1. [Instructor Name] [Class Section Number]
Culture and Emotion
This module describes findings from studies comparing North American (United States, Canada) and East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) aspects of emotional life. It can be taught in a single class period or less (20 – 30 min, excluding the optional mini-writing activity), with the unit as a whole taking 1-2 class periods.
Technical Note: These slides may contain simple click animation so that you can focus students’ attention on a particular question, a selection of text, or an image and not have them be distracted by reading ahead. You can either preview the sequence of animation by going through the slides in slideshow view, visiting the animations tab, or reviewing the slide notes. In the notes you will see a cue - (Click) – that corresponds to each animation.
You will also find hyperlinks to outside videos at various places in the slides. These hyperlinks are embedded in text and indicated by color and in the notes section.
[Instructor Name]
[Class Section Number]

2. Warm-up Activity Do you need to be human to have emotions?
Koko the gorilla and her kitten
This slide demonstrates the possibility that emotions are not isolated to humans, and is meant to get students thinking more deeply about the implications of emotional expression.
Discussion Question: Are humans the only species that experiences emotions?
Many students, especially those who are animal-lovers, will likely say no.
Explanation: There is no definitive answer to this question. In trying to make sense of the world, humans have a natural tendency to anthropomorphize our surroundings, seeing our own behavior in the animals around us. This not only complicates our relationship with the animal kingdom, but it muddies our understanding of actual animal behavior vs. what we perceive as emotionally-responsive animal behavior. However, studies of animal behavior consistently reveal new discoveries into how their “thinking” is often far more sophisticated than we have historically acknowledged.
(Click) Activity: Ask students to watch the following video clip and either participate in a discussion about what they’ve seen or write a brief response.
Click the “Koko the gorilla and her kitten” hyperlink in the slide to view a video demonstrating an example of apparent animal emotional responsiveness.
Example prompts:
Do you believe Koko is having a genuine emotional reaction to her situation, or does she just seem to be, according to what we know of human behavior?
One argument is that Koko’s sign language is simply an act of mimicking what she’s been trained, and that she doesn’t actually understand what she’s saying; would you defend or refute that argument, and why?

3. Overview What Are Emotions? Historical Background
Current Research and Theory
Importance of Similarities and Differences
Learning Appropriate Emotional Expression
This slide provides students with an overview of the material that will be covered during the lecture.

4. What Are Emotions?
Warm-Up Discussion Question: What are emotions? Here you can guide a discussion about emotions.
Common answers include: physiological sensations, internal feelings, basic instincts
Emotions are changes in subjective experience, physiological responding, and behavior in response to a meaningful event. Emotions tend to occur on the order of seconds (in contrast to moods which may last for days).

5. Are emotions the same across cultures?
What Are Emotions?
Are emotions the same across cultures?
This slide encourages students to consider the correlations of emotional expressions across cultures.
Discussion Question: Are emotions the same across cultures? Are emotions innate or cultural, or both? In other words, do people have the same emotional responses, automatically, all over the world, or might an isolated tribe in Indonesia have a different emotional lexicon than the residents of Paris?
This issue has been a subject of debate for many years, and continues to be an area of compelling discovery.

6. What Are Emotions? Emotion is shared and different. How different?
This slide orients students to the role of emotions and culture and the ways in which culture shapes emotional expression.
Discussion Topic: Facial expressions are a unique human mechanism for communicating emotional states. We often take certain expressions as universal, such as smiling to indicate benevolence (i.e., friendship, joy). But are such assumptions helpful or even accurate?
Explanation:
Agreement: Today, scholars generally agree that emotional expressions are universal to an extent, but that cultural influence also plays a part.
Disagreement: Scholars disagree about the extent to which culture shapes people’s emotions and feelings, including what people feel, what they express, and how they respond to emotional events.
(Click) Understanding how culture shapes people’s emotional lives and what impact emotion has on psychological health in different cultures promises not only advance the study of human behavior, but also to inform our perceptions of the dynamic multicultural society we live in.
Increasing importance - multicultural societies & inter-connected world

7. Overview What Are Emotions? Historical Background
Current Research and Theory
Importance of Similarities and Differences
Learning Appropriate Emotional Expression
This slide provides students with an overview of the material that will be covered during the lecture.

