Cultural psychology
Chapter 10
Emotions
The controversy regarding the similarities and differences of people’s emotional experience around the worlds is based on the disagreement about how we can define emotions.
The James-Lange theory of emotions
James proposed that emotions are the physiological response or ‘bodily reverberations’ to stimuli in the worlds. These physiological responses are products of the autonomic nervous system.
The James-Lange theory maintains that our bodies respond to stimuli in the world by preparing us to react in a survival-facilitating way and our emotions are bodily changes that signal how we should behave.
The theory has been expanded in many ways. Emotions are no longer seen to be just the physiological experience but rather also include appraisals, nonverbal expressions, neural patterns, and subjective feelings.
The two-factor theory of emotions
Emotions are primarily interpretations of those bodily responses.
Suggestions for the origins of emotions
The James-Lange theory and the Two-Factor theory make different predictions regarding whether emotional experience is universal or culturally variable.
If the various extensions of the James-Lange theory are correct, this suggests an evolutionary origin to human emotions. If emotions are specific biological signals that alert people to events in their world, it would follow that this biological machinery must have been assembled through evolution. This suggests that people in all cultures should have the same emotional experiences.
If the Two-Factor theory of emotion is correct it suggests that in addition to a physiological basis, emotions are grounded in the belief systems that shape people’s interpretations. Because belief systems are influenced by culture, people might interpret their physiological signals in different ways across cultures.
Emotions and facial expressions
Evidence for cultural universals in facial expressions
People in different cultures show a great deal of agreement about what feelings different facial poses are expressing.
Some facial expressions are universally similar around the world.
Ekman proposed that there is a set of basic emotions that are universally recognized around the world. These are: 1) Anger 2) Fear 3) Happiness 4) Sadness 5) Surprise, and 6) Disgust.
Evidence for cultural variability in facial expression
Emotional expressions are not just something that people learn growing up.
People are more accurate in judging the facial expressions of people from their own culture than those of another culture. There is a large universal component of recognizing facial expressions
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