Emotion in Context: Constructions of Anger and Shame in Four Cultures

Do people experience anger and shame in similar or different ways across cultures? In this dissertation, I address this question in eight empirical studies across the United States, Japan, Belgium, and Turkey. Taking a three-pronged approach to studying cultural variation in the experience of anger and shame, I investigate across cultures (i) the components of meaning (i.e., appraisals and action tendencies) associated with anger and shame, (ii) how situations afford experiences of anger and shame, and (iii) if there are culturally typical patterns in the way situations and components of meaning, together, construct emotional experience. The studies are presented in the form of co-authored research articles (Chapters 2 6) that are embedded in an introduction and a conclusion (Chapters 1 and 7). In an epilogue, I take the findings of this dissertation as a starting point for a broader perspective on the sociocultural construction of emotion (Chapter 8).In a first study, I investigate cultural variation in the action component of emotional experience. Arguing from cultural differences in what constitutes good action, I show in an experience sampling study that those who engage in European-American contexts take a more influencing stance during emotional episodes, while those who engage in East-Asian contexts favor a more adjusting style of action (Chapter 2). Although not specific to anger and shame, this first study serves as a basis for what follows by showing that emotional experience varies across cultures in line with what is culturally desirable and beneficial. In the following six studies, I argue that the cultural practices especially the commonly encountered social situations in each culture afford anger and shame to the extent that these emotions are culturally desirable or beneficial. A questionnaire study in the independent U.S. and the interdependent Japanese context reveals that people are more likely to encounter situations that afford culturally condoned emotions (anger in the United States, shame in Japan), while they are less likely to encounter situations that afford condemned emotions (shame in the United States, anger in Japan). An associated card-sort study establishes that Americans and Japanese find those situations most angering and shameful that touch upon their central cultural concerns (Chapter 3). The next study replicates the situational affordance of anger and shame in two interdependent cultures, Turkey and Japan. I show that emotions that are beneficial for defending honor are afforded frequently in Turkey (both anger and shame), whereas emotions that are beneficial for keeping face are afforded frequently in Japan (shame, but not anger); additionally, I identify context-specific affordances within each culture (Chapter 4). In a series of studies comparing two independent cultural contexts the United States and Belgium I then expand the idea of affordances further: A questionnaire study and a content analysis reveal that people s cultural worlds foster differences in anger and shame not only bypromoting certain situations over others, but also by highlighting these emotions to different extents in popular children s books. Moreover, a word-association study shows that the semantic networks within each language (i.e., American English and Belgian Dutch) highlight different meanings of anger and shame in terms of the associated action components (Chapter 5).The final study addresses cultural variation in the components and situations of anger and shame jointly. A directed imagery task in the United States, Japan, and Belgium investigates both the extent to which components (i.e., appraisals and action tendencies) are elicited by anger and shame situations as well as how these components map onto anger and shame experience. Using an inductive analytic approach that identifies patterns in participants responses, I show that cultural variation in emotional experience is in the data: Culturally typical patterns of experiencing anger and shame stand out across cultures (Chapter 6).In conclusion, this dissertation identifies systematic cultural variation in the way people experience anger and shame. An overarching finding is that cultural differences in emotional experience correspond to the respective meanings and functions of anger and shame; this in itself is a universal finding. This dissertation also demonstrates what can be gained by conceiving of emotions as variable, contextualized constructions of meaning: Not only is this approach closer to people s actual experiences in each culture, it also studies emotions for what they are powerful connections between individual minds and social worlds.status: publishe