The role of emotions in the function of culture

Cultural display rules

• rules that are learned early in life that specify the management and modification
  of emotional expressions (social circumstances)
• can work in several different ways.

Cultural display rules examples

• people express emotions
  “as is” (i.e., as they feel them), to....
  • exaggerate their expressions to show more than what is
    actually felt
• to tone down their expressions
  • show less than what is actually felt,
• to conceal their feelings
  • expressing something else, or to show nothing at all.

Interpersonal

• relationship or interaction between two or more individuals in a group

Impact of interpersonal relationships

• interpersonal functions of emotion refer to the effects of one’s emotions on others, or to the relationship between oneself and others.

Intrapersonal

• what occurs within oneself

Intrapersonal and emotion

• functions of emotion refer
  to the effects of emotion to individuals that occur physically inside their bodies and psychologically inside their minds.

Society

• refers to a system of relationships between individuals and groups of individuals

Cultural

refers to the meaning and information afforded to that system that is transmitted
across generations

Social and cultural (functions of emotion)

• the effects that
  emotions have on the functioning and maintenance of societies and cultures.

Social referencing

• the process whereby individuals look for information from others to clarify a situation, and then use that information to act

Social referencing and decisions

• individuals will often use the emotional expressions of others as a source of information to make decisions about their own behavior.

2D Map of Affective States

Ideal Affect vs. Actual Affect

Affect (2 Dimensions)

• arousal
• valence

Affect (arousal)

• high arousal-positive states refer to excitement, elation, and enthusiasm.
• Low arousal positive states refer to calm, peacefulness, and relaxation.
• “actual affect” refers to the states that people feel, “ideal affect” refers to the states that people ideally want to feel

Culture

• Shared, socially transmitted ideas (e.g., values, beliefs, attitudes) that are reflected in and reinforced by institutions, products, and rituals.

Emotions

• Changes in subjective experience, physiological responding, and behavior in response to a meaningful event.
• occur on the order of seconds (in contract to moods
  which may last for days).

Feelings

• describe a wide range of states that include emotions, moods, traits
  and that typically involve changes in subjective experience, physiological responding, and
  behavior in response to a meaningful event
• Emotions = order of seconds
• Mood = last for days
• Traits = tendencies to respond a certain way across
  various situations.

Independent self

• A model or view of the self as distinct from others and as stable across different situations.
• Goal = to express and assert the self, and to influence others.
• prevalent in many individualistic, Western contexts (e.g., the United States, Australia, Western Europe)

Interdependent self

• A model or view of the self as connected to others and as changing in response to different situations.
• goal = to suppress personal preferences and desires,
  and to adjust to others.
• prevalent in many collectivistic, East Asian contexts (e.g., China, Japan, Korea)

Social constructivism

• proposes that knowledge is first created and learned within a social
  context and is then adopted by individuals.

Universalism

• proposes that there are single objective standards, independent of culture, in
  basic domains such as learning, reasoning, and emotion that are a part of all human experience.