Week 6: Emotions and interpersonal relations

Question 1

What is the evolutionary approach to emotions?

Answer 1

• Emotions are physiological responses to stimuli in the world
• Emotions as invariant, in-born, biological reactions
• Assumes universality of emotional experience

Question 2

What is the social-constructionist approach?

Answer 2

• Emotions are the interpretations of physiological responses
• Emotions are highly variable, contextualized responses
• Focus on (cultural) variability in emotional experience

Question 3

What are the basic emotions?

Answer 3

happiness, disgust, surprise, sadness, anger, and fear. However, there is debate about whether emotions like contempt, shame, embarrassment, interest and pride should be added to the basic emotions.

Question 4

Are facial expressions universal?

Answer 4

The idea that we express our emotions similarly is old and stems from the idea that emotions have adaptive value and based on biological make-up. This is why the history of cross-cultural study of emotions started with the quest for basic, universal emotional expressions (expressions are the ‘objective’ & visible aspect of emotional experience).

Question 5

What did experiments find about this?

Answer 5

Pictures of facial expressions of expressions were shown to those in various cultures, had to select the emotion term that fits best to the picture. Emotions were correctly recognized with 80-90% in USA, Brazil, Chile, Argentina etc. However, there is exposure via tv to foreign faces & their emotion expression, all 5 societies industrialized and literate. For Fore there was accurate identification above chance of only some emotions. There is no one-to-one mapping between emotions and face as there was only limited number of options, which could have been chosen by process of elimination. Happiness is consistently recognized about chance levels.

Question 6

What was found about basic emotions in the Fore culture?

Answer 6

They were asked to imagine how they would feel, and made a corresponding facial expression in response to different situations, which was similar to the West. But surprise and sadness were not recognized among the Fore

Question 7

What are display rules?

Answer 7

Culturally specific rules that govern which facial expressions are appropriate in a given situation and how intensely they should be exhibited. So emotional experiences are unaffected by emotional expressions. Presuppose that emotion is universal “at the core”, so the experience is consistent but expressions can differ

Question 8

What is ritualized display?

Answer 8

a facial expression that is expressed in some cultures but not in others. Such facial expressions differ from the alleged universal facial expressions.

Question 9

What are the examples of display rules?

Answer 9

• Emotional “smoothness” – Bali
  Avoid strong displays of emotional feelings, both positive and negative
• Never in anger – Utku Inuit
  Expressions of anger are condemned altogether
• Defend honor – certain Arab contexts. Respond to an insult with intense expression of anger

Question 10

What is the facial feedback hypothesis?

Answer 10

Facial expressions are one source of information we use when we infer our emotional experiences. When manipulating facial muscles, affects the funniness of cartoons but not always replicated. Botox treatment also reduces the speed of reading emotional sentences. Though display rules certainly exist, these findings show that expression affects experience and that what we observe is not only variation in expression but also experience

Question 11

What was found when participants were asked to hold a pen between their teeth without touching their lips and between their lips without touching their teeth?

Answer 11

The smiling condition (not touching lips) found the cartoons to be more amusing than the frowning condition. So display rules cannot be used to argue that emotions are experienced the same universally and that only their expression differs

Question 12

Ingroup advantage

Answer 12

More accurate recognition within same culture/ language group (9% above the 58% accuracy average). Reasons for this:
- More exposure & familiarity with expressions of one’s own culture
- Decoder differences in effort due to ingroup identification
- Encoder differences in display

Question 13

What are the problems with the recognition paradigm?

Answer 13

• no context
• forced choices results in elimination
• answers teach emotion concepts

Question 14

What is universal about the face?

Answer 14

• Valence (positive / negative)
• Inferences about social motives (using faces to infer another person’s intentions)
• But, newer research with the same samples used more varied and less constrained methods so find less evidence for universality

Question 15

How does emotional experience differ for independent vs interdependent selves?

Answer 15

Independent: personal differentiation, concerned about how events distinguish one from others, emotions considered intrapersonal that lie within the individual, disengaged emotions more common like pride and anger
Interdependent: interpersonal harmony, concerned about how events affect close others as well as oneself, emotions are interpersonal states that connect people with each other, interpersonally engaged emotions are more common like respect and shame.

Question 16

What did results find when participants had to deal with a rude experimenter for Chinese-Canadians vs European-Canadians?

Answer 16

Both groups initially responded with similar degrees of anger, but Chinese Canadians’ blood pressure returned to normal much more quickly than Europeans. All the participants suppressed the anger, which led to a slower decrease in anger for Europeans than Chinese Canadians. East Asians seem to experience less intense anger and seem to be more comfortable with strategies of suppressing their anger, while Westerners seem to suffer from physiological consequences after not being able to express their anger.

