Thursday 23 July 08:15 - 09:45

Hall: 03 - Volta

Chair and Discussant: Castano Emanuele

Division: Division 1: Work and Organizational Psychology

As societies across East Asia confront demographic shifts, cultural evolution, and economic
pressures, new psychological challenges are emerging at the intersection of identity, social norms,
and well-being. This symposium brings together four presentations that explore how individuals
experience and negotiate these shifts—whether in the workplace or in the context of intergroup
and interpersonal relations. The first presentation addresses stress and work engagement among employees and business
owners in Japanese SMEs, set against the backdrop of a succession crisis that threatens economic
stability. The second presentation turns to gender norms in Japan, demonstrating how exposure to
counterstereotypic paternal roles can reduce implicit biases associating men with work and women
with home—highlighting the power of psychological interventions in reshaping entrenched
beliefs. The third presentation delves into Korean lay theories of modesty, challenging the
Western notion of "modesty bias" and offering a culturally grounded understanding of modesty as
a behavior that enhances social connectedness and self-esteem. Finally, the fourth presentation
brings us back to Japan, and focuses on "kasuhara" (customer harassment) in Japan, examining its
psychological impact on employees and introducing a novel scale to assess customer-related social
stress.
Together, these contributions highlight how cultural narratives, implicit beliefs, and systemic
structures shape psychological experiences across both professional and personal domains. By
examining stress, identity, and interpersonal dynamics in contextually rich settings, the
symposium advances our understanding of applied psychology in the East Asian cultural context.