There are cultural differences of emotion in appraisal (1), emotion stimulus (2), action-readiness (3), physiological response (4), emotion word (5) and emotional behaviour (6).
The James-Lange theory (i.e. evolutionary approach) of emotion states that emotions are physiological responses to stimuli in the world and emotions are invariant, innate biological responses. This theory assumes universality of emotional experience.
The two-factor theory (i.e. social constructionist approach) of emotion states that emotions are interpretations of physiological responses and emotions are highly variable and contextualized responses. This theory does not assume universality of emotional experience.
People do not have a fine-tuned awareness of their bodily sensations and people tend to look for environmental cues to help them label physical sensations, making the two-factor theory more likely.
The universality thesis states that certain configurations of facial movements are universally perceived as expressing particular emotions (e.g. smile always means happiness). The idea of universality of facial expressions stems from the idea of the evolutionary adaptive value of emotions.
Evidence for the universality thesis comes from blind infants showing the same facial expressions as healthy adults and people from different cultures recognizing the same facial expression as the same emotion.
However, people may be active perceivers who categorize facial movements using culturally learned emotion concepts. The universality thesis might have found support because of methodological constraints put on the participants (e.g. matching facial expressions to a fixed list of answers).
People from small-scale societies do not always infer specific mental features as the cause of facial movements although they do show action identification, seeing facial expressions as giving meaning to actions. People from cultures that do infer specific mental features as the cause of facial movements attend to different parts of the face to recognize emotions. The recognition of the valence of faces might be universal.
Display rules refer to culturally specific rules that govern which facial expressions are appropriate in a given situation and how intensely they should be exhibited. The idea of display rules assumes that emotional experience is not affected by emotional expression.
The facial feedback hypothesis states that facial expressions are one source of information we use when we infer our emotional experience and there is some evidence that the facial expression influences the intensity of the emotional experience.
The ingroup advantage refers to a more accurate recognition of emotion within the same culture and language group. This effect might exist because of more exposure and familiarity with expression of one’s own culture (1), decoder differences in effort due to ingroup identification (2) and encoder differences in display (3).
There are differences in subjective well-being and ideal affect between independent and interdependent selves:
Independent self | Interdependent self |
Interpersonally disengaging acts feel good. | Interpersonally engaging acts feel good. |
The subjective well-being is tied to positive feelings. | The subjective well-being is tied to appropriate role behaviour. |
There is a focus on as many positive feelings as possible. | There is a focus on a balance between positive and negative feelings. |
There is a preference for high-arousal positive emotions. | There is a preference for low-arousal positive emotions. |
Ideal affect refers to the emotions people desire. Negative emotions in East Asian culture are associated with fewer health outcomes than in Western culture.
People experience emotions that do not fit their self-concept and associated relational concerns less intensely. This might reflect cultural diversity in emotional experiences but it might also be meaningless because it is possible that language does not affect underlying psychological experience.
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