Question 17

How did Japanese and American participants answer questions about their emotional experiences based on positive/negative valence and engagement?

Answer 17

American: more positive interpersonally disengaged emotions were correlated with more positive feelings in general.
Japanese: more positive interpersonally engaged emotions were correlated with more positive feelings in general.
So those with interdependent self-views feel more happy with interpersonal engaged positive emotions, while independent individuals feel more happy with disengaged positive emotions

Question 18

How do cultures differ in emotions words?

Answer 18

Differ in the number of emotion words: English: >2000, Dutch: 1500, Taiwanese Chinese: 750, Malay: 230, Ifalukian in Micronesia: 58, Chewong in Malaysia: 8. There is cultural diversity in emotion words with different clusters of meaning that are encountered in different cultures

Question 19

What are some examples of emotion words?

Answer 19

Schadenfreude in German: the feelings of pleasure that one gets when witnessing the hard times that befall another.
Amae in Japanese: pleasant feelings when you emphasize your dependence on another or closeness, involving inappropriate behaviour to demonstrate security. Has connotations of immaturity but key in loving relationships

Question 20

What are the different views on the diversity of emotion words?

Answer 20

• The diversity in emotion words is meaningless because our language does not affect our underlying psychological experience
• The diversity in emotion words reflect cultural diversity in emotional experiences, i.e., the way we think is influenced by the words we use

Question 21

What is subjective well-being?

Answer 21

the feeling of being satisfied with one’s life. Studies reveal clear cultural variability in subjective wellbeing. Many factors contribute to a culture’s average subjective well-being (income level, human rights protection). However, many nations depart from the patterns that would be predicted by those factors, suggesting that there must be other influences on well-being that have yet to be identified.

Question 22

What are the factors that influence people’s judgements of life satisfaction?

Answer 22

1) Source of well-being: judgment of life satisfaction has a different main source for different cultures.
2) Personal theories: people have different theories about how happy they think they should feel.
3) Positive emotions: positive emotional experiences have different consequences across cultures.
4) Ideal affect: the kinds of positive emotions people desire also varies across cultures.

Question 23

How does subjective wellbeing differ for the independent self vs the interdependent self?

Answer 23

Independent: interpersonally disengaging feels good, wellbeing is positive feelings and the more positive the better. Includes high arousal positive emotions (but people want to feel different positive emotions across cultures)
Interdependent: interpersonally engaging feels good, wellbeing is appropriate role behaviours, there is balance between positive and negative feelings, more low arousal positive emotions are included

Question 24

How do European Americans and Asian Americans differ in their degree of satisfaction after each day (actual ratings) and at the end of the week (retrospective ratings)?

Answer 24

• European: retrospective ratings were way higher than the actual ratings.
• Asian: retrospective ratings and actual ratings were not much different.
• European Americans seem to believe that life should be generally happy, while Asian Americans believe life as a balance of positive and negative experiences.

Question 25

How is pursuing happiness different for Westerners and Asians?

Answer 25

For Westerners, pursuing happiness is an important reason for making decisions. This is less the case for Asians, who are more likely to choose a useful game over a fun game. A possible cause could be that positive feelings are less useful for them (they do not necessarily protect against depression).

Question 26

What does cultural variation mean for intercultural contact?

Answer 26

Involves a curious not-knowing stance. People’s meanings and experiences can be similar or different: involves subjective experience, words, appraisals, interpretations and other beliefs about emotions and wellbeing.

Question 27

What are the universal and culture specific aspects of interpersonal attraction?

Answer 27

Universal: skin, symmetry, averageness, propinquity (being close in proximity)
Culture-specific: body weight, body decoration, similarity in personality

Question 28

Why is clear skin important for physical attractiveness?

Answer 28

Evolutionary reasoning: people should be especially attracted to healthy mates who would likely produce healthy offspring that would survive. We use health indicators like skin, facial symmetry, as heuristics for healthiness. Clear skin indicates no parasites

Question 29

Why is symmetry important for physical attractiveness?

Answer 29

Bilateral symmetry: indicator of developmental stability. In ideal growing conditions, left and right sides will develop identically. But genetic mutations, pollution, stresses, pathogens encountered in the womb may lead to asymmetric development. Preference for symmetry has been found in scorpion flies, tribes in Tanzania who suffer from high rates of infant mortality have an even higher preference for symmetry.

Question 30

Why do we prefer facial features that are average in size?

