Chapter 3 - Emotional Intelligence: Culture & Emotions

Culture

Behaviors, ideals, and traditions shared with a group of people that are often passed from one generation to another

• Leads to having certain norms

  • Behaviors that are socially accepted

    • Example: Greetings by handshake or kissing

Self Construals - Independent Self

Person in question views themselves as individualistic

• Defined by distinctness with unique traits and sense of identity

  • Behavior is typically stable over time

Self Construals - Interdependent Self

Person in question views themselves as someone dependent on others

• Defined by their connections with other people

  • Their decision making with each scenario isn’t fixed

Principles of Emotion According to Culture

1. Emotions are interpersonal

   • Emotions are caused by external events, which include people and relationships

2. Emotions are active

   • Emotions are the actions

     • In other cultures, feeling emotions are verbs. However the english language makes emotions a passive thing

3. Emotions are value based

   • Emotions depend on society’s values

     • Example: In the West it is okay to express happiness, however in Ifaluk culture it is considered boastful

PANAS

Positive and Negative Affect Scale: A scale typically used in literature to measure emotions using two sub scales

• PANAS-PA Items: interested, excited, strong, enthusiastic, proud, alert, inspired, determined, attentive, active

• PANAS-NA Items: distressed, upset, guilty, scared, hostile, irritable, ashamed, nervous, jittery, afraid

Criticisms: Doesn’t include basic emotions, such as sad and happy

Core Affect Theory

The theory that emotions are dimensional and aren’t on distinct labels

• Cultures might view emotions in different places on the graph

• Divided into valence or arousal

  • Valence: Positive or Negative

  • Arousal: Intensity

Criticisms:

• Culture is not always needed to be learned

• One can perceive emotions even without labels

Individualism

Goals are centered around the self

• Beliefs are most common in western cultures

  • Prioritize personal success

Collectivisim

Goals are centered around peers

• Most common in eastern cultures

  • Prioritize group success

Affect Valuation Theory

Theory about how people view emotions

• Highly suggested that the culture one grew up in determines the perception of certain emotions

Studies showed that those from individualistic cultures are more likely to value and express emotions with high arousal

Emotional Complexity

The simultaneous experience of contradictory emotions

Emotion Potential

Hypothetical if people from different cultures are put in certain situations express/ experience universal emotions

Emotion Practice

How would hypothetical people express/ experience the emotions when put into that situation

Cultural Differences in Emotion

People in individualist cultures tend to report emotions with higher arousal than people in collectivist cultures

• Examples include:

  • American students reported that they rated anger situations the highest, while Japanese students reported that they rated shame situations the highest

  • American students reported more socially disengaging emotions (pride, frustration, anger), while Japanese students reported more socially engaging emotions (sympathy, shame, respect)

• Conclusion: In the West, emotions tend to be centered around the self. However, in the East, emotions tend to be centered around their surroundings as their feelings seem to have a lower arousal

Tsai et al Study

A study that supports Core Affect Theory. The study took people from different cultures and put them into varying situations to measure their ideal effect and actual effect

• Figure 1 had European Americans and Asian Americans rate the ideal high arousal positive (HAP) situation and the ideal low arousal positive (LAP) situation

  • Both reported to have rated LAP lower because it is not considered ideal within cultures (both influenced by America’s Western Ideals)

    • European Americans rated LAP even lower

    • Asian Americans rated LAP not as much lower

• Figure 2 had the same groups as before, and a control group (Hong Kong Chinese) to find out how much they actually experienced those

  • Overall, the Asians rated LAP experience significantly higher than European Americans

  • Eastern ideals also influence them

Conclusion: The culture you predominantly live with is more likely to value different things. Asian Americans in the ideal effect graph don’t rate LAP as high as HAP because they grew up in American culture. However, they will experience LAP more strongly instead because it is where their core values lie in

Mauss et al Study

A study that was conducted with European Americans and Asian Americans to measure their anger when a rude teacher comments on the students’ mistakes

• Figure 1: Displays the amount of students who felt angry after the event

  • More European American students were shown to be angry than Asian American students

• Figure 2: Displays how intense their emotions were after the event

  • European American students were shown to have higher emotional intensity than Asian American students

Conclusion: European American students are shown to be more angry because as people who likely have individualistic beliefs, they will feel anger freely rather than Asian American students, who are more likely to be influenced by collectivistic beliefs and won’t feel emotions with high arousal as much

Ford et al Study (2015)

A study that shows the correlation between motivation to pursue happiness, socially engaged definition of happiness, and wellbeing

• Higher numbers between each part are equal to how much it is connected

Similarity Between Cultural and Evolutionary Approaches

Emotions are seen as different things when viewed through cultural and evolutionary lenses

• Cultural: emotions regulate how society functions

• Evolutionary: emotions focus on our survival

Both agree that emotions are adaptive and are used for communication