Emotions: Key Features and Theories

Emotions are brief responses to people, events, and even our own thoughts. They are biologically based patterns of perception, experience, physiology, action, and communication that occur in response to specific physical and social challenges and opportunities.

Emotions serve social functions. They help us evaluate experiences and prepare to act, influencing how we interact with others.

Emotions involve multiple components including: evaluation, physiological changes, expressions, subjective experience, mental processes, and behavioral dispositions. These components work together to create an emotion.

These theories suggest that emotions evolved as survival mechanisms. They focus on basic emotions like fear, anger, and happiness, emphasizing their role in signaling and reacting to threats or opportunities.

These theories emphasize the role of appraisal in determining emotions. They suggest that we interpret events and situations, and our appraisals trigger specific emotions.

Appraisal patterns can differ across cultures. For example, the way people in different cultures interpret events can lead to different emotional responses.

This theory suggests that our emotions are a result of our physiological responses to events. We experience physiological changes like increased heart rate, and then label these changes as an emotion.

This perspective argues that emotions are not solely biological but also shaped by social factors and our cultural understanding of emotions.

A set of expected behaviors or responses in a specific situation, often influenced by cultural norms.

Emotions are not simply innate but are shaped and influenced by the cultural environment in which we grow up.

This theory suggests that emotions are not just automatic responses. Instead, they are actively constructed from our experiences, thoughts, and interpretations.

Culture is a constantly evolving system of shared beliefs, values, practices, and material objects that influence how people behave and understand the world.

Culture serves several important roles, including providing a sense of predictability, reinforcing social rules, and fostering successful interactions within groups.

This field of psychology explores how cultural context shapes our thinking, feeling, and behaving.

A common problem in psychological research is relying on samples that are largely Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic, which limits the generalizability of findings.

The idea that certain basic emotions, like joy or sadness, are universally recognized and expressed in all cultures.

One of the most well-known studies supporting universal emotions involved showing photographs of facial expressions to people from different cultures to see if they identified the same emotions.

Studies of isolated cultures, such as tribes in Papua New Guinea, have further supported the idea of universal emotions.

Research suggests that not only are emotional expressions universal, but the underlying bodily experiences, like physiological changes, associated with emotions also share similarities across cultures.

Music, even across cultures, seems to evoke basic emotions, suggesting a connection between our emotional systems and the structure and sounds of music.

Studies have shown that even in culturally diverse communities, people tend to create similar patterns of music and movement, suggesting a shared emotional basis.

Different theories of emotion, like evolutionary, appraisal, and constructionist, provide diverse perspectives on the nature and origin of emotions.

These theories propose that emotions have evolved to help us adapt to our environment and survive.

A positive emotion characterized by warmth, teary eyes, goosebumps, and chills, often induced by communal closeness like hugs or reunions. It promotes social bonds and helping behaviors.

Culturally prescribed rules that dictate how we express emotions in different social situations. These rules guide us on when and how to modify our facial expressions and nonverbal behavior.

People are better at recognizing and understanding the facial expressions of those from their own culture.

The idea that different cultures exhibit slight variations in the way they express universal emotions, like accents in language.

Meaningful constructs used to describe and compare different cultures. They help us understand patterns in emotion expression and experience.

A cultural dimension that describes the extent to which people see themselves as individualistic, prioritizing personal goals and autonomy, or collectivist, emphasizing group harmony and interdependence.

Different cultures have different conceptions of self. In individualistic cultures, people perceive themselves as independent entities, while in collectivistic cultures, people view themselves as interconnected with others.

Cultural differences in cognitive processing. Individualistic cultures tend towards analytic thinking focused on individual objects, while collectivistic cultures lean towards holistic thinking that considers the context and relationships.

Cultural differences in how people value positive and negative emotions. Western cultures tend to value high-arousal positive emotions like excitement, while East Asian cultures value low-arousal emotions like contentment.

Cultures where an individual's self-esteem and social standing are determined by their reputation and the reputation of their family. Protecting honor is paramount, and anger and violence may be acceptable responses to insults.

How our natural and social environments shape human behavior and psychology. For example, collectivism has been linked to the prevalence of pathogens and agricultural practices.

Religious traditions, particularly in East Asia, that emphasize the interconnectedness of positive and negative emotions, recognizing their inherent duality and acceptance of both.

Religious and cultural beliefs that emphasize the pursuit of positive emotions, particularly happiness, as a sign of virtue and a desirable state.

Western cultures tend to emphasize positive emotions and view negative emotions as undesirable, while East Asian cultures see value in both positive and negative emotions, acknowledging their interconnectedness.

People from collectivistic cultures are more influenced by the emotional tone of the surrounding context when interpreting facial expressions compared to those from individualistic cultures.