Early modern period
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These studies reveal both cultural after 1450 global trade was increasingly controlled by emotions and differences in various aspects of emotional life. Throughout, we will highlight the scientific and practical importance of these findings and conclude with recommendations for future research.
Everything—the sights, the smells, the sounds—seems strange. But they greet you with a smile and you sense that, despite the differences you observe, deep down inside these people have the same feelings as you. But is this true? Do people from opposite ends of the world really feel the same emotions? Across a variety of settings—academic, business, medical—people worldwide are coming into more contact with people from foreign cultures.
In order to communicate and function effectively in such situations, we must understand the ways cultural ideas and practices shape our emotions.
In the s and s, social scientists tended to fall after 1450 global trade was increasingly controlled by emotions either one of two camps. The universalist camp claimed that, despite cultural differences in customs and traditions, at a fundamental level all humans feel similarly.
These universalists believed that emotions evolved as a response to the environments of our primordial ancestors, so they are the same across all cultures. The social constructivist camp, however, claimed that despite a common evolutionary after 1450 global trade was increasingly controlled by emotions, different groups of humans evolved to adapt to their distinctive environments.
Social constructivists contended that because cultural ideas and practices are all-encompassing, people are often unaware of how their feelings are shaped by their culture. Therefore emotions can feel automatic, natural, physiological, and instinctual, and yet still be primarily culturally shaped. In the s, Paul Ekman conducted one of the first scientific studies to address the universalist—social constructivist debate.
Ekman and Friesen then took photos of people posing with these different expressions Figure 1. This led Ekman and his colleagues to conclude that there are universally recognized emotional facial expressions. At the same time, though, they found considerable variability across cultures in recognition rates. Indeed, since this initial work, Matsumoto and his colleagues have demonstrated widespread cultural differences in display rules Safdar et after 1450 global trade was increasingly controlled by emotions.
In India, this signals embarrassment; however, in the U. These findings suggest both cultural similarities and differences in the recognition of emotional facial expressions although see Russell,for criticism of this work. But how does culture shape other aspects of emotional life—such as how people emotionally respond to different situations, how they want to feel generally, and what makes them happy? Today, most scholars agree that emotions and other related states are multifaceted, and that cultural similarities and differences exist for each facet.
Thus, rather than classifying emotions as either universal or socially-constructed, scholars are now attempting to identify the specific similarities and differences of emotional life across cultures. These endeavors are yielding new insights into the effects of cultural on emotion. Given the wide range of cultures and facets of emotion in after 1450 global trade was increasingly controlled by emotions world, for the remainder of the module we will limit our scope to the two cultural contexts that have received the most empirical attention by social scientists: Social scientists have focused on North American and East Asian contexts because they differ in obvious ways, including their geographical locations, histories, languages, and religions.
Moreover, since the s large-scale studies have revealed that North American and East Asian contexts differ in their overall values and attitudes, such as the prioritization of personal vs. Specifically, the researchers argued that in North American contexts, the dominant model of the self is an independent one, in which being a person means being distinct from others and behaving accordingly across situations.
In East Asian contexts, however, the dominant model of the self is an interdependent one, in which being a person means being fundamentally connected to others and being responsive to situational demands.
These different models of the self result in different principles for interacting with others. An independent model of self teaches people to express themselves and try to influence others i. Markus and Kitayama argue that these different models of self have significant implications for how people in Western and East Asian contexts feel. A considerable body of empirical research suggests that these different models of self shape various aspects of emotional dynamics.
Next we will discuss several ways culture shapes emotion, starting with emotional response. Studies of emotional response tend to focus on three components: Although only a few studies have simultaneously measured these different aspects of emotional response, those that do tend to observe more similarities than differences in physiological responses between cultures.
That is, regardless of culture, people tend to respond similarly in terms of physiological or bodily expression. At the level of physiological arousal e. However, their facial expressive behavior told a different story. When reliving events that elicited happiness, pride, and love, European Americans smiled more frequently and more intensely than did their Hmong counterparts—though all participants reported feeling happy, proud, and in love at similar levels of intensity.
And similar patterns have emerged in studies comparing European Americans with Chinese Americans during different emotion-eliciting tasks Tsai et al. Thus, while the physiological aspects of emotional responses appear to be similar across cultures, their accompanying facial expressions are more culturally distinctive. Again, these differences in facial expressions during positive emotional events are consistent with findings from cross-cultural studies of display rulesand stem from the models of self-description discussed above: Conversely, in East Asian contexts that promote an interdependent self, individuals tend to control and suppress their emotions to adjust to others.
If the cultural ideal in North American contexts is to express oneself, then suppressing emotions not showing how one feels should have negative consequences. This is the assumption underlying hydraulic models of emotion: Indeed, significant empirical research shows that suppressing emotions can have negative consequences for psychological well-being in North American contexts Gross, However, Soto and colleagues find that the relationship between suppression and psychological well-being varies by culture.
