Understanding Emotions - Chapter 3

Self-construal: independent and interdependent selves

Approach to understanding cultural differences in emotion. In western societies people are concerned about their individuality, about self-actualising, about freedom, and about self-expression. In Asian cultures collectivism, the unity and coherence of society, and the welfare of the group are most important Two kinds of self-construal that affect emotions (table 3.1): interdependent and independent

Integrating evolutionary and cultural approaches to emotion

Both approaches start from the assumption that emotions contribute solutions to basic problems of social living. They focus on different kinds of functions. Evolutionary approaches focus on how emotions enable survival and gene replication. Cultural approaches focus on functions that are particular to the social life of a culture. Both assume emotions are functional and adaptive. There are also differences (table 3.2)

Approaches to studying cultural influences on emotion

- Cross-cultural comparisons - Ethnographies - Historical approaches

Values

A second approach seeks to understand cultural differences in emotion in terms of differences in values. Values are the principles that govern our social behaviour. They govern who we coexist in communities as members of a culture and accomplish tasks like allocating resources, folding into family structures, or punishing moral violations. For example, people from different cultures attach different priorities to values like freedom, individual rights, equality, expressing thoughts and feelings, respect for authority, sexual purity, or hierarchies

Culture

A system of ideas and practices that are held in common in a particular society, or set of societies. A society is a group of people who live in a particular place at a particular time

Values (cont. 4)

An important new movement in understanding how emotions are perceived and understood emphasises not just specific emotions and their displays but the context in which they occur. How any emotion is expressed, how it is understood, and what its implications are depend critically on the context. The context differs depending on a range of factors, including gender of the people involved, their power relationships, and most fundamentally the practices of the culture in which it occurs.

Ethnographies

Another method for gaining insight into cultural differences in emotion. Ethnographies are in-depth descriptions of the social lives of members of a particular culture. Ethnographers aim to aim to offer "thick descriptions" which concerns not just which emotions occur but also their settings and cultural significance. They often focus on discourse - the means by which people use language in its many forms to make sense, socially, of emotional experience; they study not just the single words that people use to label their emotions, but more complex acts of communication: apologies, gossip, songs, poetry, etc.

Self-construal: independent and interdependent selves (cont. 2)

Because of these radical differences when thinking about the self one can expect large differences in the emotional lives of people from these different cultures. One aspect of emotions is the degree to which they are socially engaging (connecting the individual to others) or socially disengaging (creating distance from others). Independent cultures report more intense experiences of positive and negative socially disengaging emotions (pride, high-self-esteem, anger, frustration) while interdependent cultures report more intense experience of positive and negative socially engaging emotions (respect, sympathy, shame, guilt)

Interdependent self-construal

Collectivism. The self is fundamentally connected with other people. The imperative is to find one's status, identity, and roles within the community and other collectives such as families and organisations. The emphasis is on the social context and the situational influences on behaviour. One thinks of one self as embedded within social relationships, roles, and duties, with a self that is ever-changing and shifting, and shaped by different contexts, relationships, and roles Asia, Africa, South America

East Asia epistemology (cont. 2)

Consider principle 5, the principle of context. There are striking differences between cultural epistemologies regarding the extent to which contexts figure in making sense of social situations. People in many parts of the world, particularly east Asia, tend to pay greater attention to the context in giving meaning to social situations, whereas people in western European cultures tend to focus more on the individual. This is evident in art. In east Asian paintings much more space is dedicated to the background, while in western cultures the faces get more space devoted to them This focus on context should lead to large differences in the meaning of emotion across cultures; one might expect different events to elicit emotions in people from these cultures (ex: gratitude for something good in context -good economy, peace- vs gratitude for actions of specific individuals). It should also influence the kind of emotions people experience (ex: collective pride vs individual pride) East Asian individuals are more likely to factor information about the social context into their judgements of others' emotions

Cultural differences in emotional suppression (cont.)

Cross-cultural findings: the more individuals suppressed emotion, the less one observed problems of social adjustment, such as drug use and violence, but across cultures greater emotional suppression was associated with lower levels of happiness and well-being This research was shaped by earlier research of display rules, which are thought to influence how and to whom it is appropriate to express different emotions. Across cultures people vary in how they modulate their expression of emotion. For example, in many Asian cultures it is inappropriate to speak of personal accomplishment, and people may de-intensify their expressions of pride or pleasure in personal success

Values (cont. 2)

Cultural differences in specific values have also been found to influence spontaneous emotional response. This may be due to the influence of the value of emotional control in different cultures; it is more highly valued in East Asian cultures where spontaneous expression of emotion is thought to risk disrupting social harmony, and thus is discouraged. More spontaneous emotional expression is more highly valued in western European cultures, steeped in the romantic tradition, for it is a means by which individuals express their authentic selves The experience of anger should be particularly influenced by these cultural differences in the value of emotional control because, out of all the emotions, anger is the one that poses the greatest risk to social harmony. One may expect people from cultures that value emotional control to inhibit their expressions of anger

East Asia epistemology

East Asians are guided in their knowledge and thought by a holistic, dialectical system of thought that has its roots in the great intellectual traditions of east Asia, including Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism It is based on five principles: 1) change, so that nothing is static 2) contradiction, that opposites often are consistent and both true 3) covariation, so that events are interrelated in complex fields or systems 4) compromise, so that truth may lie in the synthesis of opposites 5) context, so that events occur not alone but in contexts

Cross -cultural comparisons

Emotions begin with elicitation. Do cultures differ with respect to elicitors of emotions? Researchers have found that while there are universals in the elicitors of emotion, cultures have been found to differ in their emotional responses according to whether the elicitors of emotion are socially "engaging" and involve other people, or "disengaging" so that they primarily involve the self. Members of interdependent cultures tend to experience positive emotions (calm, elation) when they are in contexts that are socially engaging, while people from independent cultures are more likely to experience positive emotions in contexts that are less about social engagement and more about the expression of personal preferences or individual achievement

Epistemology

Epistemologies are ways of knowing. They refer to knowledge structures and theories that guide thought, emotion, and behaviour in domain-specific ways.

