Cultural Influences on Heart Rate Variability as an Indicator of Emotion. Regulation Abilities Among Turkish and Iranian Adults

This thesis investigates the influence of cultural norms on interoception, heart rate variability (HRV), and emotion regulation. The study hypothesized that interoceptive accuracy, bodily awareness, and HRV would correlate positively with emotion regulation abilities and that these relationships would differ across cultural contexts. A mixed-methods approach was employed, integrating physiological measures of HRV with self-reported survey assessing bodily awareness. While self-reported data indicated that Turkish participants demonstrated higher bodily awareness compared to Iranian participants, no significant differences were found in physiological measures of HRV between the two groups. This highlights the nuanced ways in which cultural norms may influence subjective versus physiological aspects of interoception. Moreover, the study addresses a broader gap in the literature on cross-cultural emotion regulation, particularly in the context of non-Western populations. Findings underscore the necessity of integrating cultural perspectives into studies on emotion regulation to account for the variability in regulatory strategies influenced by cultural norms and practices. This research contributes to expanding the understanding of how culture shapes the interplay between physiological and psychological regulation processes. The findings emphasize the importance of exploring how cultural norms shape emotion regulation and interoceptive processes, contributing to the advancement of cross-cultural psychological research and informing culturally sensitive intervention strategies.