Emotions and Culture

Question 1

Why should all cultures feel the same emotions?

Answer 1

Because they have evolved to have universal functions, but doesnt mean we all experience them in the same way

Question 2

What are the two opposing theoretical perspectives on cultural differences?

Answer 2

Universalist views: emotions are products of biological processes, independent of social norms and culture. All felt the same

Constructivist views: emotions depend upon social concepts, which are largely learned and subject to cultural influence. Depends on culture

Some in the middle of this

Question 3

What did Ekman find?

Answer 3

6 basic emotions which are universal, have distinctive and unique characteristics - unique face and physiological feelings

Showed people faces and words and found everyone matched the same word with the same photo no matter where they came from - doesn’t tell us if it nature or nurture - just learned that we should make them

Question 4

How do you know these emotions aren’t just learned by copying other people?

Answer 4

Half of athletes were blind and half were sighed
Matsumoto and Willingham - studied athletes facial expressions after winning or losing matches at the 2004 Olympic and paralymic games - found no differences between blind and sighted athletes or across cultures - showed we don’t just copy them, but could’ve been socially reinforced

Question 5

Does this tell us whether emotional experiences differ across cultures?

Answer 5

Basic emotions are expressed similarly across cultures and are universally recognised, but just because they have the potential to experience the same emotions, doesn’t mean they actually have the same emotional experiences - their actual experience of the emotion might be different

Question 6

How do we know emotional experiences do differ across cultures?

Answer 6

Americans report a higher frequency of positive than negative emotions, whereas Japanese report equal frequencies - western cultures show more positive emotions whereas east Asia show mixed

The emotions that are ‘normal’ in a given culture will influence what’s perceived as ‘abnormal’; sadness is especially noticeable in a culture that values happiness - not seen as normal

Question 7

How do emotional experiences differ within cultures?

Answer 7

Lower class individuals experience more negative emotions than upper class individuals - stressful environment

Higher classpeople more likely to express anger in Japan and less likely in America - because anger in America means frustration but in Japan means authority, so the higher class people do it

Both cultures express it, but depends which one to how it is expressed

Question 8

Are emotions universal or cultural?

Answer 8

Basic emotions are thought to be universal, although not everyone agrees with this (more on this later)

But, what each individual actually experiences in their daily life may be culture-specific

Also, cultural differences are not limited to differences between countries

Question 9

Why do emotions differ across cultures?

Answer 9

Differences in language influences emotions - emotion concepts and language terms and culture specific, influences how accessible emotions are and may change their experience

differences in ideal affect could influence emotions - culture influences how people want to feel, which then influences their behaviour and emotional regulation

Question 10

Do emotional concepts differ across cultures?

Answer 10

Yes - words don’t always translate, there are lots of words for emotions
Not unique words but variations of the emotions - could be same word but different intensity

e.g. word AMAE - depending on someone else but in a pleasurable way

Question 11

Why are some emotions more important in different cultures?

Answer 11

Depends on the words that people have for them - cultures vary in the number of terms they have for particular emotions - an emotion with many different labels is hypercognized (creating associations which lead to increase in vocab for some emotion). For example, the Chinese language has 113 terms for shame - this might change the label, might make emotions easy and more commonly experienced

Question 12

Does the way we label an emotion influence what we feel?

Answer 12

The experience of feeling an emotion occurs when a person categories their internal state - Sapir whorf hypothesis - the structure of a language determines how speakers categorise and perceive the world - implication: language and concepts shape emotion and people with different labels might actually experience emotions differently

emotions aren’t just what exist in our bodies that we name, it is constructivist - change our experience we have

Question 13

How does this link to perception?

Answer 13

Can’t unsee something - perception changes based on experience

Question 14

What is Feldman Barrett’s theory of constructed emotion?

Answer 14

Emotions aren’t discrete mental or bodily states, they are things we construct based on knowledge and past experience - we can categorise emotions, based on what we have learned

Maybe there is no such thing as a universal emotional experience - all depends and context and past knowledge

Question 15

How do differences in language influence emotions?

Answer 15

Emotion concepts and language terms are often culture specific; this influences how accessible emotions are, and may change experience

Question 16

How do emotion preferences differ across cultures?

Answer 16

Ask people, how they would typically like to feel
valence - positive or negative
arousal - highly excited or relaxed
This type of measure has been used to assess how people want to feel or their ideal affect

Question 17

Which emotions do people from different cultures prefer to feel?

Answer 17

People want to feel positive - but different types

East Asians - more likely to want to feel calm peaceful ad other low arousal states

Whereas North Americans are more likely to want to feel excited, enthusiastic, energetic and other high arousal positive states

Question 18

What is the observational evidence for ideal affect?

Answer 18

Facbook profiles are more likely to be closed smiles in eastern cultures and open mouth smiles in western cultures - supports a preference for different types of emotion

A study of official photos of leads found similiar differences in proportions of excited smiles and calm smiles - this is socialised, people preference certain emotions

Question 19

Do people from different cultures show different facial expressions of emotions?

Answer 19

Jack et al. (2012) recorded people from Western and East Asian cultures expressing basic emotions

While the basic units of the expressions were the same, people from East Asian cultures were more likely to use their eyes to express emotion intensity

Question 20

Do people from different cultures show different textual expressions of emotions?

Answer 20

Looked at twitter over 2 years and the emojis that people use
Asian emotions: the key difference between the emotions are in the eyes, emoji changes are due to the eyes changing
Western - it is the mouth which is changing
Writing is tailored to how people express them in real life
Implications: interpret them differently

Question 21

Are there cultural differences in interpretation of facial expressions?

Answer 21

When asked “how happy or sad is this expression”, American and Japanese participants gave different ratings; Japanese participants based judgments more on the eyes, Americans on the mouth - people are more accurate at judging their own in-group members than out group

Question 22

How can you tell if someone is showing a genuine smile?

Answer 22

They will have a crinkle in their eyes

If they smile more using their eyes, they are better at interpreting others emotions

Question 23

Are there cultural differences in reactions to emotional expressions?

Answer 23

Compared Southern US to Northern - southern are culture of honour, less tolerant of others breaking norms

Cohen and Nisbett ‘insult studies’ - participants are white males from North or South US. They are told to walk down a corridor, drop off a form and return. Participant either: encounters a man working a file cabinet who bumps the participant and calls him asshole or does not encounter this man. A 6ft 3, 18 stone confederate appears and walks toward the participant without giving way

Culture influenced how people behaved after being insulted. DV = distance to which ppt stepped away to make way for the confederate, smaller distance = more aggression. Non south = not much difference between insulted or not insulted. South = the ones who weren’t insulted were the most polite, but once insulted, walked much closer and expressed a lot more anger

Question 24

Does culture influence how people express and interpret emotions?

Answer 24

This means people react differently to emotional expressions across cultures, and can lead to ingroup advantages in emotional communication

Again, cultural differences are not just limited to difference between countries; they are also observed within countries