PSYC 341 (CHAPTER 8,9, 10)

Motivations for Self-Enhancement

• Self-enhancement is a motivation to focus on and elaborate more about one’s strength and positive characteristics than on one’s weaknesses and negative characteristics. 

• Many studies demonstrate that this is a powerful motivation that used to be viewed as universal.

• Cross-cultural research reveals that it’s a motivation that’s more pronounced in _________ cultures than elsewhere.

• Evidence of this motivation is evident from responses to measures of self-esteem (the positivity of your overall evaluation of oneself). Most people have a _____ self esteem. 

• western

• high

Evidence for North American Self-Enhancement

• Most North Americans have high self-esteem (93%). 

• Most North Americans show evidence for various self-serving biases (cognitive biases that allow you to see you in a positive light), in which they view themselves in _____________ positive terms.

• Most North Americans use various self-esteem maintenance strategies to discount any negative feedback that they might encounter. E..g more likely to take credit for success and less likely to take credit for failing.

• unrealistically

• 
  

Evidence for North American Self-Enhancement

Such self-enhancing tendencies are so commonly found in North American samples that they have been proposed to be mentally healthy ways of viewing the world.

• Is it culturally universal tendency?

• In East Asian samples (specifically Japan), in particular, there is little evidence for self-enhancing motivations, but also little evidence for problems of mental health. Contradicts the claim that self-esteem is correlated with mental health ***

• Japan

• 
  

– Americans who have recently graduated from college had _________ self esteem when they were in college than their parents' generation in college. 

– In china, the self esteem is ________.

• higher

• mixed

Self-Esteem & culture

→ North Americans are more likely to engage in activities that are __________. We may neglect the information that we are failing. If your environment is success orientated it would make sense to seek out success. 

East Asians are more self ________ - they see themselves through more of their weaknesses - they are able to accurately understand their ability/capability and how that influences ______ and you are more likely to receive support from those around you. East Asians think they can change themselves through looking at their weaknesses and ____________ them.

• succesful

• critical

• others

• understanding

Self serving bias

the tendency for people to exaggerate their positive characteristics.

People who are motivated to secure a positive self-view are resourceful enough to figure out a way to do it. You may engage in _________ social comparison by comparing your performance with that of someone who is doing even worse. Comparing your performance with someone who is doing better than you is ________ social comparison. Which is more painful…

downward

upward

– You can boost your self-view - _________________ ______ ______________ - Focusing on, and perhaps exaggerating, how good you are at something unrelated to your setback can compensate for the pain of your failure, and you’ll feel better.

– you can discount or reduce the perceived importance of your poor performance or make an _________ attribution (interpreting the reason for your low grade being caused by something outside yourself), or __________ attribution (the reason is caused by factors within yourself).

– You can strengthen your self-view is basking in the reflected glory of a successful ______ to which you belong. Emphasizing our connection to successful other people makes us feel better about ourselves by sharing in their warm glow.

compensatory self enhancement

external

internal

group

Heine et al. conducted a meta- analysis on all published studies comparing Westerners and East Asians on various measures of self- enhancement. 

• Heine et al. conducted a meta- analysis on all published studies comparing Westerners and East Asians on various measures of self- enhancement.

• A total of 131 comparisons were found, employing 31 different methodologies, and over 33,000 Participants.

→ North American individuals have a larger effect size (___) which concludes they are self-enhancing.

0.86

What we understand so far…

• To summarize, there are large cultural differences in self-enhancement motivations.

• Whereas Westerners show consistent and strong evidence for self- enhancement, East Asians do not.

• In many studies, East Asians show evidence for _____-_________.

self-criticism

Do East Asians Enhance their Groups?

• One alternative explanation is that East Asians enhance their ______ _______ rather than their individual selves.

– The hypothesis is that North Americans enhance the self and east asians enhance the group.

• That is, the motivation to self-enhancement is similar across cultures but the target that is enhanced is different.

group selves

Self-Esteem and Culture

Two rival universities in Vancouver and in Kyoto.

• In Vancouver, Heine et al. assessed how UBC and SFU students evaluated both UBC and SFU.

• In Kyoto, Heine et al. assessed how Ritsumeikan and Doshisha students evaluated both Ritsumeikan and Doshisha.

