Emotions(Ch 7 from Berry et al., Cross-cultural Psychology, 2002)

Ype H. Poortinga (Prof Em)

Tilburg University, Netherlands &

University of Leuven, Belgium

Outline

Understanding cultural "others"

Universality of emotions

Emotions as culture-specific experiences

Componential approaches to emotions

Conclusions

Understanding cultural "others"

The Greeks refer to themselves as “philotimous”Can we really understand the meaning of this?The answer in the chapter is based on research by Osgood in 30 populations Starting point was the distinction between denotative and connotative (or affective) meaning of words; in the USA three connotative dimensions: Evaluation, Potency, and Activity

Steps followed in each of the countries:- 100 (common) nouns,- adjectives associated with these nouns,- extraction of 50 bipolar pairs of adjectives in each country,- 100 respondents rate the 100 nouns on the fifty scales- “pancultural” factor analysis -> three dimensions within and across countries- translation (only now!) showed similarities in meaning for each dimension

Conclusion: there is similarity in the space of affective meaning, we can have an idea what Greeks experience with “philotimo”

Universality of emotionsRecognition of facial expression Ekman examined "basic" emotions, derived from facial muscular patterns: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise disgust and (later) contempt, with Western and illiterate groups. He sees observable differences mainly as a matter of display rules (when to express what)NB This evidence for universality of basic emotions has been questioned by others like Russell, favoring a dimensional approach rather than a typology

Recognition of vocal expressionEmotions in the tone of voice tend to be recognized everywhere, although not as good as in one’s own language

Non-verbal communication Gestures include: adaptors (or body manipulators), regulators, illustrators and emblems. The latter consist of referential and conventional emblemsThere is evidence of substantial cc agreement even in the meaning of conventional emblems, although there is complete non-understanding of some emblems (when based on a culture-specific symbol)

Emotions as culture-specific states

The meaning of emotion is constructed on the basis of social roles or scriptsAn example is the description by Lutz of the emotion song (justified anger) among the Ifaluk

The meaning of emotions is linked to language, with culture-specificity and (sometimes, e.g., Wierzbicka) underlying universal meaning categories

Componential approaches to emotions

Components include:- antecedent events- event coding - appraisal (e.g., valence, blame, control)- physiological reaction patterns- action tendencies- emotion behavior (e.g., expressions)- regulation- social sharing

According to leading reviewers each component shows cross-cultural differences as well as similarities

An experiment on cultural specificity "One can assume that there exist words ('emotion words') that dictate the way things are seen; or one can assume that there exist things ('emotions') that are given names and thus have words assigned to them" (Frijda et al., 1995) Culture-specific emotions have been inferred from emotion terms for which there is no translation equivalent, e.g., "Schadenfreude" "song" (justifiable anger among the Ifaluk, Lutz, 1988), or "liget" (anger associated with head hunting among the Ilongots, Rosaldo, 1980)

How can one conduct research relevant to this controversy?

A test case: Are emotions culture-specific?

A rather strict test of identity of emotions, independent of emotion terms, was possible among the Rarámuri, an isolated group in Mexico, where a term for “guilt” as distinct from “shame” is absent in the language. 1. Emotion eliciting situations were collected among Rarámuri and among rural Javanese (see Breugelmans & Poortinga, JPSP, 2005)

2a. Guilt-rated as well as shame-rated situations were found among the protocols of the Rarámuri, with Dutch and Indonesian raters

2b. The ratings were used to select shame-eliciting and guilt-eliciting situations as stimuli 3. Rarámuri and Javanese rated the situations on 29 emotion components that previously had been found to differentiate between shame and guilt in an international student sample 4. For most components, a similar pattern of differentiation as among the students was found both for the Javanese and for the Rarámuri

Guilt - Shame.40.30.20.10.00-.10-.20-.30-.40

Inte

rnal

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xter

nal

.30

.20

.10

.00

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trying to forget

ruminating

smiling

punishing self

explaining

hiding

evading looks

apologizing

sweating

feeling hot

blushing

angry with others

guilt

angry with self

shamebad person

moral norm

harms reputation

others disapprove

being responsible

center of attention

done damage

.40.30.20.10 .00-.10-.20-.30-.40

.30

.20

.10

.00

-.10

-.20

-.30

smiling

punishing self

explaining

hiding

apologizing

sweating

feeling hot

weak limbs

“student guilt”shame

bad person

confuseddeserving punishment

moral norm

harms reputation

others disapprovebeing responsible

center of attentiondone damage

Guilt - Shame

Inte

rnal

- E

xter

nal

Conclusions

The reported outcomes of research on emotions, as in other areas of ccp, tend to be dependent on the perspective of the researcher

Those believing in the primacy of culture in human behavior find “important” differences; those believing in the primacy of humans as organisms find much evidence for cultural invariance of psychological processes and functions