Differences in Worldviews of Japanese and Americans in Young, Middle-Aged, and Older Cohorts

Abstract

In this study, the worldviews of 127 young, middle-aged, and older Japanese adults were compared with those of 121 young, middle-aged, and older American adults. As expected, the worldviews of Japanese adults were significantly more organismic than those of American adults. Contrary to expectation, older adults in both cultures were significantly more mechanistic in their worldviews than middle-aged and young adults. Results were discussed in terms of differences between cultures and cohorts.