– they wanted them to rate the quality of their school and the rival school..

…

Evaluations of Euro-Canadians

• Both students from UBC and SFU evaluated UBC more positively than SFU.

• However, UBC students viewed the gap between the schools to be much larger than did students from SFU.

→ there is displaying a university enhancing bias because they (UBC) is looking at their school more ___________.

positively

Evaluations of Japanese

• Both students from Doshisha and Ritsumeikan evaluated Doshisha more positively than Ritsumeikan.

• However, Doshisha students viewed the gap between the schools to be smaller than did students from Ritsumeikan.

→ there is a university critical bias (the doshisha (higher ranked university) is being more _______ in regards to enhancement)).

humble

Social Norm vs True Attitude

• Another alternative explanation is that these studies might just tap into what people say, and not what they really feel (because what their culture is saying e.g. modesty norms, westerns may be taught to describe themselves more positively)

• Perhaps __________ ______ make it difficult for East Asians to express their self-enhancing feelings. Alternatively, perhaps Westerners learn to describe themselves in terms that are more __________ than they really believe.

• That is, the cultures might have similar self- enhancing motivations, but self-presentation norms conceal this.

modesty norms

positive

• Heine conducted a study to investigate whether cultural differences in self-enhancement generalized to their private thoughts.

• Canadians and Japanese first completed 20 IQ test items on a computer.

• They were told that the second part of the study investigated their ability to make decisions with limited information.

….

• Half were assigned to receive scores better than the average student, and half were assigned to receive worse scores.

• Participants viewed their performance alongside that of the average student for each of the individual IQ items, one item at a time.

• They were asked to make a decision about their overall performance (across all 20 items) as soon as a pattern was evident to them.

….

Number of Items Needed to Make a Decision 

• Canadians needed to view more trials before being able to conclude that they had done worse than average than when they concluded they had done better. They only needed to view 8 items to make a decision.

• Japanese showed the opposite pattern. They were more easily convinced that they had done poorly than that they had done well. They only needed to read 10.5 items to conclude they were better.

→ more of a self __________ tendency for the canadians and self ________ for Japanese individuals. 

→ we cannot separate the enhancing tendencies and decision making social norms?

ehancing

critical

The Situation Sampling Method

• Psychological processes and a cultural system are mutually constitutive. They both shape each other and influence one another. E.g. we are all a blank slate that is continuously shaped (american/japanese cultural influences)

• What if…

• Japanese participants are exposed to Made-in-USA cultural context?

• American participants are exposed to Made-in-JPN cultural context?

…

→ the goal is to separate the situations and use it in

→ have individuals who are from a particular culture have them write down situations that shape who they are. You then present that to another individual to see how they respond to it.

…

→ different situations were generated where they may feel high or low self esteem (about 100 situations).

→ the second step, new participants read the situations created by the American and Japanese… and see how they would react to each high or low self esteem situation.

…

→ When Americans read American situations their self esteem went ___. 

→ Japanese, overall, had ______ self esteem when reading the Japanese situations.

→ overall the americans created situations, regardless of really being positive or negative situations, that may make one feel ______ about themselves **

→ The Japanese created situations that allowed people to engage in ________ self esteem situations **

up

lower

better

negative

→ the Japanese participants are more likely to be self-critical.

→ on average, their self esteem is _______ compared to the Americans.

lower

→ Americans have a self _________ tendency. *

enhancing

→ Individuals who are Japanese but are also in the US. they had self enhancing tendencies when they read the american situations and they had lower self esteem when reading the japanese situations. They had the ability to switch between cultures (be bicultural) depending on the _________ they are in.

situation

____________ vultures have shown less levels of self enhancement … 

While 93% of European Canadians have high self esteem about 55% of Japanese do. A tendency for self-serving ____ is far less common among East Asians than Westerners. 

