CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY Robyn M Holmes Chapter 13 Emotion

CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY Robyn M. Holmes Chapter 13: Emotion

Chapter 13 Outline § Emotional Intelligence § What are Emotions? § Physiological Theories of Emotions

Chapter 13 Outline § The James-Lange Theory of Emotions § The Two Factor Theory of Emotions § Other Models that Explain Emotions

Chapter 13 Outline § Emoting in Infancy § Emoting in Early Childhood

Chapter 13 Outline § Culture and Emoting § Emoting in Adulthood § Case Study in Emoting

Chapter 13 Outline § Holodynski and Shweder § Are there Universal or Basic Emotions? § Darwin and Emotions

Chapter 13 Outline § Paul Ekman and Caroll Izard § Emotions and Facial Expressions § Facial Action Coding System

Chapter 13 Outline § Comparing Emotions: Socially Engaging and Disengaging Emotions § Self-Construals and Emotions § How do we learn culturally appropriate ways to express our emotions?

Chapter 13 Outline § Cultural Display Rules § Culture across Disciplines – Culture, Emotions, and Pretend Play § Culture Specific Studies on Emotion § Cross Cultural Studies on Emotion

Chapter 13 Outline § Emotion and Self-regulation § Cultural Worldviews and Self. Regulation § Emotion Regulation

Chapter 13 Outline § Emotion and Language § Indigenous and Cross-Cultural Examples § Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Emotion

Chapter 13 Learning Goals § Define the term emotion § Compare the two major theories of emotion § Explain the difference between emotion and emoting § Discuss whether emotions are universal

Chapter 13 Learning Goals § Describe the link between emotions and facial expressions § Provide an example of how culture shapes emotional expression § List several examples of cultural display rules

Chapter 13 Learning Goals § Identify the connection between selfconstruals and emotion § Explain the connection between emotion and self-regulation § Summarize the relationship between emotion and language

Engaging with Culture § Wierzbicka (1999) explores the connection between emotion and culture in German communities focusing upon the culture specific use of angst

Wierzbicka’s work on emotion and the German language § The English language borrowed the term angst from German § To English speakers, angst refers to a constant an extreme state of anxiety one experiences because of isolation and loneliness; angst is an intense type of fear often linked to insecurity and worry

Do German speakers experience angst the same way English speakers do? § German speakers distinguish between angst and fear § Angst is a state of being with no known definite causes; it does not connect to one's concrete lived experiences § Fear is an emotional reaction to a specific person, object, thought, or situation; fear is tangible and real

German language use in everyday social situations and emotional meaning § Having difficulty "keeping it together" produces the experience of angst; the lack of self-control and consequential anxiety connects to an inability to identify the cause of things § Fear has a distinct cause so you can have only one fear; in contrast you can have multiple angsts because the causes are unknown

Goleman and Emotional Intelligence § Emotional intelligence - relates to a set of skills and abilities that help us process, understand, interpret, and regulate our emotions and those that belong to others

What are Emotions? § Emotions - subjective responses to experiences in our environment which produce accompanying behavioral and physiological changes

How do we Process, Express. and Experience Emotions? § In our daily social interactions and relationships that take place in particular cultural and social settings § In response to events in the environments in which we find ourselves

James-Lange Theory of Emotion § Physiological responses lead to our emotional experience of a particular situation § Example: You are riding a roller coaster. This situation makes you tense. Your blood pressure rises, and you begin to perspire. Your awareness of these changes leads you to interpret the situation and you experience fear

James- Lange Theory External Stimulus Riding a Roller Coaster CNS Arousal Increased heart rate, perspiration Emotional Response Fear

Criticisms of the James-Lange Theory of Emotion 1. It does not account for the role of facial expressions in emotion, a focus of contemporary emotion research 2. Cultural settings and other contextual factors are not critical to how we interpret our emotional experiences

The Two Factor Theory of Emotions § We experience emotions because of our physiological responses and how we interpret those responses in the context of a particular situation § Our emotional response depends in part, on our cognitive appraisal of our physiological changes and the situation

The Two Factor Theory of Emotions § Example: § If your heart beats rapidly before you have to speak in public, you interpret this situation as fear § If your heart beats rapidly after you win the lottery, you would most likely would experience excitement

