Transcript Chapter 8

© 2013 Cengage Learning
Outline
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The Evolution of Human Emotion
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Emotions as Evolved, Information Processing
Systems
 Different Categories of Emotion
 The Cultural Calibration of Emotions
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The Biological Bases of Emotion – Basic
Emotions
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The Original Universality Studies
Research on Facial Expressions of Emotion After the
Original Universality Studies
Outline (cont’d.)

The Biological Bases of Emotion – Basic
Emotions (cont’d.)
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Other Sources of Evidence for the Universality of
Basic Emotions and Their Possible Biological Bases
 Summary
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Cultural Regulation of the Basic Emotion System
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Front-end Calibration of the Basic Emotion System:
Cultural Differences in Emotion Antecedents and
Appraisals
Back-End Calibration of the Basic Emotion System:
Cultural Display Rules
Outline (cont’d.)
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Cultural Regulation of the Basic Emotion System
(cont’d.)
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Cultural Calibration of Emotion Judgments
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The Cultural Construction of Emotional
Experience
 The Cultural Construction of Concepts,
Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs About Emotion
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Concepts of Emotion
Categories of Emotion
The Location of Emotion
Outline (cont’d.)

The Cultural Construction of Concepts,
Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs About Emotion
(cont’d.)
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Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs About Emotion
 Summary
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Conclusion
THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN
EMOTION
Emotions as Evolved, Information
Processing Systems
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Emotions give meaning to events
 Feelings: subjective experience/affect; part of
emotion
 Emotions: transient, neurophysiological
reactions to events
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When emotions are triggered, they recruit coordinated
system of components to prepare for dealing with
event
Emotion is a human universal
Different Categories of Emotion
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Basic emotions: triggered by biologically-innate
system in our brains
 Self-conscious emotions: associated with selfreflective processes
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Shame
Guilt
Pride
Embarrassment
The Cultural Calibration of Emotions
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Culture provides necessary coordination and
organization of social complexities
 Cultures create rules, guidelines, values, and
norms concerning regulation of emotion
 Cultural regulation of emotion occurs via:
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Regulating our biologically-based basic emotions
Helping to construct unique emotional experiences
going beyond basic emotions
Helping to construct unique concepts, meanings,
attitudes, values, and beliefs about emotion
THE BIOLOGICAL BASES OF
EMOTION – BASIC EMOTIONS
The Original Universality Studies
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Darwin: facial expressions of emotion have both
communicative and adaptive value
 Universality studies:
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Universal emotions identified: anger, disgust, fear,
happiness, sadness, surprise
Judgments of expressions posed by preliterate
tribes consistent with industrialized nations
 Spontaneous facial expressions of emotion
consistent between Americans and Japanese
Source: Paul Ekman
Research on Facial Expressions
of Emotion after the Original
Universality Studies
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Universal signals found in babies: smiling,
distaste, disgust, and crying
 Perfect correspondence between facial
behaviors produced between blind and sighted
individuals
 Morphological similarities between human
expressions of emotion and nonhuman primate
expressions displayed in similar contexts
Figure 8.5. Comparison of Blind and Sighted Athletes Who Just Lost a Match for a
Medal. Photos Copyright Bob Willingham (Reprinted with Permission)
Other Sources of Evidence for the
Universality of Basic Emotions and
their Possible Biological Bases
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Universality in:
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Emotion recognition
 Physiological responses to emotion
 Subjective emotional experience
 Coherence among emotion response systems
 Emotion antecedents
 Emotion appraisal processes
Figure 8.6. The Seven Basic Emotions and their Universal Expressions
Source: David Matsumoto, Ph.D.
Summary
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Emotions are universal psychological
phenomenon based in evolution of species
Innate emotions allow us to appraise events and
situations in reliable and predictable ways
Emotions trigger host of responses part of
universal emotion package
Recognition of emotions in others has important
social meaning
Universal processes allow us to adapt, respond,
and cope with problems regardless of culture
CULTURAL REGULATION OF
THE BASIC EMOTION SYSTEM
Cultural Regulation of the Basic
Emotion System