We can conclude that Americans find _________ more memorable, probably because they think about them more, and Japanese find __________ more memorable, because they think about these more.

collectivistic

bias

successes

failures

North Americans tend to compensate for their failures by inflating their self-assessments in other unrelated areas, but Japanese show the reverse tendency. After failing on a task, North Americans tend to discount the __________ of the task, but Japanese value the task even more highly. Much research reveals that North Americans tend to make more ________ attributions for their failures; Japanese often make more external attributions for their __________. And whereas Americans tend to bask in the reflected glory of their sports teams, Japanese sports fans are likely to be more critical of their own teams than of the opposition.

importance

external

success

 A robust finding from the economic literature is the _____________ _______, which is the tendency for people to value objects more once they own them, and have endowed them with their own positive qualities. It is because of the endowment effect that classified ads often have high prices for useless junk. An important component of the endowment effect is that people see a connection between their objects and their selves, and once an object is owned, the owner’s self-view tends to color the object (Gawronski et al., 2007). But because Westerners tend to be self-enhancing, while East Asians do not, evaluations of owned objects also differ across cultures. The endowment effect is much stronger in Westerners than in East Asians

endownment effect

Mutual Relationships between Culture & Psychology

• Collective constructionist theory.

• American Cultural Resources: It reinforces the direction of self-enhancement

• Japanese Cultural Resources: It reinforces the direction of self-criticism.

• Americans: They tend to hold an independent and autonomous view of self. They are individuals who want to ______ __________.

• Japanese: They tend to hold an interdependent and mutually connected view of self. Motivates them to be ______ ________.

self advance

self critical

→ does the amount of time affect self esteem? As the amount of time in Canada increases, so does ones _____ _______.

self esteem

The Cohort effect and self esteem

– self-esteem is deemed more important in recent generations compared to those in the older generation..

:)

Implications

• Self-Esteem is a ___________ _________, not an entity or fixed personality trait.  Self esteem is culturally constructed.

• North American cultures emphasize the shared sense of self-worth 

• Recent College Undergraduates were ______ _______ than their parent generation to care about their sense of self-worth.

cultural construct

more likely

Dark Side of High Self Esteem

• Several researchers have highlighted some specific and compelling dangers of elevated self-esteem.

– in the west, having a high self esteem correlates with have a higher well being *

– darker sides? Those who think they have a high self esteem may think they are __________ and disregard situations that make you feel weaker or less than. 

• High self-esteem inflates egotism, grandiosity, and narcissism.

• It often invites _________ – 50% of those who commit crime have inflated self esteems. 

• North Americans know many benefits of modesty and humility. He argues this is important with children.

superior

violence

Why do cultures differ so much in people's tendencies to enhance the positivity of themselves? 

1. Self esteem

2. Face - amount of _______ _________ others give you if you live up to the standards associated with your position. The higher your social position the greater amount of face.

social value

Face is difficult to enhance. Face is lost by failure to live up to the standards of _______ ______. Face is vulnerable and one has to rely on the goodwill of others to be able to maintain it. A good idea is to not get people to _______ you. 

• If they have the desire for self-improvement – identifying potential weaknesses and working on correcting them they'll minimize the chance of others seeing them as having lost face 

• The defensive approach to protect oneself from negative outcomes – ____________ ____________ e.g. trying to avoid bad things

• A concern with advancing oneself and aspiring for gains is ____________ _____________ e.g. gaining good things

social roles

reject

prevention orientation

promotion oreintation

East Asians are more concerned with face, so we see more ___________ orientation ***.

prevention

With a promotion orientation, people will strive for opportunities for ___________, and should focus their efforts on things they can do well. They should avoid things they do poorly, since those probably won’t lead to success. In contrast, with a prevention orientation, people should focus their efforts on things they ______ do well, because correcting shortcomings will help them avoid ________.

advancement

dont

failure

After a study, Canadians persisted much longer after _________ than failure and opposite for Japanese.

success

Apparently, the Canadians, maintaining a promotion orientation, were more interested in working on things they did ____, because these were more likely to provide opportunities to succeed. The Japanese, in contrast, maintaining a prevention orientation, were more interested in working on the things they did ______, apparently so they could improve themselves and be less likely to fail in the future. This self-improvement motivation is a strong incentive in East Asian contexts. Moreover, this self-improving orientation is associated with greater _____-______ among people in some collectivist cultures than it is among those living in some individualistic cultures…

well

poorly

well-being

People can adopt a prevention orientation to identify any weaknesses that might jeopardize their face. Another approach is to present oneself to others in a way that would enhance one's face - being with _____ name products. 

• Asians are big consumers of brand names - more than any other world region. They want to achieve ______ _________. 