The Two Factor Theory of Emotions § Friendlier to cultural psychology because it takes into account how situational and contextual factors shape our interpretations of our emotional experience

Two Factor Theory of Emotion External stimulus Riding a Roller Coaster CNS Arousal Increased heart rate, perspiration Cognitive Label of the event – I must be afraid of roller coasters Emotional Response – Fear

Other Approaches to Emotion - Emoting § Mesquita - argues that emotions are not internal, individual responses that take place in a vacuum § Emotions are actions grounded in the social contexts in which they mutually become and shape our social relationships

Mesquita views Emoting as: § Ongoing adjustments attuned to unfolding transactions with the practical and social world that include the mutual constitution of emotions and particular relationships – § Termed this “acting in context”

Emoting in Infancy § Infants emote in the context of attachment relationships with caregivers § Empirical evidence to support the claim that infants understand emotions while participating in social interactions with caregivers well before they have mental representations of these emotions

Evidence for Emoting in Infancy § Walker-Andrews (2008) found that infants can distinguish between the primary emotions of anger, happiness, and sadness when interacting with their caregivers but this ability emerges well before they can read these emotions in their caregivers’ faces or voice changes

How does Emoting Take Place in Infancy? § Communication between infants and caregivers is bidirectional § The caregiver’s response and subsequent action to an infant’s expressive communication forms the basis of how emoting takes place during relationships

Emoting in Early Childhood § Many children extend their social relationships beyond family members to peers and it is in these contexts that children learn about emotions § Caregivers and adults continue to shape children’s understanding of emotions

Example of Emoting in Early Childhood Adults-child conversations about emotions § In these exchanges, adults socialize children about cultural norms and expectations for expressing emotions § Through observing adults in their social world, children will come to internalize culturally appropriate ways to communicate and express their emotional needs and desires

Culture and Emoting § Mesquita (2010) noted how culture, gender roles, and power shape emoting § One example that highlights cultural meaning with respect to relationships is the use of shame § Many East Asian societies use shame as a form of social control in both the home and broader settings

How Shame Connects to Emoting § Shame is a socially engaging emotion that highlights the connectedness of individuals, cultural values that surface in East Asian cultural practices § Shame is an emotional response that encourages humility, obedience, and interdependency

Emoting in Adulthood § Emoting in adult relationships focuses upon romantic partners § The bidirectional nature of couple interactions and the way partners construct and coordinate their emotions explains how emoting takes place § These partners ‘act in context’ with each other and emotions mutually converge in their interactions

What can we conclude about the position of emoting in understanding human emotional experiences? § Emoting and relationships mutually constitute one another in particular cultural and social contexts such that cultural models will shape the form, expression, and meaning emoting takes

Case Study in Emoting § Cole, Tamang, and Shrestha (2006) explored the connection between socialization practices and emoting in distinct cultural groups from Nepal - the Tamang and Brahmans

Cole and Colleagues’ Case Study in Emoting The Tamang § The Tamang are Buddhists who value selfcriticism and compassionate tolerance § Displays of anger receive caregiver disproval because they disrupt group harmony and interdependency whereas shame is valued for its ability to bring about humility

Cole and Colleagues’ Case Study in Emoting The Brahams § The Brahmans – a higher order social status; positively views anger for its value in communicating dominance whereas shame carries a negative connotation which links it to weakness

Nepalese Parental Interactions with Young Children Depended upon the Emotion and Cultural Values § Tamang adults responded positively to children’s shame by demonstrating culturally appropriate ways to express this emotion § Tamang adults responded negatively to children’s anger displays through punishment and teasing because they violated cultural expectations – group harmony

Nepalese Parental Interactions with Young Children Depended upon the Emotion and Cultural Values § Brahman caregivers ignored children’s expressions of shame because these connect to weakness § Caregivers responded to a children’s anger as a positive display because it connects to a way to assert dominance § In parent-child social interactions, caregivers’ responses teach their children what emotions are culturally valued and how children might express these emotions when engaged in relationships in particular social situations

Holodynski and Shweder § Take a developmental approach suggest that we acquire our ability to communicate emotionally through our social interactions in local, cultural contexts § Richard Shweder and his colleagues (2008) suggest that a better way to understand emotions is to break them down into smaller parts and comparing these parts between cultures § What would this approach contribute to the study of emotions?

