JAPANESE REACTIONS TO REWARD AND PUNISHMENT - A CROSS-CULTURAL PERSONALITY STUDY

The Gray-Wilson Personality Questionnaire (GWPQ) was administered in t ranslation to 597 Japanese college students. The sex differences previ ously found with a British sample were replicated as well as two other s; males were higher on Fight and Approach, while females were more di sposed towards Flight and Active Avoidance. Intercorrelations among GW PQ scores confirmed British findings in suggesting two major systems u nderlying reactions to signals of reward and punishment, Inhibition (r epresented by Passive Avoidance, Flight, Extinction and Active Avoidan ce) and Activation (incorporating Approach and Fight). The factor stru cture found in Britain was only partly replicated in the Japanese samp le, the most striking difference being the powerful appearance of resp onse sets in the Japanese data. The implications for cross-cultural qu estionnaire construction are discussed.