• Some view luxury goods as materialistic, which is viewed negatively and poorer relationships in the west but not in east asia!

brand

social recognition

Honor

→ people have the amount of face that is recognized to be associated with their position unless they act in a way to make them lose face. The amount of honor that an individual has is contested and must be defended. 

• Cultures of honor are common in lawless environments, no policing. People turn to their reputations to protect themselves. 

• Where herding is common, there is more of a culture of honor.

• Today… there is conflicts in these societies – in herding regions, men control women. Not allowed to go out without permission as they are away for long periods of time and more DPV.

ok

Agency

Incremental vs. Entity Theories of Self

• Incremental theories of self involve the belief that abilities are malleable and are capable of being ________, with effort. E.g. studying hard at a specific subject such as math

• Entity theories of self involve the belief that abilities are largely ______ and reflect fixed features of the self.

• People with more interdependent selves have more incremental and less entity-based theories of self. Why? You are concerned with the views of what others think about you (e.g. parents, friend, boss, etc and this individuals may correct and give you advice which helps indiivduals improve their efforts).

• Fitting in with other’s expectations across different _____ appears to be linked with viewing oneself as flexible enough to adapt oneself to role expectations.

changed

fixed

roles

→ European Americans heavily base intelligence on ______ abilities. 

→ whereas Japanese individuals base their intelligence on _____, which can vary.

innate

effort

→ the novel examined and compared American and Japanese children and their intelligence and they found Asians to be “more” intelligent because schools encouraged kids to show their ______ in their work.

efforts

The Hidden Camera Research/study

– Recruited Japanese and American participants … 

1. Cover Story

Test for the relation between creativity and emotional intelligence

2. Remote Association Test (Easy vs. Hard)

Measure of creativity (e.g. what is the word related to sleep, fantasy and day?)

3. Feedback (Success vs. Failure) - half were provided with success feedback and the other half was given failure feedback. 

4. Problems with EQ test (given a fake story)

Participants were told they can work on RAT if they wanted

The persistence with RAT was measured

!!

→ they were told while waiting for the professor to come back into the room to fix the computer that they could continue work on the RAT if they wanted.

→ they were measuring which participants continued to work on the task. Was there an effort to continue the task?

ok

→ Japanese individuals when they got success feedback they were ____ likely to show their efforts, but when they got failure feedback they did end up showing their efforts. 

→ canadian showed their efforts when they got success feedback. 

→ Japanese individuals already met the criteria so they did not feel the need to show their efforts when receiving success feedback…  But when they receive feedback they want to know how to _______ not only for themselves but for those around them.

less

imrpove

→ Americans (after completing the same task) were more likely to stick to the task they were successful at, they are more _____ ___________.

→ Americans after completing a different task, 

→ Japanese after completing the same task wanted to use their efforts to be ______

→ Japanese after completing a different task, they had a decrease in efforts?

self-oreintated

better

→ divide participants into three groups, low effort (it is an innate ability), none (no instructions), high effort (try your hardest). 

→ once the individuals obtained such instructions for using high effort – they did start using effort…

→ when the Japanese received no instructions, their efforts are ____, and when they were told to show their efforts (high) they still showed their efforts but to a lesser degree.

→ when the japanese were told to give lower efforts, they still showed efforts but to a much ______ degree

→ overall, the Japanese do show much more so than the Americans.

high

lesser

Results (con’t)

• Overall, Japanese persisted longer in the face of failure than Americans, which suggests that they have more __________ theories.

• When Japanese are given American ideas (i.e., entity theories) they act more like _________. And when Americans are given Japanese ideas (i.e., incremental theories) they act more like ___________.

incremental

americans

japanese

→ there are two types of control

→ one type of society, individuals may need to comfort themselves to the majority.

→ on the other hand, some individuals may be more independent and may maintain their own will. The social world may change to accommodate the actions of the individual members.

ok

Primary and Secondary Control

•People with independent views of self tend to have _____ theories of self, but __________ theories of the world.  People strive to change circumstances to fit their _______.  This is known as “_________ Control.” AKA locus of control, influence or agency

•People with interdependent views of self tend to have more ___________ theories of self, but _____ theories of the world.  People strive to adjust themselves to accept circumstances as they are. This is known as “____________ Control.” AKA adjustment or external locus of control

In east Asia, the social world remains resistant to single individuals to change things. Power is in _______ or leaders. East Asians have a flexible growth mindset more likely to adjust themselves to the demands of society. 

