Culture Expression And Affect

The desire or feeling that influences conduct is referred to as affect. Culture refers to a society’s or people’s customs, ideals, and social conduct. The study Who I Am Depends on How I Feel was conducted to explore the idea that different affective states result in different behavioral reactions depending on the individual’s cultural background (Ashton-James, Maddux, Galinsky & Chartrand, 2009). Because cultures are relative, Western cultures place a great importance on individuality and freedom, and they are regarded as normative. Eastern civilizations, on the other hand, consider maintenance and interdependence as social aims of interpersonal harmony. Therefore with regards to this study, it was expected that the westerners would embrace their normative culture of independence and individuality when experiencing a negative affect and express more will to accept other cultures when experiencing a positive effect. On the other hand, the Easterners would value individuality and independence when experiencing a negative affect but a positive affect would steer them to stick their normative native of embracing difference (Ashton-James, Maddux, Galinsky & Chartrand, 2009). Four experiments were conducted with the affect being the independent variable, manipulated differently in the four instances to measure the expression of behaviors and values-dependent variables- that were culturally consistent was necessary to draw the conclusions on the colossal relationship between affect and culture.

The first experiment investigated on the impact of culture and affect on the value placed on self-expression by individuals. It was hypothesized that individuals of the western culture would value self-expression in positive affective state more than when in a negative affective state (Ashton-James, Maddux, Galinsky & Chartrand, 2009). Easterners would value self-expression more when in the negative state as compared to when in a positive affective state. The participants who volunteered for the experiment were the students from the University of British, one hundred and forty-six in number (74 Easterners and 72 Westerners). The participants filled an autobiographical memory task of recalling life experiences that would make them extremely happy or sad to instill either a positive or a negative affect respectively. Participants were asked to recall their current daily actions to induce a neutral affect. After they would list five feelings and also rate the emotional intensity, they felt at that time on a ten point scale. It was followed by the completion of Value Expression Questionnaire (VEQ) that measured one’s extent of valuing self –expression using a nine-point scale. Lastly, the subjects completed a manipulation check and filled their race, gender, nationality or ethnicity. Individuals who recalled a positive life event had the most positive affect than those in the neutral and negative affective states. Also as hypothesized, those individuals from the western cultures reported high VEQ scores than those from the Eastern Cultures concerning self-expression. The western participants scoring low when in the positive affect and the Eastern participants scoring high in the positive effect. Therefore, the results supported the hypothesis, and in conclusion, the easterners and westerners both illustrated cultural inconsistency when experiencing the positive affect, more consistent when experiencing the negative affect and relative in the neutral state (Ashton-James, Maddux, Galinsky & Chartrand, 2009).

The second experiment evaluated the impact of affect and culture not on the self-reported beliefs but on the consistency of culture of actual behavior. Sixty three participants (33 Easterners and 30 Westerners). It was hypothesized that participants would elucidate less normative cultural practices when in the positive affect condition. The participants were to complete a survey by listening to music that would induce either positive or negative affect and then asked to rate what they felt and also reported their gender, nationality, ethnicity or race. After, they were told to pick pens as payment. As hypothesized those from the western culture were less likely to choose the most different pen when in a positive condition than when in a negative condition. In contrast to the eastern participants who were likely to choose the pens that were of similar color in negative affect condition (Ashton-James, Maddux, Galinsky & Chartrand, 2009).

The third experiment examined two things, and one was self-construal impacts of affective cues, and the other was the automaticity of the first process by measuring the impact of affect that is implicit on the self-construal consistency. Ninety-one undergraduate students (66%westerners and 34% easterners) had their affective state manipulated through a facial feedback condition that was positive or negative. After, they were to complete a measure of self-construal where an individual was to respond to an open-ended question twenty times (Ashton-James, Maddux, Galinsky & Chartrand, 2009). A personal attribute was considered an independent self-construal and was used as the dependent variable. Western participants exhibited few independent self-construal in the positive affect than in the negative affect while the eastern participants showed more independent self-construal in the positive affective state. Those participants in the positive affect (smiling) had less culturally logical expressions as compared to those in the negative affect (frowning).

The last experiment was meant to measure whether affect and cultural interaction had an impact on implicit self-construal behaviors, for example, sitting distance. Thirty-five undergraduate students (22male and 13 female) from Duke University (17 westerners and 18 easterners) were to participate and paid $3. Western participants were recruited by an experimenter who was East Asian, and the Eastern participants were recruited by the western experimenter. The participants examined ten positive and ten negative images. After, they completed a survey. The western participants sat closer to the eastern confederate in a positive affect while the eastern participants sat further from the confederate in the same affect agreeing with the hypothesis. In conclusion, the four experiments vividly showed that negative affect encouraged culturally consistent self-construal, behaviors, and attitudes, meaning that affect can be useful in attuning individuals more or less closely to their cultures (Ashton-James, Maddux, Galinsky & Chartrand, 2009).

The author of the article has provided sufficient evidence that affect influences the expression of culturally normative behaviors and cognitions and that understanding affect can help understand behavioral responses from individuals depending on their cultural backgrounds. However, one of the biggest challenges is that it lacks cultural diversity in the samples used. This literature is dominated by comparisons between Eastern Asia and Western groups thereby limiting the understanding of various affects, and therefore more countries’ analyses should be included. Another factor is the dynamism in culture. Researchers should ensure to capture the dynamic changes in culture as it is not static. The research has depicted Westerners as individualistic and Easterners as collectivistic, and truly no culture is purely individualistic or collectivistic. Therefore this labelling of cultures does not help in accounting for the differences in cultures that exist in emotions. For the westerners who have more individualistic views, positive affect is viewed as attainable, infinite and should be internally experienced. While the Easterners associate positive affect as being derived from assessing one’s relationship with others and it can be from multiple sources. When Westerners are asked about positive affect, they are likely to self-focused responses (Ashton-James, Maddux, Galinsky & Chartrand, 2009). However, the Easterners would reflect emotions between self and others. There is very scant literature on affect impact on cultural expression. Therefore, expansion is necessary. This research can be expanded to include how affective states inhibit or facilitate styles of reasoning that are culturally dormant. This extension can be done through testing the hypothesis that affective cues of mood may influence judgments by acting as the information embodied about the value of cognitions and inclinations being accessible.

Conclusion

This research on how affect influences expression of culture proved the hypothesis that positive affect from the four experiments acts as a go ahead and promotes while the negative affect which acts as a stop sign limits culturally normative reasoning. Despite the challenges, validity would be increased when the limitations would be eliminated by more studies that will be done in diverse cultures.

References

Ashton-James, C. E., Maddux, W. W., Galinsky, A. D., & Chartrand, T. L. (2009). Who I am depends on how I feel: The role of affect in the expression of culture. Psychological Science, 20(3), 340-346.