Chapter 8 Culture and Emotion © 2013 Cengage Learning

Outline The Evolution of Human Emotion Emotions as Evolved, Information Processing Systems Different Categories of Emotion The Cultural Calibration of Emotions The Biological Bases of Emotion – Basic Emotions The Original Universality Studies Research on Facial Expressions of Emotion After the Original Universality Studies

Outline (cont’d.) The Biological Bases of Emotion – Basic Emotions (cont’d.) Other Sources of Evidence for the Universality of Basic Emotions and Their Possible Biological Bases Summary Cultural Regulation of the Basic Emotion System Front-end Calibration of the Basic Emotion System: Cultural Differences in Emotion Antecedents and Appraisals Back-End Calibration of the Basic Emotion System: Cultural Display Rules

Outline (cont’d.) Cultural Regulation of the Basic Emotion System (cont’d.) Cultural Calibration of Emotion Judgments The Cultural Construction of Emotional Experience The Cultural Construction of Concepts, Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs About Emotion Concepts of Emotion Categories of Emotion The Location of Emotion

Outline (cont’d.) The Cultural Construction of Concepts, Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs About Emotion (cont’d.) Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs About Emotion Summary Conclusion

The Evolution of Human Emotion

Emotions as Evolved, Information Processing Systems Emotions give meaning to events Feelings: subjective experience/affect; part of emotion Emotions: transient, neurophysiological reactions to events When emotions are triggered, they recruit coordinated system of components to prepare for dealing with event Emotion is a human universal

Different Categories of Emotion Basic emotions: triggered by biologically-innate system in our brains Self-conscious emotions: associated with self-reflective processes Shame Guilt Pride Embarrassment

The Cultural Calibration of Emotions Culture provides necessary coordination and organization of social complexities Cultures create rules, guidelines, values, and norms concerning regulation of emotion Cultural regulation of emotion occurs via: Regulating our biologically-based basic emotions Helping to construct unique emotional experiences going beyond basic emotions Helping to construct unique concepts, meanings, attitudes, values, and beliefs about emotion

The Biological Bases of Emotion – Basic Emotions

The Original Universality Studies Darwin: facial expressions of emotion have both communicative and adaptive value Universality studies: Universal emotions identified: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise Judgments of expressions posed by preliterate tribes consistent with industrialized nations Spontaneous facial expressions of emotion consistent between Americans and Japanese

Source: Paul Ekman

Research on Facial Expressions of Emotion after the Original Universality Studies Universal signals found in babies: smiling, distaste, disgust, and crying Perfect correspondence between facial behaviors produced between blind and sighted individuals Morphological similarities between human expressions of emotion and nonhuman primate expressions displayed in similar contexts

Figure 8.5. Comparison of Blind and Sighted Athletes Who Just Lost a Match for a Medal. Photos Copyright Bob Willingham (Reprinted with Permission)

Other Sources of Evidence for the Universality of Basic Emotions and their Possible Biological Bases Universality in: Emotion recognition Physiological responses to emotion Subjective emotional experience Coherence among emotion response systems Emotion antecedents Emotion appraisal processes

Figure 8.6. The Seven Basic Emotions and their Universal Expressions Source: David Matsumoto, Ph.D.

Summary Emotions are universal psychological phenomenon based in evolution of species Innate emotions allow us to appraise events and situations in reliable and predictable ways Emotions trigger host of responses part of universal emotion package Recognition of emotions in others has important social meaning Universal processes allow us to adapt, respond, and cope with problems regardless of culture

Cultural Regulation of the Basic Emotion System

Cultural Regulation of the Basic Emotion System Cultures influence a core, biologically-based basic emotion system in order to regulate emotions and ensure social coordination Cultural calibration of innate emotion and expression system allows for regulation of culturally-appropriate emotional responses Allows for culturally-appropriate behavioral responding, social coordination, prevention of social chaos

Front-End Calibration of the Basic Emotion System: Cultural Differences in Emotion Antecedents and Appraisals Cultural differences exist in relative frequencies of various antecedent events to bring about an emotion Many appraisal processes appear to be universal Cultures influence what events their members become emotional about in first place, and how to interpret those events

Back-End Calibration of the Basic Emotion System: Cultural Display Rules Cultural display rules: govern how universal emotions can be expressed Display rules can modify expressions: Express less than actually felt (deamplification) Express more than actually felt (amplification) Show nothing (neutralization) Show emotion but with another emotion to comment on it (qualification) Mask or conceal feelings (masking) Show emotion when not felt (simulation)

A Worldwide Mapping of Display Rules

Cultural Calibration of Emotion Judgments Cultures calibrate how individuals perceive emotions in others Decoding rules: culturally dependent rules learned early in life that govern how emotional expressions are recognized Cultural differences exist in inferences about emotional experiences underlying facial expressions of emotion

Cultural Calibration of Emotion Judgments

Cultural Calibration of Emotion Judgments Cultures calibrate how individuals perceive emotions in others Individualistic cultures associated with higher recognition rates for certain facial expressions Emotion recognition rates are influenced by culturally learned decoding rules Cultural differences in inferences of emotional experiences underlying facial expressions Ingroup advantage: ability to recognize emotions of those with same culture better than others

The Cultural Construction of Emotional Experience

The Cultural Construction of Emotional Experience Cultures construct and mold emotional experiences in different ways Socially engaging emotions: friendliness, respect, sympathy, guilt and shame Socially disengaging emotions: pride, self-esteem, sulkiness, or frustration Emotional complexity: co-occurrence of both pleasant and unpleasant emotions Cultural differences linked to dialectical thinking

The Cultural Construction of Concepts, Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs about Emotion

Concepts of Emotion How American society values and structures people's feelings and emotions is directly related to values fostered by American culture The way American culture understands and defines emotion may not be same in other cultures Not all cultures have a word for emotion

Categories of Emotion Hypercognize emotions: variations of emotions are identified and words created for these variations Hypocognize emotions: relatively fewer variations of emotions exist Types of words cultures use to identify and label emotion Gives clues about the way different cultures structure and mold emotional experiences of their people

The Location of Emotion Different cultures locate emotions in different places Americans: heart Japanese: hara — gut or abdomen Chewong: liver Tahitians: intestines Ifaluk: "our insides" Emotions are understood differently and have different meanings for different peoples

Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs about Emotion Cultures facilitate different values about emotion Cultural values about emotion are about how people want to feel (ideal affect), different than how people actually feel (actual affect) Temperament and personality traits, not cultural values, predict actual affect better than cultural values Cultural values predict ideal affect better Cultures facilitate construction of beliefs about emotions

Summary Many of culturally-constructed emotions are emotions other than basic emotions More complex emotions may require more cognitive abilities than do basic emotions Emotion-related processes that depend on those cognitive abilities are more heavily related to culture

Conclusion

Conclusion Emotions are universally expressed and recognized Emotions elicit expressive behavior, physiology, cognitions, and action potential in all cultures Cultures also exert profound influences on emotions Cultures regulate basic emotions by influencing relative frequencies, types of triggers, and dimensions Some universal emotions biology-based; others require higher-order cognitive processes