In the west, it is the opposite. Individuals have the potential to shape the world to meet their ______. There self is immutable and consistent. They have a fixed mindset in a changeable world.

entity

incremental

desires

primary

incremental

entity

secondary

groups

needs

Fitness Club Research

•Morling (2000) studied aerobics classes in the US and Japan.

•People completed a questionnaire about why they chose the class, and what they do when the instructor initiates a difficult move…

ok

→ Japanese had an equal decisions for saying that the convenience of class and based on level type

—> americans were more willing to choose classes on time that were for ___________

—> japanese were more willing to choose classes based on the ______

→ Americans are more likely to have primary control and Japanese balance both controls.

convenient

level

Another question asked –What do you do when a move is too difficult ? 

•Japanese are more likely to try harder when the move is _______ than are Americans. (more like secondary control). 

•Americans are more likely to do their ____ ______ when the move is difficult than are Japanese.

difficult

own thing

Primary and Secondary Control

•Secondary control strategies are more common in non-Western contexts than in Western ones.

•Primary control strategies are more common in the _____ than elsewhere.

•For Westerners (North Americans), the primary control is good thing, and the secondary control is bad thing. This is a bias statement to make, as these positive and negative biases were made by North Americans. 

•Non-Westerners often feel a positive feeling by taking the secondary control. If one does care about others' expectations, you may feel positive by ________ or contributing to the collective. 

– Both Japanese and Americans stated that influencing situations is more _________ than adjusting ones (primary control is powerful). 

– japanese felt more powerful __________ situations compared to americans. 

Primary control is more common in the west. When we feel a lack of primary control we get _________ and our physical health suffers in old age. In collectivistic cultures, they do not suffer.  *

• Individuals appear to need some kind of control to feel efficient in their environment.

West

helping

powerful

adjusting

anxiety

Choice

Making Choices

– A way that primary control is perhaps most directly evident is when people make choices.

• Making choices, the freedom to choose, is emphasized more in _______ ________ contexts than it is elsewhere. E.g. restaurants, ice cream, clothes.

• Some key decisions in life, such as who one will marry, what career one will have, where one will live, are not made by individuals in many cultural contexts.

• North Americans are more used to making choices than are people in some other cultures. We want a sense of identity and control over our choices.

North American

→ North Americans believe the success of their lives and their happiness depends on certain major decisions and they assume others making those choices for them would be __________ - as they are focused on personal goals. In collectivist societies, parental decision making is more common. 

miserable

→ more choices are available to individuals acting alone than those in an interdependent network but when people share the same goals as their group, the limits on their choices are a _________, not a negative.

positive

→ Americans say they like choice, but too much choice can be overwhelming because of the _________ _______ required. Making a choice is especially difficult in cultures that place a high value on the outcome.

cognitive effort

SES background

→ working class earns less money and has fewer options. Lower SES individuals must ______ many situations in life, rather than being able to choose from a range of alternatives. Income has been found to positively correlate with control.

acceprt

→ STUDY: This study demonstrated that while upper-middle-class Americans preferred pens they had selected themselves over those they didn’t choose, the preferences of working-class people were not affected by who chose the pens. People from __________ backgrounds generally want more free choice. 

• The researchers in this study point out that upper-middle-class Americans are raised to favor freedom of choice and to express themselves through their own decisions. They learn to respond negatively when they believe they don’t have any choice in a situation. In contrast, working-class Americans grow up learning that much of what people encounter in life is beyond their control, and that a good way to maintain independence is to emphasize one’s integrity and resilience during tough times. This perspective leads them to accept and cope with situations in which they don’t end up with what they wanted. In addition, other research finds that when working-class Americans make choices, they are influenced by the opinions of other people. In contrast, middle-class Americans largely ignore others’ choices, assuming those selections would be the same as their own. Even within a country, there are clear differences in people’s per

wealthier

Conformity

→ North Americans view conformity very _________.