Are there Universal or Basic Emotions? § Evidence to support both sides of this debate § Darwin and Ekman conducted studies which appear to support the universality of emotions § Evidence for the role of culture in emotions comes from the great deal of variability that exists in how intense or frequently people experience certain emotions, what triggers their emotional response, and the emotional display or expression

Are there Universal or Basic Emotions? § Age and cognitive ability also guide the way people respond to and express emotional reactions § Shweder and colleagues - the meaning of emotions should connect to the cultural contexts in which they occur § Other researchers support the idea that emotions are culturally embedded and culturally specific experiences that can only be understood in local contexts

Darwin and Emotions § Darwin hypothesized that emotional expression in humans was analogous to that in animals § Believed our emotional expressions were innate, inherited characteristics just like any other behavior

Darwin conducted one of the first studies on how people identify emotions from facial expressions § Guillame Duchenne at the time was studying emotional expression by electrically stimulating facial movements. Duchenne believed that our face had the capacity to express 60 universal human emotions § Darwin disagreed with Duchenne’s findings and proceeded to conduct one of the first experiments on emotions

Darwin’s Study on Human Emotions and Facial Expressions § Used a single blind study - only the researcher knows the nature of the study § Selected several Duchenne photographs § Randomly presented them to approximately two dozen of his dinner guests, and asked his guests what emotion the man communicated

Darwin’s Study on Emotions § Contradicted Duchenne’s conclusions regarding the quantity of universal emotions § Suggested there were only several universal emotions – lends support to the view that humans share basic, universal emotions § His technique is useful in evaluating people who have difficulty in recognizing and identifying facial displays of emotion because of brain disorders or mental illness

Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen § Compared the abilities of both literate and nonliterate peoples to connect emotions to facial expressions § Similar to Darwin, these researchers showed participants photographs of posed people displaying different facial expressions § Concluded that both cultural groups were able to identify particular emotions

Ekman and Friesen’s Cross-Cultural Study on Facial Expressions and Emotions § Confirmed Darwin’s earlier findings that there are basic, universal emotions § Identified six universal, primary emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, disgust, interest, surprise, and fear § Provided contemporary evidence that facial displays communicate our emotional state and how we feel § Later expanded the list of universal emotions to include contempt and pride

Flaws with early studies on facial expressions and emotion § Ekman and Friesen replaced the still photographs with a story because the standard method didn’t seem to work very well with New Guinea participants § Literate groups matched a list of terms for emotions to still photographs - the list contained English terms which might have discouraged participants from using local terms for emotions § Looking at still photographs of emotions is not the same as observing people’s facial expressions in daily social interactions

Emotions and Facial Expressions § Studies confirm that facial expressions communicate a set of universal emotional responses § How is this possible? § Is our ability to move facial muscles to communicate emotions inborn or learned? § Matsumoto and Willingham explored these questions

Matsumoto and Willingham’s comparison of the spontaneous facial expressions of sighted and blind athletes § Recorded the spontaneous expressions of athletes after a match, receiving a medal, and standing on the podium § Used these expressions to compare against blind athletes § What did they find?

Matsumoto and Willingham’s Findings § Sighted and blind athletes smiled more when they received the gold medal compared to athletes who received lesser medals in all three situations § Blind and sighted athletes were more likely to produce facial expressions that communicated sadness when they received silver medals after they learned their match results

Matsumoto and Willingham’s Findings § Concluded that sighted and blind athletes experienced similar emotions in the same situations and communicated these using similar facial expressions § Findings provide support for a biological basis to explain our ability to communicate emotions through facial expressions

Ekman and Friesen Developed the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) § Measures any observable muscle movement in the face and consequently can analyze any human facial expression § System can identify 44 independent movements our facial muscles control § They termed these Action Units (AUs)

Cross-cultural Studies on Facial Activity § Tsai and Chentsova-Dutton (2003) § Found differs in the facial activity of European Americans of Irish and Scandinavian cultural heritages when expressing happiness and intimate relationship memories § The Scandinavian group had less emotionally expressive faces than the Irish group did

What might account for Tsai and Chentsova. Dutton’s (2003) findings? § Reasoned that the differences reflected Scandinavian cultural norms that support emotional restraints and Irish cultural norms that encourage emotional expression § Other studies found inconclusive results