8. Historical Background
Universalists
All cultures share common primordial ancestor
Emotions are the same
Constructivists
Humans have adapted to different environments
Emotions evolved too
Cultural ideas and practices are all-encompassing
This slide presents the historical debate between universalists and social constructivists.
In the 1950s and 1960s social scientists tended to be either universalists or social constructivists.
Explanation:
Universalists believed:
(Click) Because emotions evolved in response to the environments of our primordial ancestors, emotions are the same across all human cultures;
(Click) Despite cultural differences in customs and traditions, at a fundamental level, all people feel similarly. This fits the common sense description by most people that emotions are “automatic,” “natural,” “physiological,” and “instinctual.”
Social constructivists believed:
(Click) Despite a common evolutionary heritage, humans evolved to adapt to their unique environments—adaptations that extended to emotions.
(Click) Emotions are malleable and culturally variable, reflective of cultural norms and ideals.
(Click) Moreover, because cultural ideas and practices are all-encompassing, people are often unaware of how their feelings are shaped by their cultures, causing emotions to seem automatic, natural, physiological, and instinctual, despite being primarily culturally shaped.

9. Historical Background
Studies by Paul Ekman (1970s)
Matching emotions
Some variability
Cultural causes –
“Display rules”
This slide describes the research by Ekman in the 1970s into emotional similarities and differences between cultures.
A major breakthrough in the universalist–social constructivist debate came in the 1970s when an American psychologist, Paul Ekman, and his colleagues began investigating how facial expressions were interpreted across different cultures. They used photographs of facial expressions to quiz respondents. The images in the slide are samples of those used by Ekman in his study.
Discussion Question: Which of the photos in the slide represents:
Sadness? (Answer: bottom right)
Disgust? (Answer: bottom left)
Happiness? (Answer: Top right)
Anger? (Answer: bottom middle)
(Click) Matching emotions
Ekman and Friesen showed photographs of various facial expressions to members of vastly different cultures, and found that participants identified the expressions as corresponding to “correct” emotional responses with almost universal agreement. This led the psychologists to conclude that emotional facial expressions were, indeed, innate and hard-wired.
(Click) Some variability
There was, however, some variability among members of different cultures, which complicated the psychologists’ findings, implicating cultural influence as a factor.
(Click) Cultural causes
Ekman and his colleagues interpreted the variability to be the effect of cultural differences in “display rules”, or rules governing the appropriateness of emotional expression in a given situation. For example, if displays of fear or sadness are determined to be shameful, the expressions might be suppressed socially, limiting members’ exposure to those particular emotions. Thus, those members might not recognize it easily.
Further Explanation: Interestingly, in the past 10 years, research has demonstrated cultural differences in not only display rules, but also the degree to which people focus on the face (versus other aspects of the social context), and the degree to which people focus on different features of the face when perceiving emotions.

10. Overview What Are Emotions? Historical Background
Current Research and Theory
Importance of Similarities and Differences
Learning Appropriate Emotional Expression
This slide provides students with an overview of the material that will be covered during the lecture.

11. Current Research and Theory
North American
East Asian
Smile: greater frequency, greater intensity
Smile: lower frequency, lower intensity
This slide presents current emotion research and theory, focusing on North American and East Asian cultures.
Current research and theory has primarily focused on North American and East Asian contexts because they differ in obvious ways, including geographical locations, histories, languages, and religions. Moreover, since the 1980s, large-scale studies have revealed that they also differ significantly in cultural values and attitudes.
Discussion topic: What comes to mind when we think about the differences between North America and East Asia? How might those differences be reflected in emotional expression? For example, would you say U.S. citizens are more or less subdued than Chinese citizens? Who of the two would be more likely to throw a party for themselves after getting a job promotion?
Explanation: One of the most distinctive contrasts between the two contexts is that North American culture tends to be individualistic (i.e., emphasizing independence) whereas East Asian cultures tend to be collectivistic (i.e., emphasizing the common good). The independent model of the self (e.g., North America) encourages its members to prioritize personal over group beliefs and desires. In contrast, the interdependent model of self (e.g., East Asia) puts the well-being of the group first.
(Click) Findings:
We generally see a distinction in emotional response between North American and East Asian cultures in terms of openness vs. restraint. For example, North Americans tend to smile more frequently and intensely than East Asians when experiencing comparable levels of happiness, pride, and love.
Let’s take a closer look at the implications of these cultural attitudes in the following slides.

