People in different cultures have strikingly different construals of the self, of others, and of the interdependence of the 2. These construals can influence, and in many cases determine, the very nature of individual experience, including cognition, emotion, and motivation. Many Asian cultures have distinct conceptions of individuality that insist on the fundamental relatedness of individuals to each other. The emphasis is on attending to others, fitting in, and harmonious interdependence with them. American culture neither assumes nor values such an overt connectedness among individuals. In contrast, individuals seek to maintain their independence from others by attending to the self and by discovering and expressing their unique inner attributes. As proposed herein, these construals are even more powerful than previously imagined. Theories of the self from both psychology and anthropology are integrated to define in detail the difference between a construal of the self as independent and a construal of the self as interdependent. Each of these divergent construals should have a set of specific consequences for cognition, emotion, and motivation; these consequences are proposed and relevant empirical literature is reviewed. Focusing on differences in self-construals enables apparently inconsistent empirical findings to be reconciled, and raises questions about what have been thought to be culture-free aspects of cognition, emotion, and motivation.

/pdf/culture-and-the-self-implications-for-cognition-emotion-and-2phi5i0grk.pdf

Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation.

Emotions are viewed as having evolved through their adaptive value in dealing with fundamental life-tasks. Each emotion has unique features: signal, physiology, and antecedent events. Each emotion ...

http://files.espertaemozionietaevolutiva.webnode.it/200000014-c9216ca1b9/Ekman%20(1992)%20an%20argument%20for%20basic%20emotion.pdf

An argument for basic emotions

The emerging field of emotion regulation studies how individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express them. This review takes an evolutionary perspective and characterizes emotion in terms of response tendencies. Emotion regulation is denned and distinguished from coping, mood regulation, defense, and affect regulation. In the increasingly specialized discipline of psychology, the field of emotion regulation cuts across traditional boundaries and provides common ground. According to a process model of emotion regulation, emotion may be regulated at five points in the emotion generative process: (a) selection of the situation, (b) modification of the situation, (c) deployment of attention, (d) change of cognitions, and (e) modulation of responses. The field of emotion regulation promises new insights into age-old questions about how people manage their emotions.

http://www.elaborer.org/cours/A13/lectures/Gross1998.pdf

The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review.

Behavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human psychology and behavior in the world's top journals based on samples drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies. Researchers - often implicitly - assume that either there is little variation across human populations, or that these "standard subjects" are as representative of the species as any other population. Are these assumptions justified? Here, our review of the comparative database from across the behavioral sciences suggests both that there is substantial variability in experimental results across populations and that WEIRD subjects are particularly unusual compared with the rest of the species - frequent outliers. The domains reviewed include visual perception, fairness, cooperation, spatial reasoning, categorization and inferential induction, moral reasoning, reasoning styles, self-concepts and related motivations, and the heritability of IQ. The findings suggest that members of WEIRD societies, including young children, are among the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans. Many of these findings involve domains that are associated with fundamental aspects of psychology, motivation, and behavior - hence, there are no obvious a priori grounds for claiming that a particular behavioral phenomenon is universal based on sampling from a single subpopulation. Overall, these empirical patterns suggests that we need to be less cavalier in addressing questions of human nature on the basis of data drawn from this particularly thin, and rather unusual, slice of humanity. We close by proposing ways to structurally re-organize the behavioral sciences to best tackle these challenges.

/pdf/the-weirdest-people-in-the-world-480wr4m3kb.pdf

The WEIRDest People in the World

Computers are beginning to acquire the ability to express and recognize affect, and may soon be given the ability to " have emotions. " The essential role of emotion in both human cognition and perception, as demonstrated by recent neurological studies, indicates that affective computers should not only provide better performance in assisting humans, but also might enhance computers' abilities to make decisions. This paper presents and discusses key issues in " affective computing, " computing that relates to, arises from, or influences emotions. Models are suggested for computer recognition of human emotion, and new applications are presented for computer-assisted learning, perceptual information retrieval, arts and entertainment, and human health and interaction. Affective computing, coupled with new wear-able computers, will also provide the ability to gather new data necessary for advances in emotion and cog-nition theory. Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. – Marie Curie Emotions have a stigma in science; they are believed to be inherently non-scientific. Scientific principles are derived from rational thought, logical arguments, testable hypotheses, and repeatable experiments. There is room alongside science for " non-interfering " emotions such as those involved in curiosity, frustration, and the pleasure of discovery. In fact, much scientific research has been prompted by fear. Nonetheless, the role of emotions is marginalized at best. Why bring " emotion " or " affect " into any of the deliberate tools of science? Moreover, shouldn't it be completely avoided when considering properties to design into computers? After all, computers control significant parts of our lives – the phone system, the stock market, nuclear power plants, jet landings, and more. Who wants a computer to be able to " feel angry " at them? To feel contempt for any living thing? In this essay I will submit for discussion a set of ideas on what I call " affective computing, " computing that relates to, arises from, or influences emotions. This will need some further clarification which I shall attempt below. I should say up front that I am not proposing the pursuit of computerized cingulotomies 1 or even into the business of building " emotional computers ". 1 The making of small wounds in the ridge of the limbic system known as the cingulate gyrus, a surgical procedure to aid severely depressed patients. Nor will I propose answers to the difficult and intriguing questions , " …

Affective Computing

Defining “emotion” is a notorious problem. Without consensual conceptualization and operationalization of exactly what phenomenon is to be studied, progress in theory and research is difficult to a...

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0539018405058216

What are emotions? And how can they be measured?:

This volume brings together, for the first time, the various strands of inquiry and latest research in the scientific study of the relationship between the mechanisms of the brain and the psychology of the mind. In recent years, scientists have made considerable advances in understanding how brain processes shape emotions and are changed by human emotion. Drawing on a wide range of neuroimaging techniques, neuropsychological assessment, and clinical research, scientists are beginning to understand the biological mechanisms for emotions. The book is divided into ten sections: Neuroscience; Autonomic Psychophysiology; Genetics and Development; Expression; Components of Emotion; Personality; Emotion and Social Processes; Adaptation, Culture, and Evolution; Emotion and Psychopathology; and Emotion and Health.

Handbook of affective sciences.

Professional actors' portrayals of 14 emotions varying in intensity and valence were presented to judges. The results on decoding replicate earlier findings on the ability of judges to infer vocally expressed emotions with much-better-than-chance accuracy, including consistently found differences in the recognizability of different emotions. A total of 224 portrayals were subjected to digital acoustic analysis to obtain profiles of vocal parameters for different emotions. The data suggest that vocal parameters not only index the degree of intensity typical for different emotions but also differentiate valence or quality aspects. The data are also used to test theoretical predictions on vocal patterning based on the component process model of emotion (K.R. Scherer, 1986). Although most hypotheses are supported, some need to be revised on the basis of the empirical evidence. Discriminant analysis and jackknifing show remarkably high hit rates and patterns of confusion that closely mirror those found for listener-judges.

Klaus R. Scherer

Papers

What are emotions? And how can they be measured?:

Handbook of affective sciences.

Acoustic profiles in vocal emotion expression.

Appraisal processes in emotion.

Vocal communication of emotion: a review of research paradigms