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Cultures influence a core, biologically-based
basic emotion system in order to regulate
emotions and ensure social coordination
 Cultural calibration of innate emotion and
expression system allows for regulation of
culturally-appropriate emotional responses
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Allows for culturally-appropriate behavioral
responding, social coordination, prevention of social
chaos
Front-End Calibration of the Basic
Emotion System: Cultural
Differences in Emotion Antecedents
and Appraisals
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Cultural differences exist in relative frequencies
of various antecedent events to bring about an
emotion
 Many appraisal processes appear to be
universal
 Cultures influence what events their members
become emotional about in first place, and how
to interpret those events
Back-End Calibration of the Basic
Emotion System:
Cultural Display Rules
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Cultural display rules: govern how universal
emotions can be expressed
 Display rules can modify expressions:
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Express less than actually felt (deamplification)
 Express more than actually felt (amplification)
 Show nothing (neutralization)
 Show emotion but with another emotion to comment
on it (qualification)
 Mask or conceal feelings (masking)
 Show emotion when not felt (simulation)
A Worldwide Mapping of Display Rules
Cultural Calibration of
Emotion Judgments
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Cultures calibrate how individuals perceive
emotions in others
 Decoding rules: culturally dependent rules
learned early in life that govern how emotional
expressions are recognized
 Cultural differences exist in inferences about
emotional experiences underlying facial
expressions of emotion
CULTURAL CALIBRATION OF
EMOTION JUDGMENTS
Cultural Calibration of
Emotion Judgments
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Cultures calibrate how individuals perceive
emotions in others
Individualistic cultures associated with higher
recognition rates for certain facial expressions
Emotion recognition rates are influenced by
culturally learned decoding rules
Cultural differences in inferences of emotional
experiences underlying facial expressions
Ingroup advantage: ability to recognize emotions
of those with same culture better than others
THE CULTURAL
CONSTRUCTION OF
EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE
The Cultural Construction of
Emotional Experience
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Cultures construct and mold emotional
experiences in different ways
Socially engaging emotions: friendliness,
respect, sympathy, guilt and shame
Socially disengaging emotions: pride, selfesteem, sulkiness, or frustration
Emotional complexity: co-occurrence of both
pleasant and unpleasant emotions
Cultural differences linked to dialectical thinking
THE CULTURAL
CONSTRUCTION OF
CONCEPTS, ATTITUDES,
VALUES, AND BELIEFS ABOUT
EMOTION
Concepts of Emotion
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How American society values and structures
people's feelings and emotions is directly related
to values fostered by American culture
 The way American culture understands and
defines emotion may not be same in other
cultures
 Not all cultures have a word for emotion
Categories of Emotion
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Hypercognize emotions: variations of emotions
are identified and words created for these
variations
 Hypocognize emotions: relatively fewer
variations of emotions exist
 Types of words cultures use to identify and label
emotion
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Gives clues about the way different cultures structure
and mold emotional experiences of their people
The Location of Emotion
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Different cultures locate emotions in different
places
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Americans: heart
 Japanese: hara — gut or abdomen
 Chewong: liver
 Tahitians: intestines
 Ifaluk: "our insides"
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Emotions are understood differently and have
different meanings for different peoples
Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs
about Emotion
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Cultures facilitate different values about emotion
Cultural values about emotion are about how
people want to feel (ideal affect), different than
how people actually feel (actual affect)
Temperament and personality traits, not cultural
values, predict actual affect better than cultural
values
Cultural values predict ideal affect better
Cultures facilitate construction of beliefs about
emotions
Summary
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Many of culturally-constructed emotions are
emotions other than basic emotions
 More complex emotions may require more
cognitive abilities than do basic emotions
 Emotion-related processes that depend on those
cognitive abilities are more heavily related to
culture
CONCLUSION
Conclusion
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Emotions are universally expressed and
recognized
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Cultures also exert profound influences on
emotions
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Emotions elicit expressive behavior, physiology,
cognitions, and action potential in all cultures
Cultures regulate basic emotions by influencing
relative frequencies, types of triggers, and dimensions
Some universal emotions biology-based; others
require higher-order cognitive processes