Answer 30

People with average sized features are: less likely to have genetic abnormalities, are more fluent (easy to process) as they resemble a prototype. Mixed ethnicity faces are perceived as more attractive as genetic diversity is a marker of healthy genes and is the best average of faces that participants have encountered in their lives. European faces merged with African or vice versa has been perceived as the most attractive

Question 31

What is the variation in body weight ideals?

Answer 31

West Africa and South Pacific view the term fat as being complimentary, showing strength and beauty. Exposure to Western ideals has an influence on people’s preferences. Research supports this, finding that there were cross-cultural differences in the ideal female figure and body dissatisfaction. Heavier bodies were preferred in low SES compared to high SES in Malaysia, SA but not Austria. BMI and Western media exposure predicted body weight ideals.

Question 32

What are the cultural ideals for bodies?

Answer 32

people are usually attracted to bodies that depart from the average
(big breasts, small waists). Standards for a beautiful body vary across cultures and even through history. Thinner is more ideal in West but previously was a heavier body and differs in other cultures. Exposure to Western ideals has a strong influence on preferences as ideals in the West are seen as markers of high status.

Question 33

What is the role of body decoration?

Answer 33

Preferences for body decoration (fashion) also changes historically (in time) and culturally (in space). Examples include Thailand, Ethiopia etc.

Question 34

What is the propinquity effect?

Answer 34

Argues that people become friends with whom they interact frequently, linked to mere exposure effect. Propinquity means higher exposure, breeding familiarity and fluency (easy processing). The less time we need to process, the more we like it. Police academy study found that the last name who one would sit next to and was a better predictor of liking than personality or religious beliefs. Similar effects in Japan and US, and in non-human species so suggests accessibility universal.

Question 35

How is similarity important in attractiveness?

Answer 35

Similarity effect is that we are attracted to similar ones in terms of attitudes, SES, personality, music taste, etc. Most powerful and reliable predictors of relationships. No evidence found in non-human species. But when similarity was manipulated in Japan vs Canada, perceived similarity only led to more liking in Canada. This is due to out-group member borders being less permeable for those with interdependent self-views like in Japan

Question 36

What was included in the study that compared Canadian and Japanese participants?

Answer 36

• Canadian and Japanese participants complete questionnaires about their personality or their social background.
• They were then shown the profile of a stranger, made either highly similar or quite dissimilar to their own profile, and indicated how much they felt they would like the stranger.
• Canadian: liked the highly similar person more than the dissimilar one
  (similarity-attraction effect).
• Japanese: liking of the stranger was identical regardless of low or high similarity.

Question 37

What is the relational model typology?

Answer 37

Communal sharing: taking what you need and no record keeping. Prevalent in foraging societies with little/no surplus
Authority ranking: privileges and prestige for high-standing members, protection and care for low-standing members. Examples are military and caste system, but common in hierarchical societies
Equality matching: recordkeeping, balance and reciprocity, common in subsistence societies with surplus
Market pricing: status is irrelevant, proportionality and ratio, cost-benefit analysis, common in individualistic societies (property exchange).
These forms of relationships exist in all cultures but some more prominent than others

Question 38

How is a relationship governed by the relational model?

Answer 38

within a family at dinner, each person is allowed to eat until he or she is satisfied (communal sharing), the father occupies the seat at the head of the table (authority ranking), for dessert each person can claim a same-sized cupcake (equality matching), and a child is paid $1.00 for each time he/she loads the dishwasher (market pricing).

Question 39

How does culture influence romantic relationships?

Answer 39

• Romantic love evident in 90% of cultures studies, but meaning and display of affection differed. Lack of evidence for love in 10% was based on oversight
• Meanings include parental love to increase survival chances of offspring as infant needs care and depends on you. Romantic love also increases changes of offspring as two parents provide better care

Question 40

Why do arranged marriages fare better?

Answer 40

• people believe they last longer so there could be a self-fulfilling prophecy at play
• more support from network, aligns with other cultural values and practices
• cognitive dissonance
• different standards of comparison: start with “no love” move to “some love”(=better) or start with “lots of love” which naturally declines
• data is from the 70s

Question 41

How do friendships differ across cultures?

Answer 41

Friendships are important, correlated to life expectation. They are universal, but the nature and meaning of friendship differs across cultures. Collectivistic cultures report having more enemies, 26% in US compared to 71% in Ghana

Question 42

What is relational mobility?

Answer 42

the amount of freedom people have to move between relationships. Cultures with higher residential
mobility (amount of freedom people have to more their place of residence), and thus more relationship opportunities, are more likely to have higher relational mobility.

