In recent cultural psychology research, there has been an increased emphasis on culturally specific emotions. Wequ, a common emotional experience in the daily lives of Chinese people, is considered to be culturally specific. In Chinese culture, relational harmony and endurance are highly valued virtues. Consequently, individuals often choose to endure interpersonal conflicts, rather than express themselves straightforward. This tendency creates a cultural context conducive to the emergence of weiqu. Although weiqu has received increasing attention in Chinese counseling practice in recent years, empirical studies on its psychological underpinnings are still in the early stages. A comprehensive and empirically derived definition of weiqu is lacking, leading to difficulties in operationalizing and measuring this emotion. In the present research, we aimed to conduct a prototype analysis to explore the lay conception on weiqu. Prototype analysis has been proposed as a bottom-up approach that has been widely used to conceptualize emotion-related constructs (e.g., nostalgia, disillusionment, hope). It enables us to investigate the lay conception of weiqu by having laypeople generate features of weiqu and then assessing the centrality of each feature.
In Study 1 (N = 340), Chinese participants (170 college students and 170 participants recruited through an online platform called Credamo) were instructed to list as many characteristics that could describe weiqu as they could think of in an open-ended response format. Two coders then grouped these characteristics into higher-order exemplars. These exemplars were further categorized into a list of 34 distinct prototypical features of weiqu. Following the standard procedure of prototype analysis, Study 2 (N = 150) aimed to quantify the centrality of these prototypical features. Participants rated how closely each feature was related to weiqu. Ratings for each feature were averaged across participants, and the features were then rank-ordered accordingly, yielding 17 central features (e.g., being wronged, being misunderstood, speechlessness, unfairness) and 17 peripheral features (e.g., disheartened, repression, venting, disappointment).
Studies 3 and 4 tested the ecological validity, criterion validity, and discriminant validity of the prototype of weiqu. In Study 3 (N = 100), participants read nine short vignettes, each describing one target character’s autobiographical event that happened in the workplace. Specifically, three vignettes depicted events that were embedded with only central features, three highlighted peripheral features, and the rest include no prototypical features of weiqu. In addition, we randomized the gender of the characters across participants to control for any effect it might have. Participants rated the extent to which they thought the characters felt the emotion of weiqu. Results showed that even when the word weiqu was never used, target characters were perceived as having a stronger feeling of weiqu when vignettes were embedded with prototypical features (vs. no features). More importantly, participants rated target characters in vignettes embedded with central features, compared to peripheral features, to experience higher level of weiqu. No effect of the target character’s gender was found. Study 4 (N = 180) extended the ecological validity of the prototypic structure of weiqu in a more naturalistic context. Participants were first instructed to recall target emotional events (weiqu vs. anger vs. control) and then to rate how well each of the prototypical features relate to the events. Results indicated that participants’ own experiences of weiqu (vs. anger/ordinary events) were better characterized by central (vs. peripheral) features. Participants rated significantly higher levels of central features for weiqu recalls compared to anger and control events. Peripheral features were also scored higher in the weiqu condition compared to the control condition, while there were no differences in the ratings of peripheral features between weiqu and anger conditions.
In conclusion, four studies were conducted to identify the prototypic structure of the emotion of weiqu. Based on our findings, we present an evidence-based definition of weiqu as a negative emotion induced by unfair and undeserving events in which one lack in power and have no choice but to endure. Our research takes an important step into the scientific conceptualization of weiqu. Meanwhile, future research could benefit from scrutinizing the prototype of weiqu, which would provide initial insights into its consequences and associations with other related constructs.
Key words
weiqu /
prototype analysis /
emotion /
indigenous psychology /
culture
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