Comparing Emotions: Socially Engaging and Disengaging Emotions § Socially disengaging positive emotions such as pride are those that we experience when we are successful and feel superior to others § Socially disengaging negative emotions such as anger are those we experience when we fail or cannot achieve our goals

Socially Disengaging Emotions and the Self § Expressing these emotions link to independent self-construals § These emotions connect to our motivation to pursue our own interests, make our own decisions, and attain individual achievement, self-expression, and personal success

Comparing Emotions: Socially Engaging and Disengaging Emotions § Socially engaging positive emotions are those that foster feelings of belonging and friendliness § Socially engaging negative emotions such as shame or guilt are those we experience when we fail to meet social expectations or norms

Socially Engaging Emotions and the Self § Expressing these emotions links to interdependent self-construals § Social engaging emotions reinforce and result in social harmony, a sensitivity to others, and attending to one’s social surroundings which are important goals in communities that support an interdependent self

Kitayama, Mesquita, and Karasawa (2006) explored how people experience emotion in particular daily social situations § Study 1: employed self-report diaries that recorded emotional events participants’ experiences in their daily interactions and then their consequent ratings of those experiences § Study 2: asked participants to rate their emotional experiences for common, preselected social situations § Analyses focused upon the dimensions of pleasantness and social orientation selected in part for their relevance in people’s everyday interactions

Kitayama and Colleagues’ Findings § Japanese participants experienced more socially disengaging emotions and the reverse was true for the American sample § American and Japanese participants experienced well-being through positive emotions in different ways that connect to the self and cultural values § American well-being highly correlated with positive disengaging emotions whereas Japanese well-being highly correlated with positive engaging emotions

Kitayama and Colleagues’ Findings § These practices and cultural settings reinforce participation in tasks and experiences that lead to friendly, respectful social interactions § Cultural settings provide participants with the necessary opportunities and tasks to achieve these goals

Cultural influences on emotional expression may relate to cultural ideology but sometimes these types of explanations might be too simplistic § Kitayama, Mesquita, and Karasawa (2006) use the term cultural affordance to refer to the ability of cultural settings to evoke specific emotional response and meaning § Cultural settings will provide tasks that encourage and reinforce socially engaging or disengaging emotional experiences

Criticisms of these Types of Comparative Studies § Concentrate only on culture-specific display rules for emotion § Need to explore how individuals derive and process meaning from these expressions in their everyday social interactions § Acknowledge intragroup variability in emotional expression § Need to understand emotional meanings in the specific cultural contexts in which they occur

Self-Construals and Emotions § Markus and Kitayama (2009) explore the connection between self-construals and emotional experience § Investigated two different types of emotions § Ego focused and Other focused

Self-Construals and Emotions § Ego focused emotions - relate to a person’s internal qualities and personal goals, wants, and needs § Examples: anger and pride § These emotions surface when we are unable to attain our goals or wants § Socialization and cultural practices for people with independent self-construals encourage autonomy, self-expression, and uniqueness

Self-Construals and Ego Focused Emotions § Communities with this cultural model encourage the independent self to experience and express these types of emotions because they help define the self in culturally appropriate ways § Ego focused emotions: § Connect to one’s inner attributes - learning how to express and experience these emotions is critical to an independent self § Should surface more in people with an independent self because they help the person validate the self

Self-Construals and Other Focused Emotions § Other focused emotions - focus upon other people, not the self § Emotions such as empathy and shame arise when we are sensitive to other people’s needs, take another person’s perspective, and seek out reciprocal, obligatory relationships § These emotional experiences in turn reinforce cultural values that focus upon group cohesion, connectedness to others, and prosocial behaviors

Self-Construals and Other Focused Emotions § Learning how to experience and express these emotions are critical to constructing an interdependent self § Communities with this cultural model encourage individuals to suppress internal attributes and personal feelings that are important to the independent self and instead experience and express emotions that reinforce constructing an interdependent self

How do people worldwide experience, express, and value pride? § To the independent self, pride is an ego focused and important socially engaging emotion – in this model the person has to be able to experience and express pride § Pride makes individuals with independent selfconcepts feel good and these positive feelings increase their self-esteem § Reinforces the cultural values of being the best

How do people worldwide experience, express, and value pride? § The expression of pride may be disruptive to communities where socialization practices value group harmony and a sensitivity to others § Pride draws attention to the self and one’s accomplishments - suppressing pride may be socially supported § In constructing an interdependent self, humility is the social expectation one incorporates

