Sunteți pe pagina 1din 4

Expression of Emotion as a Function of Culture

There are so many different feelings a person can experience in their lives due to what

they are experiencing in the moment. For me, I can feel happy, anxious, angry and sad all within

the same day. Emotion is a response that involves some combination of physiological arousal,

subjective experience, and behavioral expression. The understanding of human emotions has

always been something philosophical minds have pondered, but only recently (about a century

ago) have people scientifically studied it. There are a handful of theories on emotions which

were tested in North America and Europe. The James-Lange theory states that emotion is the

physiological arousal caused by events, but in the Cannon-Bard theory states that we experience

emotions which cause physiological reactions (Shiraev & Levy 2017, pg. 168-169). The

applicability of the theories could change based on where you are culturally.

Even though a language barrier may exist, people generally can determine one’s

emotions based on facial expression. There was a study done that focused on being able to

identify six emotions; happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, or disgust. The subjects were

people from five different countries- the United States, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Japan. They

were all shown photographs on people displaying those emotions and most subjects were able to

identify them correctly, (Shiraev & Levy 2017, pg. 171). Despite the similar facial expressions in

emotion, people across all cultures may react differently to an emotion. One example is a

Chinese father may feel sad about his child leaving home for college, but not show it because of

the cultural expectation of “if I show vulnerability, then I am considered to be weak.” Evidence

shows that people are more comfortable and confident in their emotional responses when there

are clear norms in how to respond to them. (Shiraev & Levy 2017, pg. 181).
A study was published in 2015 that examined cross-cultural differences in how emotional

expressions within a group can be used to figure out a norm violation in the cultures of four

countries (The United States, Israel, Germany and Greece). Participants went to a laboratory in

groups of no more than five. The participants were directed to pretend they were invited to a tea

drinking ceremony. During the ceremony, participants were shown three photos showing the

actions of three group members and the other members’ reactions to the actions. Interestingly,

through the images shown, German participants were more likely to perceive anger while Greek

participants were more likely to perceive sadness. This study showed that anger is a signal for a

norm violation across all cultures. However, the sensitivity to angry expressions and the

perception of it is determined by where one is from culturally, (Hareli, Shlomo, Kanstantinos,

Hess, & Ursula 2015).

(Sample image shown in the research)

Around two years ago, my best friend invited her German exchange friends who she had

met in high school to stay with her for a week in her dorm. Getting to know the German girls and

how we are culturally different was interesting. One thing I had noticed is that certain things
would generate happiness for them that we viewed to be everyday things. Some of the things

included eating bagels, making Kraft mac n’ cheese, or going to a Target. Those things made

sense because they are not used to being exposed to things like that in Germany. The way these

German girls expressed their excitement and happiness was in a way which was similar and

identifiable to how we express positive emotions in the United States.

I think that overall, we express our emotions pretty universally. Those emotions in which

we express can also easily be identifiable throughout all cultures. Smiling shows we are happy,

crying shows we are sad, furrowed brows shows we are angry. Depending on where you are

from culturally though can determine when it is acceptable to express said emotions. The

research done in 2015 shows that four different cultures perceived the images, all showing the

same emotions, differently. This all depended on which emotions the participants from these

cultures thought fit into the social norm of their culture. What it did find though is that anger is

something that all cultures find to be a norm violation, which means that people think that being

angry in a social situation is something that is unsettling. From my experience, it was easy to tell

when the German exchange students were happy just because they expressed things similarly to

us. The facial expressions of emotions may be similar, but the way we perceive them can vary

depending on what seems most correct within a culture.


References

Shiraev, E., & Levy, D. A. (2017). Cross-cultural psychology critical thinking and

contemporary applications. New York: Routledge.

Hareli, Shlomo, Konstantinos, Hess, & Ursula. (2015, September 17). A cross-cultural study on

emotion expression and the learning of social norms. Retrieved from

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01501/full

S-ar putea să vă placă și