→ there is cultural variation among North Americans vs Japanese individuals. Whereas NA are more comfortive compared to Japanese (verify this)

negatively

Americans may conform more than they know…

STUDY: He wanted to see when people would conform and clearly be aware that they were doing so. A participant would arrive in the lab to take part in a study that was supposedly about visual perception. Sitting beside this person were several other students who appeared to be participants as well. The experimenter gave the group a straightforward task. They were shown three lines of clearly different lengths and were asked which one of those three was the same length as the target line. The correct answer was obvious to everyone. Hardly anyone got the answer wrong when tested individually. However, before the individual had the chance to offer her own answer, some of the other “participants” (who were actually confederates) answered, and, with apparent certainty, indicated a line that was clearly different from the target line. When it was the participant’s turn, she had a choice to make. Should she give the answer that appears obviously correct, even though it contradicts what

okk

→ one potential cost of not conforming is that people will laugh at you…

→ people tend to dislike those who ___________ don't fit in.

deiliberately

→ Maintaining a self-concept that is consistent with cultural values of independence, then, should correspond to perceiving oneself as a unique and special individual. In contrast, a motivation to be different should be atypical for those who value ______________, where fitting in is more important.

interdependence

Motivation to Fit in or To Stick Out

•Study by Kim and Markus (1999) investigated how East Asians and Euro-Americans would respond to alternatives that were either in the majority or the minority.

•In one case participants had to rate which shape they viewed as more attractive. 

East Asian participants tended to rate the ___________ shape as more desirable, whereas the Euro-Americans rated the __________ shape as more desirable. Americans try to take the opinion of being unique.

common

uncommon

IN another study people were giveen a choice of a pen to choose from after completing a survey. People of east asian background tended to choose the ________ whereas people of western background tended to choose the __________-colored pen

minority

Conformity & Culture

•Motivations for fitting in are especially strong in ____________ contexts.  

•Motivations for uniqueness reinforce how one person is __________ and not dependent on others.  These motivations are especially pronounced in independent contexts.

→ unique ads are more common in America and conformity messages were more common in Korea.

interdependent

different

Where does the cultural difference in self-views come from?

• Thinking styles (linear vs. dialectical) – dialectical thinking (e.g. ying and yang) - linear thinking may entail encouraging one's self esteem.

• Independent vs interdependent views of self (inside attributes vs. external attributes) 

• The lay theory of talents  (talent-oriented vs. effort-oriented) – increment vs entity theories introduced. 

• The frame of reference (self-centered vs. other-centered) – 

• The expectation of outcomes (promotion-oriented (risk, feeling of confidence) vs. prevention oriented)

• Relational mobility  (Mobile culture (being social, introducing new individuals in your life vs. Stable culture) –

ok

CONSISTENCY FLASHCARDS FIGURE IT OUT

:)

CHAPTER 10

:)

Facial Expressions of Emotions

• What facial expressions correspond with what emotions?

• Originally ________ noted that facial expressions from other animals seemed to parallel those made by humans (i.e., people living in Victorian England). – chimps, apes and other primates 

• Various facial expressions evolved as a product of ___

darwin

NS

→ essentialist accounts of emotions – the key individual emotions are discrete psychological states that reside within us. People are born with the ________ to produce and _________ each of these emotions, and each emotion is represented with a distinct _________ ___________, configuration of feelings and pattern of physiological responses.

• Activated in response to circumstances in the ____________. 

• ______ being activated from fear to be passed on

• If essentialist accounts are correct—that emotions are largely based on specific sets of physiological responses to situations and events that reside within ____ humans—then people in all cultures should have the same kinds of emotional experiences. Essentialist accounts make the case for universality in emotional experience.

→ constructionist accounts of emotions - emotions are categories of feelings that people are ___________ to recognize as they develop. Built on basic and universal physiological components which have been shaped by our evolution. Emotions people experience are shaped by principles of cultural evolution. The brain is highly flexible and shaped by ___________ which are different between cultures.

•  if constructionist accounts are correct, then people come to interpret their feelings through the emotional categories that they learn through socialization. And because people are socialized to interpret the world and their feelings differently across cultures, constructionist accounts expect that emotional experience will vary substantially across cultures.

ability

recognize

facial expression

environment

genes

all

socialized

experience

2. Studies of the Universality of Expression

Ekman, Sorenson, and Friesen (1969)

Ekman and Friesen (1971)

→ They developed and defined culturally universal basic emotions. Such emotions strongly correspond to their facial expressions. 

Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness, Surprise.. 

• Paul Ekman and colleagues followed up on Darwin’s suggestion and explored how similarly people made facial expressions for emotions around the world.

• Identified similarity across ____________ countries (e.g. US, Japan) with how people recognized posed facial expressions.

industrialized

Basic Emotions

→ L to R: anger, disgust, fear, sad, happiness and surprise

→ in their study, they took thousands of photos of people making six different emotional expressions: happiness, disgust, surprise, sadness, anger and fear. And showed this photos to five different countries. 

→  they identified the emotion correctly in 80–90% of the photos. In other words, people in the five different cultures showed a great deal of agreement about what feelings the facial poses were expressing. They paired smiles with happiness, grimaces with disgust, gapes with surprise, frowns with sadness, scowls with anger, and startles with fear. These findings support a claim for ____________ in facial expressions for emotions.

universality

Results of Ekman & Friesen

→ identifying _________ was the highest among each of the countries, sadness and ____ were the emotions that were more difficult to identify. 

→ the score of accurately identifying the emotions was ⅙

happiness

fear

US cartoons: such a spongebob (his facial expressions are large and expressive) and frozen are different compared to other cultures.

:)

• Paul Ekman and colleagues followed up on Darwin’s suggestion and explored how similarly people made facial expressions for emotions around the world…

• Identified similarity across industrialized countries with how people recognized posed facial expressions. To be confident that emotional facial expressions are the product of innate biological processes, rather than learned from interacting with others, researchers would have to question people who have not learned how to interpret the typical emotional expressions of other cultures.

• Tested people from a culture with almost no interaction with Westerners. He went to investigate the Fore of New Guinea…

/..

→ fore people had not seen any movies or magazines, didn't speak english and never worked for westerners.

In one of Ekman’s studies with the Fore, participants were asked to show their face if a number of different kinds of emotion eliciting events had happened to them.

→ turns out fore individuals smiled and frowned when sad, scowled when angry… making strong evidence that facial expressions are ___________ and shared among cultures.

universal

Ekman proposed 6 basic emotions that are universal: WHICH ARE

• Pride involves the whole body (posture, head held high, slight smile and arms extending) so not included. *

• Contempt was identified as a popular emotion in North America. *

happiness, sadness, suprise, anger, disgust and fear

On average, people are 9% more accurate judging facial expressions of people from their ____ ________. This suggests that recognizing facial expressions has both a sizable universal component and a smaller culturally learned component.

own culture

→ Display rules culturally specific rules that govern which facial expressions are __________ in a given situation__  and  how _________ they should be exhibited___  and we express emotion. How and when and to whom we express emotion. 

→ The notion of display rules suggests that even though people in different cultures vary considerably in how strongly they express certain emotions, it’s possible they’re all having the same ___________ _________

appropritae

intensely

underlying feelings

→ why do some cultures have display rules that allow for more expressivity? 

• Immigration history → US and Brazil have ___________ populations whereas South Korea does not. 

• In heterogeneous cultures people don't share as much common knowledge, so they have to be more open and precise in communications to be understood. Being emotionally expressive is _______ speech down.

heterogenous

slowing

→ Ritualized displays highly stylized ways of __________ particular emotions.

expressing

→ Batja Mesquita suggests people think of emotions - MINE vs OURS.

• MINE: westerners often conceive emotions as mental states that are psychological in nature. They think emotions are located _______ the person. Emotions are imagined to emerge directly from people's ______. Reflects an essentialist understanding of emotions. (Mental, INside, Essentialist). 

• OURS: non-westerners tend to think emotions are outside the person - emotions emerge from meaningful _________ - help to make sense of what is happening around them. Each emotion is a situation in a particular context influenced by the people who are there and the cultural norms on how they should act. (OUtside, Relational, Situated)

inside

brains

situations

→ the need to maintain face is associated with feelings of shame but not anger in collectivistic cultures. Where shame is more constructive. Westerners are more likely to experience situations that lead to _____.

anger

STUDY: comparing Americans and Japanese when they winning a olympic medal - Japanese athletes are more likely to discuss __________ when describing their emotions (OUR model), and Americans inferred more emotions when focused only on themselves (MINE).

relationships

Cultural Control of Emotional Expression: Display Rules

• Private Condition

– Both Americans and Japanese show the same ________ facial expressions. 