How do we learn culturally appropriate ways to express our emotions? § Through our social interactions with others § Our cultural and socialization practices reinforce cultural values and participation in these practices and routines broaden our experiences and help us find meaning in them

Parents, teachers, peers, and social others all help shape our emotional experiences Example: Receiving an achievement award at school § In Japan, when children perform well at school they may receive an award - Japanese cultural values promote harmony and encourage a sensitivity to others, so children learn to display humility in these situations § In an American school, many American children would likely experience pride and learn that in these situations, pride is an appropriate emotional expression because it connects to American values of achievement and autonomy

Question to Ponder § Can you think of a cultural practice in which you learned about how your cultural community views and values emotions?

How do we Learn Emotional Competence? § Cultural models - constructs that help us make sense of our social and cultural worlds through our feelings, thoughts, and actions 1. Individualistic emotional competence model 2. Relational emotional competence model § We experience and interact with these models through our daily participation in cultural practices and routines and the language we speak

Individualistic Emotional Competence Models § In these models, caregivers socialize their children to internalize values of autonomy, uniqueness, and self-expression § Many caregivers can either provide support when children display negative emotions or ignore or neglect their children when they have these types of emotional experiences § Appears in many Western countries that value individuality and parent ethnotheories reflect these values and beliefs

The Relational Emotional Competence Model § In these models, caregivers socialize their children to internalize values of social harmony, humility, and a sensitivity to others § Many caregivers provide and encourage the development of empathy through indulging the child when he or she is young § Appears in many non-Western countries that value group harmony, behaving according to social expectations, a sensitivity to others, humility and parent ethnotheories reflect these values and beliefs

Learning about appropriate emotional responses through play § Briggs (2000) observed that Inuit children participate in playful question and answering sessions with caregivers that provide children with opportunities to learn culturally appropriate ways to resolve social and moral issues § Children’s participation in these cultural routines help them acquire meaning about emotions, learn how to construct and extract meaning about emotions, and how they will relate and apply these meanings to their social lives

Culture across Cultures – Culture, Emotions, and Pretend Play § Piaget (1951) believed that children could express feelings, conflicts, and impulses through symbols in pretend play which they could not do in real life situations § Gregory Bateson (1976) believed that pretend play provided children a context in which they could try out and practice emotions they learned from participating in cultural routines and social interactions without the fear of consequences § Freud (1953) believed pretend play helped children reduce anxiety and cope with their real life stresses and problems

Gaskins and Miller’s Cross-Cultural Study on Pretend Play The U. S Sample § Middle income American parents valued play, played with their children, and made sure their kids had both the time and toys for playful activities § Parents encouraged children to engage in pretend play and this activity accounted for a large percentage of their play § These European American children lived in nuclear households, parents structured most of their day for them, and children contributed little if any to their family’s wellbeing

Gaskins and Miller’s Cross-Cultural Study on Pretend Play The Yucatec Sample § Parents expected their children to help with chores play is something children do when they are not contributing to their family’s well-being; parents did not play with their children § Children structured their own activities and spent most of their free time with similar age relatives § Most play activities involved large, mixed age and cross – sex social groups; children rarely engaged in pretend play

How European American and Yucatec children incorporate emotions in their pretend play § European American children draw upon real life social interactions situations, bedtime stories or children’s literature, and their own imaginative creations such as an imaginary companion § Yucatec Maya children included emotional expression in their pretend play scripts but it reflected the emotions they see and use in real life social interactions

How European American and Yucatec children incorporate emotions in their pretend play § The Maya worldview emphasizes the importance of truthful narratives based upon real life rather than fictional tales or characters § Mayan children do not draw upon fantasy for their emotional material in pretend play as a reflection of the Mayan worldview

In pretend play, children learn and practice cultural expectations of emotional expression § True for both European American and Mayan children but the differences in the children’s emotional expression was a reflection of the children’s lived experiences and cultural norms § In their pretend play European American children might displayful aggression, forceful anger, or try out different emotions in novel situations with their play partners – these reflect American values § These types of emotional displays would not appear in Yucatec Mayan children’s pretend play