12. Current Research and Theory
North American
East Asian
Independent self
High arousal state
Enthusiastic
Interdependent self
Low arousal state
Peaceful
This slide further illustrates current emotion research and theory based on North American and East Asian cultures.
When considering the independent vs. interdependent models of self, outward expression of emotions can be a telling representation of these cultural distinctions.
(Click) In North American contexts that promote an independent self, individuals tend to express their emotions in order to influence others.
(Click) Influencing others requires an active, “high arousal” state.
(Click) Specifically, North Americans tend to strive for “high arousal positive” states—excitement, elation, enthusiasm.
(Click) In contrast, in East Asian contexts that promote an interdependent self, individuals tend to control and suppress their emotions in order to adjust to others.
(Click) Adjusting to others requires suspending action and attending to the group’s needs—in a “low arousal” state.
(Click) Specifically, East Asians tend to value “low arousal positive” states—calm, peacefulness, relaxation.
(Click) Another indication of these distinctive cultural attitudes can be seen when members from each culture are asked to describe themselves. In a classic study, American and Japanese students were administered the Twenty Statements Test, in which they were asked to complete the statement, “I am ____________”. U.S. participants were more likely to complete the phrase with psychological attributes (e.g., friendly, cheerful), whereas Japanese participants were more likely to complete the phrase with references to social roles and responsibilities.

13. Current Research and Theory
Ideal Affect
N. America
high arousal positive
East Asia
low arousal positive
This slide presents a chart of affective states, including the “ideal affect” of both North American and East Asian cultures.
Explanation: Affective states are essentially the way we present our emotions. While everyone is interested in experiencing positive emotions, the specific type of positive emotion – the “ideal affect”– differs across cultures. This chart shows the various affective states and some of their associated characteristics.
Obviously people tend to avoid negative and unpleasant affective states (left side of the chart), characterized by various forms of discontentment.
HAN is high arousal negative; LAN is low arousal negative.
HAP is high arousal positive—as reinforced by North American culture, its “ideal affect”.
LAP is low arousal positive—as reinforced by East Asian cultures, their “ideal affect”.

14. Current Research and Theory
North American
East Asian
Prefer more arousing leisure activities
Prefer calmer leisure activities
This slide continues to explore differences between North American and East Asian emotional experiences.
Discussion Topic: How might the ideal affect of a culture influence its members’ lifestyles?
(Click) Explanation: Ideal affect functions as a guide for behavior and as a way of evaluating one’s emotional status. Therefore, people tend to engage in activities that are consistent with their ideal affect (e.g., whether people prefer to skydive vs. relaxing on a beach) and to base their conceptions of overall well-being on their ideal affect (e.g., feeling generally elated vs. feeling generally relaxed).

15. Current Research and Theory
North American
East Asian
Feel good after positive event
“Mixed” feelings after positive event
This slide continues to explore differences between North American and East Asian emotional experiences.
In North American contexts, people rarely feel bad after experiencing something good. However, a number of research teams have observed that people in East Asian contexts are more likely to feel bad and good (“mixed” emotions) during positive events (e.g., feeling worried after winning an important competition). Whereas, North American contexts value maximizing positive states and minimizing negative ones, East Asian contexts value a greater balance between positive and negative states. This leads to East Asian cultural contexts engaging in more dialectical thinking (tolerating contradiction and change).
Discussion Question: How might the differences between the ways the two cultures feel about positive events manifest in their expressions of emotion?
Examples:
An interdependent model (East Asian) encourages people to think about how their accomplishments might affect others (e.g., make others feel bad or jealous). Thus, experiencing negative emotions during positive events may prevent people from expressing their excitement and otherwise standing out in a crowd.
An independent model (North American) encourages people to celebrate individual accomplishments and express themselves, so when something good happens, there is no reason to feel bad; standing out in a crowd is rewarded.

16. Current Research and Theory
North American
Emotional suppression leads to more depression
East Asian
Emotional suppression not associated with depression
This slide elaborates further on current emotion research and theory based on North American and East Asian cultures.
Just as cultural ideals can have an effect on behavior and emotional expression, they can also have an effect on psychological health.
For example, in North America contexts, emotional suppression and repression are thought to impair psychological functioning and cause depression. In East Asian contexts, however, where emotional suppression is necessary to adjust to others, emotional suppression is not associated with depression.
In fact, depressed East Asian Americans have been shown to demonstrate similar or increased emotional responding compared with their nondepressed counterparts. In other words, in East Asian American samples, individuals diagnosed with major depression did not show the dampened emotional responses often associated with depression in European American contexts.

17. Current Research and Theory - Similarities
Similar physiological response after positive & negative events Positive emotions after positive events
This slide presents similarities between cultural expressions of emotion in contrast to the previously discussed differences.
The divergent cultural contexts of North America and East Asia don’t entirely dictate emotion; similarities are still present:
(Click) For example, when European American and Hmong American participants were asked to relive different emotional episodes in their lives (e.g., when they lost something or someone that they loved; when something good happened), there were no differences in how European Americans and Hmong Americans responded in a physiological sense.
(Click) Though it’s true that East Asians tend to experience mixed emotions after positive events, they do experience positive feelings similar to North Americans.