• Public Condition

– Japanese were ____ likely to express negative emotions

→ For example, in one study, Japanese and American students completed a questionnaire several times per day over a week to indicate the emotions they had felt (Mesquita & Karasawa, 2002). The Japanese were about three times more likely than Americans to say they had ____ been feeling any emotions at all. 

→ In another study, Japanese and American participants were asked to report on occasions when they had experienced certain emotions. The Americans reported feeling those emotions longer and more _________ than the Japanese did. Other research has found that East Asians are less attentive to their ____ _____________ when compared with Westerners.

negative

less

not

intensely

gut feelings

→ In Western cultures, emotions seem to play a more important role in guiding __________, and people are more likely to adhere to cultural norms regarding what are appropriate emotions

→ East Asian cultures are better at regulating their __________ emotions…

→ for east asians, ____________ their emotions is not as hard as it is for westerners. 

→ positive emotions have been associated with _______ __________ with westerners but not east asians. And negative emotions are associated with less negative health outcomes than those from western cultures. Emotions and health are more seen in ____________. 

→ emotional lexicon is carved up in different ways across cultures.

behaviors

negative

suppressing

health benefits

westerners

Emotion & Language

→ Natyashastra (indian treatise) has 6 emotions like ours except for happiness or surprise. They have …

love, amusement, enthuisam and wonder

Cultural Accents

– Ingroup Familiarity matters.. We learn from our facial expressions/emotions from our family members/friends, classmates, teachers etc. 

– Emotional perception is culturally learned within our _______ __________. 

– e.g. Canadians recognizing Canadians facial expressions may be easier compared to those of Chinese culture..

social networks

social networks

Cultural Accents: Summary

• People are considerably more accurate at recognizing facial expressions made by people from their ____ culture than made by those from… 

• About 58% of recognition of facial expressions reflects culturally universal expressions, whereas about 9%  reflect culturally specific expressions.

• Even very subtle “ “emotional accents” are evident in comparisons of quite __________ cultures (e.g., Marsh & Ambady, 2005). E.g. British and Australian.

own

similar

Subjective Emotional Experiences

• Cultures vary in the intensity with which they report experiencing emotions.

• For example, people from a variety of East Asian cultures report experiencing emotions less intensely, and for _________ periods of time than do Westerners.

• One study conducted at UBC compared how Chinese Canadians and Euro Canadians responded to an anger provocation

shorter

The “Anger” Paradigm

• Participants were run through an “anger paradigm,” while their blood pressure and heart rate were assessed.

• The experimenter was very unprofessional, showed up late, and rudely badgered them while they had to do a tedious task.

• All participants showed physiological responses consistent with anger (their systolic blood pressure increased), but the experimenters were interested in seeing how quickly the participants’ anger would dissipate.

…

The “Anger” Paradigm: Results

• The Chinese Canadians systolic blood pressure returned to baseline levels after the anger induction more __________ than did the Euro Canadians.

• This suggests that the Chinese Canadians experienced their anger ____ intensely.

• Near the end of the 10mins, they both lowered their BP but it was to a lesser degree. 

• Individuals from a interdependent society (such as the chinese canadians) may have a lower BP due to wanting to keep the _______ __________

quickly

less

group harmony

What Kind of Emotions Do People Have?

• Cultures vary in the kinds of emotions that people experience frequently, and in terms of how good different emotions feel.

• In general, people from interdependent cultures experience more emotions that are interpersonally-________, whereas people from independent cultures experience more emotions that are interpersonally _________.

• DIMENSION 1: whether the emotion was positive or negative. For example happy has a positive valence, whereas guilt has a negative valence.

• DIMENSION 2: whether the emotion was interpersonally engaged or disengaged, that is whether the experience involved connecting with others or distinguishing oneself from others.

engaged

disengaged

Disengaged Emotions

• Positive Disengaging: Feelings like _____, superiority, confidence, and high self-esteem that highlight individual achievement and _____________.

• Negative Disengaging: Feelings like ______, frustration, irritation, hostility, and annoyance that signal personal autonomy frustration, push others away, and break __________ flow.

pride

independence

anger

interpersonal