Back to Dr. Ratner's Home Page This article is slightly longer than the version that is published in Culture and Psychology 2000, vol. 6, pp. 5-39 A Cultural-Psychological Analysis of

I argue that an activity theory--which regards emotions as interdependent and interpenetrating with other cultural phenomena-- is central for the cultural psychology of emotions. Activity theory maintains that the cultural characteristics, development, and functions of emotions are shaped by social activities and cultural concepts. I explain the relation of biological to cultural factors in shaping the characteristics and development of emotions. Evidence is presented which shows that biological processes-- hormones, neurotransmitters, autonomic reactions-- underlie (mediate) but do not determine emotional qualities and expressions. Particular qualities and expressions are determined by cultural processes and factors. The etymology of "emotion " is the Latin word to move something. Until the mid 18th century the word emotion in English meant movement. Later it came to mean political agitation or disturbance. It was only in the late 18th century that the sense of strong feeling came to the fore. Powerful visceral feelings are noteworthy to us because they contrast with the norm of controlled, rational, calculating thought (Barbalet, 1998, pp. 29-61). Emotions and thinking seem so different that we classify them as different kinds of phenomena. Emotions appear to be natural phenomena governed by biologica