What accounts for the different emotional displays in American and Mayan children’s play? § Although a European American child might ‘yell at’ a mother in pretend play, this would be culturally inappropriate in Yucatec Maya social interactions § Mayan children carefully develop play scripts so that all players have a shared understanding of the script § Pretend play does not function to help Mayan children work through their emotional needs - these children are active agents in their social world and in these interactions, children are able to fulfill and work through those needs

Cultural Display Rules § Cultural display rules help guide us through the process of communicating our emotions through facial expression § Cultural display rules - cultural prescriptions that govern how we manage, adjust, and express our basic emotional responses § Suggests that some emotional displays are learned and not innate

Matsumoto and colleagues developed the Display Rule Assessment Inventory § Links behavioral responses to emotional experience in diverse situations § Matsumoto and colleagues (2008) utilized the DRAI to explore the universality of display rules and how these might connect to the individualism-collectivism continuum § Using a 30 country sample, they found several trends

Matsumoto and colleagues’ (2008) Findings § Most countries scored similarly on control of emotions § In all countries, participants believed in expressing emotions with in-group members compared to outgroup members § Collectivist countries were more likely to control emotions than individualistic countries

Culture Specific Studies on Emotion § Among the Oriya, a Hindu community in India there is a facial expression (biting the tongue) that conveys a local, culturally mediated emotion – lajya or lajja § Lajya translates roughly as shame and Oriya speakers have separate terms for shame, anger (raga), and happiness (sukha). So does English. But evaluations, meaning, and perceptions of these emotions differ across cultural communities

Menon and Shweder’s Study on Emotions with English and Oriya speakers § Asked American college students and Oriya speakers to make judgements about the differences between shame, anger, and happiness § English speakers judged happiness or shame to be most different from anger § The Oriya speakers did not § How can cultures that have language terms for the same emotion differ in their judgments?

Menon and Shweder’s Findings § One explanation is cultural values, beliefs, attitudes and how people shape emotional meaning from their daily interactions and cultural practices shape these perceptions

Menon and Shweder’s Findings In the Oriya lived experience § Lajya is a desirable and positive emotion - it reinforces cultural values of humility, social obligation, and respect § Shame is good - it reinforces social cohesion and a sensitivity to others § Anger is a negative emotion - it disrupts social relationships and harmony § Shame and happiness help shape social relationships

Cross-Cultural Studies on Emotion § Hoffman (2012) uses Hofstede’s (1980) cultural dimension, individualism-collectivism to explore how these ideologies affect people’s happiness in these communities § Suggests that social contracts people form in these different communities connect to how they experience and express happiness § Individual feelings and goals are more important for those living in individualistic communities

Hoffman’s (2012) work on happiness and cultural ideology § When you are successful, you experience a sense of achievement and ultimately an increase in self-esteem. These outcomes make us happy because they reinforce cultural values § Collectivist communities, one’s happiness and well-being is more dependent on others and the social contracts they maintain

Zwolinski (2011) points to cultural models of the self and cultural attitudes towards conceptions of happiness § Your perception of happiness depends upon how happiness connects to your cultural values § Uchida et al (2004) found that in Western, communities that support an independent self, happiness connects to this cultural model which highlights personal achievement, uniqueness, and independence

Hoffman’s (2012) work on happiness and cultural ideology § In many non-Western communities, cultural models of the self emphasize interdependency, group cohesion, and a sensitivity to others § In these communities, happiness connects to group harmony and the relationships an individual has with others

Do you think people from different countries define happiness in similar ways? § Lu and Gilmour (2004) asked European American and Chinese adults to write about their conceptions of happiness § Found that Chinese conceptions focused upon Confucian values such as balance and harmony in social and natural settings § Chinese adults associated happiness with social cohesion, reciprocal social obligations, and harmony within the same individual and between individuals

Li and Gilmour’s cross-cultural study on happiness § Chinese participants construct their ideas about happiness guided by cultural values and norms § These ideas connect to Chinese construal's of self § European American participants’ conceptions of happiness focused upon personal achievement, a core American value that connects to American construal's of self

Emotion and Self-Regulation § Self-regulation - the ability to adjust your behavior to meet the demands of a given situation § In self-regulation, you learn to evaluate information in your environment to adjust your actions, thoughts, and feelings to others’ expectations § In Western thinking, self-regulation positively connects to academic achievement and success - this connection is not true for other cultural regions such as Korea

