READING - CH10 - EMOTION What is an emotion James-Lange - Emotion is the unique physiological response of our bodies - Suggests an evolutional origin of emotion Two-factor theory - Emotion is the physiological response and our interpretation of it - embraced by Schacter and Singer - Suggests a culturally defined definition of emotion Does Emotional experience vary across cultures Emotions and facial expressions - Facial expressions appear to be reflexive - Cultures with little to no experience with western culture still show 4 of the basic emotional expressions · happy · sad · angry · disgusted - Other emotions in question · shame, embarrassment, pride, contempt, interest Cultural variation in facial expression - Link between facial expression and inferred emotion appears to be functional universal - There enough differences between cultures that people are better at identifying emotions from people they are familiar with . Japanese tend to focus on the eyes while Americans focus on the mouth Culture Display rules - Cultures have different rules about sharing emotion · strength of expression · Mediterranean people express pain more than Irish - Tongue bite is perhaps a cultural invention of emotion rather than a reflexive one · Ritualized display Facial Feedback hypothesis - the face we instinctively make causes us to experience the emotion not the other way around 1
. tested by making people bite a pencil in their teeth and rate comics vs without touching their teeth Cultural variation in intensity of emotional experience - Westerners seem to experience emotions more intensely and for a longer duration that Easterners - East asians less attentive to their visceral state - Evidence that East-asians experience anger less intensely -> cultural display rules influence how we express emotion which can influence how we experience it Emotion and Language - Problem with western "basic emotions" -> 1. many languages do not have words that correspond to English emotion words . Natyasastra - Indian treatise on emotion -> did not have overlap with happi- ness or suprise 2. Emotion categorization is different as well . Some Ugandans do not differentiate sorrow and anger 3. Many languages have additional emotion words not captured in english · Schadenfreude - pleasant feelings when witnessing misfortune of others . Amae - pleasant feeling that comes when allowed to behave poorly towards someone to demonstrate dependence, and have them respond favourably. Much diversity in the way language is described but cannot say whether the experi- ences themselves are the same internally. Cultural variation in kinds of emotional experiences - Emotions people experience more often are those related to important cultural concepts . Turks feel more shame and anger which are related to honour . Japanese feel more shame but not more anger, related to face - General positive feelings are higher for Americans when emotions lead to distinc- tion from others, higher in Japanese when emotions lead to connectedness with others. Cultural variation in subjective well-being and happiness - Most countries view happiness being associated with luck