TY - JOUR
T1 - Causal Attribution and Emotion Expression of Suffering Among Southeast Asian Indigenous Peoples
T2 - A Systematic Review Study
AU - Thong, Justine Jian Ai
AU - Ting, Rachel Sing Kiat
AU - Teoh, Siew Li
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors received funding support from GA-21 platform (Monash Malaysia) and FRGS #GOV000160 (Ministry of Education Malaysia) for the research of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - Indigenous people, particularly minorities in Southeast Asia (SEA), often face hardships due to colonization, displacement, and deforestation. However, studies on their subjective suffering experiences are sparse. Therefore, the present study aimed to conduct a systemic review of literature concerning SEA indigenous people’s cognition and emotion in suffering events. A rigorous literature search following PRISMA guidelines was conducted on the following databases–Scopus, EbscoHost, Ovid (PsychArticles and PsycInfo), Proquest. Embase, Ovid Medline, and Google Scholar using keyword categories for “SEA,” “cognition” or “emotion,” and “suffering events.” The initial search resulted in 6,383 articles, but only 11 empirical studies (containing qualitative or quantitative original data) were included after careful screening. Next, a thematic synthesis method was used to summarize the findings. Two themes of causal attribution of suffering were identified—supernatural reasons and negative impact of interactions with outsiders. Four themes of emotional expression of suffering were identified—physical actions and gestures, communal practices, somatic symptoms, and behavior adaptations. Our findings correspond with the ecological rationality theory, where indigenous people still function as strong-ties societies that capitalize on external-oriented mental strategies and cognitive styles. The identification of unique forms of cognition and modes of emotional expression holds implications toward building an equitable humanistic psychology.
AB - Indigenous people, particularly minorities in Southeast Asia (SEA), often face hardships due to colonization, displacement, and deforestation. However, studies on their subjective suffering experiences are sparse. Therefore, the present study aimed to conduct a systemic review of literature concerning SEA indigenous people’s cognition and emotion in suffering events. A rigorous literature search following PRISMA guidelines was conducted on the following databases–Scopus, EbscoHost, Ovid (PsychArticles and PsycInfo), Proquest. Embase, Ovid Medline, and Google Scholar using keyword categories for “SEA,” “cognition” or “emotion,” and “suffering events.” The initial search resulted in 6,383 articles, but only 11 empirical studies (containing qualitative or quantitative original data) were included after careful screening. Next, a thematic synthesis method was used to summarize the findings. Two themes of causal attribution of suffering were identified—supernatural reasons and negative impact of interactions with outsiders. Four themes of emotional expression of suffering were identified—physical actions and gestures, communal practices, somatic symptoms, and behavior adaptations. Our findings correspond with the ecological rationality theory, where indigenous people still function as strong-ties societies that capitalize on external-oriented mental strategies and cognitive styles. The identification of unique forms of cognition and modes of emotional expression holds implications toward building an equitable humanistic psychology.
KW - beliefs
KW - emotional expression
KW - indigenous
KW - Southeast Asia
KW - suffering
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112596529&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/00221678211036333
DO - 10.1177/00221678211036333
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85112596529
SN - 0022-1678
JO - Journal of Humanistic Psychology
JF - Journal of Humanistic Psychology
ER -