Question 43

How can relational mobility be linked with attractiveness?

Answer 43

In high relational mobility contexts, any kind of attribute that can attract potential new relationships are of more value. When relationship networks are stable (low relational mobility), these characteristics are less useful: relationships will exist independently anyways. So, in high mobility cultures, there is more emphasis on similarity and attractiveness, and a higher presence of the halo effect (seeing individuals more positively with one positive attribute)

Question 44

How can relational mobility influence trust?

Answer 44

High-mobility cultures generally report less enemies and more trust in their relationships. In contrast, low-mobility cultures report more enemies and more caution, probably because relationships are often involuntarily and have more costs (obligations). Such as more Ghanaians claimed having enemies than Americans, and viewed these enemies as coming from their ingroups while Americans reported more coming from outside their group.

Question 45

What is Simpatico?

Answer 45

a relational style characterized by an emphasis on acting hospitable, gracious, and maintaining harmony. In many Latin American cultures, this style is viewed as a goal. In general, Latin Americans act in more sociable ways than European Americans.

Question 46

How do friends differ if you have an independent or interdependent self?

Answer 46

Independent: many friends, little enemies, high relational mobility so more opportunities for new relations, choose who they relate to and trust, conditional and voluntary, mutually beneficial, casual attitude, solicited advice, similarity and attractiveness are more important
Interdependent: few friends, more enemies, low relational mobility so few opportunities for new relations, relationships born out of network so has assurance, unconditional and enduring, benefits but also obligation, painstaking attitude, unsolicited advice and similarity and attractiveness less important

Question 47

What is the difference between love marriages and arranged marriages?

Answer 47

• in the past, more men than women said they would not marry someone they did not love but changed over time
• arranged marriages is made up of an extended family system so has strong ties, kin relations provide social pressure for the couple to stay together, this reflects situational constraints and less idealization
• in love marriages, there is nuclear family so weak ties and romantic love is the glue that keeps partners together. Behaviour reflects dispositions, more idealization and higher divorce rates

Question 48

What are the theories that have guided universality/variability of emotional experience?

Answer 48

• James-Lange theory argues that emotions are physiological responses to stimuli and act as cues to signal how we should behave, predicting cultural universality
• Two factor theory argues that emotions are based on physiological responses and the interpretation of those, so predicts cultural variation

Question 49

How did research investigate the two-factor theory of emotion?

Answer 49

Participants were assigned to a euphoria or anger condition in which they were made to feel those. They either were given a placebo or an epinephrine (they were told that arousal would either increase or not increase). The epinephrine uninformed experienced the strongest emotions as they had no explanation for the arousal and interpreted it in the situation

Question 50

How do views on marriage differ across cultures?

Answer 50

College students from several countries were asked “If a man/woman had all the other qualities you desired, would you marry this person if you were not in love with him/her?”. India & Pakistan: 50% said yes, 25% was undecided, 25% said no. English-speaking countries & Latin America: more than 80% said no, only less than 5% said yes.

Question 51

What are the assumptions that Westerners have about love?

Answer 51

1) Choice: you will only love someone you have chosen yourself. However: typically, those in arranged marriages gradually come to have strong loving feelings.
2) Uniqueness: because I am a unique person, I can only come to love someone that I can connect with in a unique and special way and only I can identify someone like that for myself. However: other cultures see marriage as the intersection of 2 families-> they trust their families to make the right decision for them.
3) Foundation: a marriage without the foundation of love is bound to be unhappy and unsuccessful. However: evidence suggests that couples in arranged marriages are at least as satisfied.

Question 52

What is the main point of the universality article?

Answer 52

Most research on emotion perception across cultures has been designed to validate the universality thesis rather than to discover or rule out diversity in how people make meaning of other people’s facial expressions.

Question 53

What are the issues of constrained tests (response options are provided)?

Answer 53

• Forced choices: limited response options allow for the process-of-elimination strategy.
• Learning: information provided in the stories given may teach participants emotion concepts.
• Context: constrained tasks do not provide context for discovery of other important phenomena.

Question 54

What is the issue with less constrained tasks?

Answer 54

allows for more freedom in responses but weakens the empirical support for universality

Question 55

What are the additional sources for consistencies and diversity across cultures?

Answer 55

• Affect perception: affect properties such as valence and arousal are consistently perceived in facial expressions across societies
• Social motive perception: facial expressions are universally used to infer social motives but the
  inferences that are made show cultural diversity.
• Mentalizing vs. action identification: some cultures routinely describe facial movements as behaviours (action identification) rather than as expressions of internal mental events (mentalizing).