True, with European Americans, emotional suppression is associated with higher levels of depression and lower levels of life satisfaction. Remember, in these individualistic societies, the expression of emotion is a fundamental aspect of positive interactions with others. On the other hand, since for Hong Kong Chinese, emotional suppression is needed to adjust to others in this interdependent community, suppressing emotions is how to appropriately interact with othersit is simply a part of normal life and therefore not associated with depression or life satisfaction.
These findings are consistent with research suggesting that factors related to clinical depression vary between European Americans and Asian Americans. For instance, when shown sad or amusing film clips, depressed European Americans respond less intensely than their nondepressed counterparts.
However, other studies have shown that depressed East Asian Americans i. In other words, depressed European After 1450 global trade was increasingly controlled by emotions show reduced emotional expressions, but depressed East Asian Americans do not —and, in fact, may express more emotion.
Thus, muted responses which resemble suppression are associated with depression in European American contexts, but not in East Asian contexts. Do people across cultures feel the same emotions in similar situations, despite how they show them? Recent studies indicate that culture affects whether people are likely to feel bad during good events. In North American contexts, people rarely feel bad after good experiences. This may be because, compared with North Americans, East Asians engage in more dialectical thinking i.
Therefore, they after 1450 global trade was increasingly controlled by emotions that positive and negative feelings can occur simultaneously. In North American contexts, such success is considered an individual achievement and worth celebrating. Again, these differences can after 1450 global trade was increasingly controlled by emotions linked to cultural differences in models of the self.
An interdependent model encourages people to think about how their accomplishments might affect others e. Thus, awareness of negative emotions during positive events may discourage people from expressing their excitement and standing out as in East Asian contexts. Such emotional suppression helps individuals feel in sync with those around them. An independent model, however, encourages people to express themselves and stand out, so when something good happens, they have no reason to feel bad.
So far, we have reviewed research that demonstrates cultural after 1450 global trade was increasingly controlled by emotions in physiological responses and in the ability to suppress emotions.
We have also discussed the cultural differences in facial expressive behavior and the likelihood of experiencing negative feelings during positive events. Everyone welcomes positive feelings, but cultures vary in the specific types of positive affective states see Figure 2 their people favor. An affective state is essentially the type of emotional arousal after 1450 global trade was increasingly controlled by emotions feels coupled with its intensity—which can vary from pleasant to unpleasant e.
Although people of all cultures experience this range of affective states, they can vary in their preferences for each. Again, these differences in ideal affect i. Independent selves want to influence others, which requires action doing somethingand action involves high arousal states.
Conversely, interdependent selves want to adjust to others, which requires suspending action and attending to others—both of which involve low arousal states. Thus, the more that individuals and cultures want to influence others as in North American contextsthe more they value excitement, enthusiasm, and other high arousal positive states.
For example, several studies have shown that people engage in activities e. That is, people from North American contexts who value high arousal affective states tend to prefer thrilling activities like skydiving, whereas people from East Asian contexts who value low arousal affective states prefer tranquil activities like lounging on the beach Tsai, In addition, people base their conceptions of well-being and happiness on their ideal affect.
Therefore, European Americans are more likely to define well-being in terms of excitement, whereas Hong Kong Chinese are more likely to define well-being in terms of after 1450 global trade was increasingly controlled by emotions.
Indeed, among European Americans, the less people experience high arousal positive states, the more depressed they are. But, among Hong Kong Chinese—you guessed it! What factors make people happy or satisfied with their lives?
But happiness is based on other factors as well. After 1450 global trade was increasingly controlled by emotions is, European Americans based their life satisfaction primarily on self-esteem, whereas Hong Kong Chinese based their life satisfaction equally on self-esteem and relationship harmony.
Consistent with these findings, Oishi and colleagues found in a study of 39 nations that self-esteem was more strongly correlated with life satisfaction in more individualistic nations compared to more collectivistic ones.
Researchers also found that in individualistic cultures people rated life satisfaction based on their emotions more so than on social definitions or norms. In other words, rather than using social norms as a guideline for what constitutes an ideal life, people in individualistic cultures tend to evaluate their satisfaction according to how they feel emotionally. Again, these findings are consistent with cultural differences in models of the self.
In North American, independent contexts, feelings about the self matter more, whereas in East Asian, interdependent contexts, feelings about others matter as much as or even more than feelings about the self.
Understanding cultural similarities and differences in emotion is obviously critical to understanding emotions in general, and the flexibility of emotional processes more specifically. Given the central role that emotions play in our interaction, understanding cultural similarities and differences is especially critical to preventing potentially harmful miscommunications. Indeed, this may be one reason Asian Americans are often overlooked for top leadership positions Hyun, In addition to averting cultural miscommunications, recognizing cultural after 1450 global trade was increasingly controlled by emotions and differences in emotion may provide insights into other paths to psychological health and well-being.
However, there are obviously a multitude of other cultural contexts in which emotional differences likely exist. For example, although Western contexts are similar in many ways, specific Western contexts e.
Thus, future research examining other cultural contexts is needed. Such studies may also reveal additional, uninvestigated dimensions or models that have broad implications for emotion.