The construction of emotions in the west

How might we characterise our implicit theory of emotions in the culture of the West? - Distrust of emotions. Calling people "emotional" to undermine their arguments - Also think emotions are the very guarantee of authenticity. Our best guide to our true selves These different stances toward emotions are constructions of Western culture. Appreciation of emotions became marked during romanticism. Emotions came to be valued in personal life, in politics, in literature, and in philosophy (also in the arts). We see core beliefs about emotions as primordial, authentic causes of behaviour.

Cultural differences in emotional suppression

In a study, participants reported on their tendency to suppress their emotion, that is, to inhibit it according to features of the social context. The study also gathered data on the values of importance to the different cultures. In highly hierarchical cultures, individuals reported the more robust tendency to suppress their emotions. Participants from more egalitarian, individualistic cultures reported that they suppressed their expression of emotions less, which is in keeping with the idea that in more individualistic cultures individuals are free to express their emotions in the spirit of expressing a more authentic self.

East Asia epistemology (cont.)

In light of principle two, one might expect that east Asians might experience greater emotional complexity when compared to Americans. Emotional complexity is the simultaneous experience of contradictory emotions, such as happiness and sadness, compassion and contempt, or anger and love. Perhaps they would be more willing to endorse multiple, even contradictory, meaning for the complex social situations and, as a result, experience more contradictory emotions. By contrast, Westerners might focus more on singular meanings of a situation and experience simpler emotions Culture-related epistemologies shape the complexity of emotional experience. Westerners seem to strive to maximise positive emotions and minimise negative emotion, whereas Asians seek a balanced emotional state

Example: high-honour societies

In societies where honour is highly valued, honour-protecting emotions, such as shame or anger, are more focal. When insulted, people from this cultures (ex: Spaniards, south USA) display these emotions more intensely to protect their honour or "save face" Certain kinds of interpersonal violence are more widely tolerated in this types of society (to defend honour) and so is violence agains the self; suicide is more frequent in this societies than in cultures where honour is less important. Suicide may be a preferred choice when compared to living a life lacking the respect and esteem of others

Independent self-construal

Individualism. The imperative is to assert one's distinctiveness and independence, and to define oneself according to unique traits and preferences, with a focus on internal causes, such as one's own dispositions or preferences, which are thought of as stable across time and social context Northern Europe, North America

Values (cont.)

Members of cultures that differ in the importance of specific values should experience different elicitors of emotions related to that value (for example, elicitors of jealousy that seem obvious in one culture do not seem to evoke jealousy in another) Cultures vary as to which emotions are focal, or prominent in daily life, according to cultural differences in values. One would expect focal emotions to be more readily elicited and experienced more intensely, and signalled in more intense display behaviour

Historical approaches

Studying documents from the past reveals the emotional life of a culture at specific historical moments. Researchers see historical societies as as based on cultures that can give us acute insights and contrasts with emotions of the modern world. Ex: USA before 1900s books for children spoke about acting properly despite fear, but after books were filled with tough guys who felt no fear at all. There were also books for parents warning about controlling their own emotions and fears to not alarm their children. There was a shift to create a culture that suppressed fear

A cultural approach to emotion (cont.)

The more radical claim is the emotions derive from human meanings, which are necessarily cultural A second assumption is that emotions can be thought of as roles that people fulfil to play out culture-specific identities and relationships Some contend that cultural approaches focus on the "practice" of emotion, in contrast to the "potential" for emotions. "Potential" means the potential that people from different cultures have to express some universal emotional responses when put in an experimental situation. This is in line with the evolutionary approach. "Practice" refers to what actually happens in people's emotional lives. The day-to-day emotional experiences of people from different cultures do differ, often dramatically

A cultural approach to emotion

The values, concepts, and ideas about the self that are part of a cultural background, as expressed in art, in rituals, in social practices, and in institutions, shape how members of societies experience emotion in often strikingly different ways A cultural approach to emotion involves the assumption that emotions are constructed primarily by the processes of culture. Aspects ranging from how emotions are valued to how they are elicited are shaped by culture-specific beliefs and practices, which in turn have been affected by historical and economical forces

Self-construal: independent and interdependent selves (cont. 3)

These studies reveal not only how self-construal influences the kind of emotions we experience, and which we privilege and value, but also culturally-specific ways in which emotions elicit responses in others. They also influence how people find happiness. People from interdependent cultures find greater happiness in fulfilling duties and abiding by cultural norms, whereas people from independent cultures found greater happiness in the expression of positive emotion

Values (cont. 3)

To the extent that emotions reinforce particular values of importance to a culture, those emotions should be highly valued. The affect evaluation theory brings this thinking into focus. It reasons that emotions that promote specific cultural values and ideals are valued more and as a result should play a more prominent role in the social lives of individuals. An example of this is excitement vs calmness. Americans greatly value excitement because it enables individuals to pursue a cultural ideal of self-expression and achievement. In contrast, many east Asian cultures place a higher value on calmness and contentedness because they more readily enable an individual to fold into harmonious relationships and groups. This readily translates into differences in emotional behaviour: American culture is more geared towards excitement; risky recreational activities, exciting advertisement, addiction to excitement-enhancing drugs, music, books, etc. The difference is also seen in religion with christian gospel proclaiming high-arousal positive emotions (glory, pride) whereas Buddhism promotes low-arousal positive emotions (peace, serenity)