Self-Regulation § Across cultures, self-regulation is an important ability children learn through culturally embedded socialization practices and routines § Caregivers and other socializing agents rely on cultural values and expectations to shape the abilities and knowledge their children need to acquire in order to learn self-regulation

Cultural Worldviews and Self-Regulation § Many Western communities emphasize core values such as autonomy, uniqueness, and self-expression § The goals of self-regulation in this view should focus upon pursuing our personal interests and goals § Many non-Western communities emphasize core values such as group cohesion and a sensitivity to others § The goals of self-regulation in this view should focus upon pursuing goals that help the self adjust to the needs of others to foster group cohesion

Emotion Regulation § Emotion regulation - the process by which we adjust our emotional experiences and expression in particular situations

Tracy and Matsumoto’s (2008) study on cultural worldviews and emotion § In communities that support an independent self and core values such as autonomy, uniqueness, and self-expression, people are: § More likely to openly express their emotions including pride and anger § Less likely to experience and express shame - shame connects to an individual’s failures and blocks our ability to increase our self-esteem and feel good about ourselves § More likely to experience pride - this increases a person’s ability to self-regulate his or her actions, thoughts, and feelings because it communicates to the self that it was successful

Tracy and Matsumoto’s (2008) study on cultural worldviews and emotion § In communities that support an interdependent self and core values such as group cohesion, emotions such as empathy and shame people are: § likely to strive to do well because of the good feelings and honor it brings to the group, not the individual § less likely to express anger as this would work against these goals § more likely to experience and express shame

Example of the connection between cultural worldview and emotion regulation Many Asian children experience shame when they fail to meet their parents’ expectations § Because of the interconnected self, this shame extends to one’s family and may cause a family to lose face § For many Asian children, shame is a positive powerful emotion because it motivates children to study harder and preserve at difficult tasks § Empathy is also highly valued because it reinforces core cultural values such as group harmony and being sensitive to others’ needs and desires

Other factors that shape our emotional regulation § Parenting styles which encourage autonomy and interdependence § Political systems that advocate for human rights § Religious beliefs § Wealth

Emotion and language § Emotions and culture mutually constitute each other § We learn about and bring meaning to our emotions through our social interactions and participation in cultural routines and practices

Emotion and language § Language and emotions are partners – without language, we can’t communicate our feelings and without emotions we could not experience feelings § Language also communicates and reflects cultural values, emotional meaning, and shapes our attitudes about emotions and emotional experiences

The Relationship Between Language, Culture, and Emotion Culture Language Emotion

Indigenous and Cross-Cultural Examples that Connect Language and Emotion § Language reflects how people process, interpret, and perceive emotions § In Fijian Hindi, bhaw translates as feelings - it does not include moods or internal states § Japanese mothers often use the terms kowai (scary, scared, to scare) and okashii (strange) in speech acts with their children in ways that help children acquire an understanding of cultural values and social norms

Language, Emotion, and Culture – The Awlād ‘Ali § The Awlād ‘Ali are one of several Egyptian Bedouin tribes § An Awlād ‘Ali woman experiences and expresses emotions in various ways depending upon the social situation

The Awlād ‘Ali – Women’s Emotional Expression The Awlād’Ali have two different cultural discourses that shape the affect the person feels and communicates § A woman may disclose the anger she feels about her separation from her husband to a friend in public, everyday conversation § She may also sing a poem – the poem describes this same loss and life event but this time she conveys hurt and sadness

The Awlād ‘Ali - The connection between culture, language, and emotion § Honor is central to the Awlād ‘Ali worldview – a community’s honor code dictates that an individual present the self as independent § In everyday speech interactions, the honor code shapes the way people behave, interpret, and communicate their feelings

The Awlād ‘Ali – Women’s Emotional Expression § The honor code shapes the way the Awlād ‘Ali woman expressed anger when she experienced the loss of her husband in public conversation - anger is a positive way to express loss because it communicates that the individual is taking charge of the situation § Singing a poem preserved her honor – it allowed the woman a culturally appropriate way to express a different emotional response, sadness over this loss to her friends and family, an emotional experience she could not communicate in public conversation

The Alwād’Ali Connection Between Culture, Language, and Emotion Cultural beliefs The Alwād'Ali Honor Code Cultural Discourses Everyday Conversation/Po ems Emotional Response - Anger and Sadness