18. Current Research and Theory - Similarities
Self esteem & relationship harmony emphasized
Self
Esteem
Relationship
Harmony
European-American/Individualistic
Hong Kong Chinese/Collectivist
But not in equal proportion
This slide continues the discussion of similarities between cultural expressions of emotion.
The divergent cultural contexts of North America and East Asia don’t entirely dictate emotion; similarities are still present:
European Americans and Hong Kong Chinese both tend to base their overall life satisfaction on how they feel about themselves (self-esteem) and their relationships (relationship harmony) . . .
(Click) But not in equal proportion though European Americans put an emphasis on self-esteem, whereas Hong Kong Chinese base their life satisfaction equally on both.
In a study of 39 nations, self-esteem was more strongly correlated with life satisfaction in more individualistic nations than in more collectivistic ones.

19. Overview What Are Emotions? Historical Background
Current Research and Theory
Importance of Similarities and Differences
Learning Appropriate Emotional Expression
This slide provides students with an overview of the material that will be covered during the lecture.

20. Importance of Similarities and Differences in Emotion
Understanding Different ways to well-being Similarities between species What are the similarities between elephants and humans?
The purpose of this slide is to help students understand the importance of understanding cultural similarities and differences in emotion.
(Click) Uncovering cultural similarities and differences in emotion is obviously critical to the understanding of emotions in general, and the malleability of emotional processes more specifically. Given the central role that emotion plays in communication, understanding cultural similarities and differences in emotion is also critical to preventing miscommunications and misunderstandings that may have unintended but detrimental consequences for certain ethnic groups in the United States or other multi-ethnic societies.
(Click) Furthermore, understanding cultural similarities and differences in emotion may teach individuals about other paths to psychological health and well-being. For instance, findings from a recent series of studies suggests that calm states are easier to elicit than excitement states, suggesting that one way of increasing happiness in cultures that value excitement may be to increase the value placed on calm states.
(Click) The link opens a video of elephants appearing to mourn the loss of a member of the herd. This brings the discussion of emotions back to the introductory activity, questioning whether or not animals might also have emotional lives. Click the “Similarities between species” hyperlink on the slide to play the video.
(Click) Follow-Up Discussion Topic: What are the similarities between the elephants and humans? How have your views changed regarding the likelihood of animals having emotions, if at all?

21. Overview What Are Emotions? Historical Background
Current Research and Theory
Importance of Similarities and Differences
Learning Appropriate Emotional Expression
This slide provides students with an overview of the material that will be covered during the lecture.

22. Learning Appropriate Cultural Emotional Expression
Children’s Storybooks Genetic Differences < Value Difference Models of Self
This slide describes how individuals learn appropriate cultural emotional expression.
(Click) One way people learn emotional expression appropriate to their own culture is through children’s storybooks. Children’s storybooks in the United States contain more exciting and less calm content than bestselling children’s storybooks in Taiwan. Across cultures, kids who read stories with exciting content have been shown to be more likely to value excited states, whereas those who read stories with calm content are more likely to value calm states.
(Click) While research suggests that genetic differences (temperament) cause different cultural expressions of emotion, Affect Valuation Theory proposes that cultural factors shape how people ideally want to feel (their “ideal affect”) more than how they actually feel (their “actual affect”). This has been verified in studies where differences in ideal affect emerged after controlling for differences in temperament.
(Click) Similarities and differences ultimately trace back to models of self (independent versus interdependent) and different cultural values. Further research is needed to reveal other factors that may play a role in the ways in which culture shapes people’s emotional lives.
Further Explanation: It might be helpful to explain that psychology is still a young science; although we are learning much about culture and emotion there is much more we do not yet know. In the future researchers will have to move beyond individualism (independent self model) and collectivism (interdependent self model) to better understand emotional experiences.

23. Photo Attribution Slide 1
Photo Credit: snej
Slide 2
Photo Credit: Dozyg
Slide 4
Photo Credit: The Advocacy Project
Slide 5
Photo Credit: Shazron
Photo Credit:Frans Persoon
Slide 7
Photo Credit: Stefan Scheer
Slide 10
Photo Credit: Kanaka Menehune
Photo Credit: Didier-Lg
Slide 14
Photo Credit: OAKLEYZ FOTOZ
Photo Credit: mac.rj
Slide 13
Photo Credit: that one doood
Photo Credit: gkamin
Slide 15
Photo Credit: KarlGartland
Slide 16
Photo Credit: Diamond Geyser
Slide 18
Photo Credit: Spiva Arts
Slide 20
Photo Credit: sensesmaybenumbed