WHY THERE IS EMOTIONAL CULTURAL NORMS SCRIPT?

• In psychology, the general definition of emotion is a psychological system that assesses information relevant to internal or external contexts, determining whether it can satisfy individual motivational needs (Holodynski & Friedlmeier, 2010). The evaluation of external information (Edey et al., 2017), internal cognitive processing (Harada et al., 2019), and functional responses (Nangyeon, 2016) all exhibit cultural variations.

• However, past research has traditionally considered emotion to possess cross-cultural consistency:
• In the half-century following Ekman, classic studies utilized top-down theory-driven research paradigms to investigate the socioemotional information conveyed by facial expressions. This research paradigm, influenced by the cultural background of the investigators, reflects researchers' intuitive perceptions and observations shaped by cultural influences.
• Early research on facial expressions often overlooked the social communicative function of expressions.
• Complex dynamic information expression patterns accompany the appearance of facial expressions. Questions regarding which action units are activated and the sequence of activation provide crucial information for emotion recognition and classification.

• Indeed, emotion is a functional physiological response that arises from the cognitive evaluation of specific stimuli, with cultural variations present in the stimuli, evaluative components, and functional roles.





（Matsumoto & Hwang，2012）

THEORYS TO PROVE EMOTIONAL CULTURAL NORMS SCRIPT

Piecing Together Emotion（Parkinson, 2012)

• An individual's emotions are shaped by a genetic foundation influenced by cultural and societal forces from infancy. From infancy to childhood, caregivers and societal feedback play a role, and into adulthood, there is a continual internalization of social rules and meanings, forming the instantaneous responses of emotions.

• Specifically, emotions are not solely determined by genetics or a single cultural influence. Rather, they are jointly driven by the internal features of genetic DNA sequences and external cultural and social processes, aligning with the genetic, transmission, and replication mechanisms of natural selection.

Cultural-Historical Formation of Emotion（Boiger & Mesquita，2012）

• Exploring Vygotsky's theoretical concepts in historical-cultural psychology through the study of emotions, it posits that human psychology is the result of a bio-cultural-environmental relationship, consistently transitioning from the biological to the cultural.

• This theory introduces the concept of "Emotional Dialogue," highlighting an inevitable intrinsic connection between emotional vocabulary and historical-cultural realities. Individuals from different cultural backgrounds exhibit intra-group consistency in emotions.

• Innate emotions in children are fundamental, shared across all humans, characterized by standardized facial expressions. In contrast, the expression and understanding of secondary emotions rely on sociocultural learning, necessitating cultural knowledge, cognitive load, emotional exposure through language, and symbolic communication with the social environment.

The cultural construction of emotions(Mesquita, Boiger, & De Leersnyder, 2016)

• The active construction of emotions by individuals within culture allows them to benefit from culturally normative emotions.

• Emotions in line with cultural norms contribute to achieving "intersubjective consensus," involving shared cognitive forces directed towards objects, facts, states of affairs, goals, or values. Experiencing culturally normative emotions correlates with higher happiness and lower symptom reports.

• Culturally normative emotions enable individuals to navigate the intricacies of the social environment in a coordinated manner, explaining why these emotional patterns occur with higher frequency and intensity.

HOW CULTURE CONSTRUCTS EMOTIONAL NORMS SCRIPT

• At the collective level:
• One way collectives promote normative emotional states is by emphasizing them in cultural products people engage with, such as storybooks (Ding, He, & Wang, 2021). Individuals also choose products capable of eliciting culturally valued emotions in others.
• Typical cultural interactions foster emotions aligned with collective intentions. Interactions triggering normative emotions are considered frequent, while those triggering condemnatory emotions are seen as rare. In all cases, normative emotions promote cultural values and goals, while condemnatory emotions contradict collective intentions (Boiger et al., 2013). Parents instill social-value emotions in children, encouraging them to act according to relevant cultural norms and social structures (Rottger-Rossler et al., 2015; 2013).

• At the individual level:
• Individuals actively seek situations fostering emotions beneficial for culturally central tasks (Tsai, 2007; Sims et al., 2014), akin to cultivating emotions useful for other types of tasks (Tamir, Mitchell, & Gross, 2008).
• The situational components contributing to emotional experiences include valence (positive vs. negative), arousal (high vs. low), and interpersonal relationships (mine emotion vs. our emotion).
• Emotion-related meaning components, encompassing evaluation and action tendencies, reflect diverse ways people interpret events and their motivations for taking action.
• It remains to be explored whether there are culturally typical patterns in the ways situational and meaning components jointly construct emotional experiences.

WHAT IS EMOTIONAL CULTURAL NORMS SCRIPT?

AS EMOTIONAL RECOGNITION SCRIPT

The Influence of Cultural Background Information on Emotional Body Language Recognition

AS IDEAL AFFECT

More Modern, More Arousal? Ideal Affect in Cultural and Psychological changes during the social transformation in China