength significantly reduces both self-efficacy and happiness, with particularly strong effects in collectivist societies. Moreover, self-efficacy partially mediates the relationship between situational stress and happiness, highlighting its critical psychological function. Individuals in collectivist cultures experience higher levels of situational strength due to greater societal and organizational pressure to conform, whereas those in individualist cultures report higher autonomy, reduced stress, and greater psychological well-being. These findings advance situational strength theory by demonstrating that its effects on psychological outcomes are not culturally neutral. Rather, they are shaped by sociocultural environments that modulate the experience of conformity pressure. This study contributes to cross-cultural psychology by clarifying how cultural values and institutional norms interact to influence emotional and motivational outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.