Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

346 CHAPTER 8 Motivation and Emotionbasic emotionsThe most fundamental set of emotion categories,which are biologically innate, evolutionarilydetermined, and culturally universal.interpersonal engagementEmotion dimension reflecting the degree towhich emotions involve a relationship withanother person or other people.Table 8.3The Basic EmotionsFearSurpriseAngerDisgustHappinessSadnessAlthough there is some disagreement asto exactly which emotions best representthe universal set of basic emotions, mostemotion researchers today agree on thesix emotions shown above. Other possiblecandidates are contempt or disdain, pride,and excitement.Socially Engaged Emotions in Japan Closenessand interdependence are fostered byJapanese child-rearing practices, and somepsychologists believe they also form thebasis for such other-focused emotions asamae, a central emotion in Japanese culture(Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Amae canbe defined as the sense of being lovinglycared for and unconditionally accepted byanother person. Amae can be achievedonly within a reciprocal, interdependentrelationship with someone else. Thus,amae is a prototypical example of a sociallyengaged emotion—an other-focused emotionthat creates and fosters interdependencewith significant others (Rothbaum &others, 2007; Yamaguchi & Ariizumi, 2006).Obviously, the capacity to feel and be moved by emotion has adaptive value: An organismthat is able to quickly respond to rewards or threats is more likely to survive andsuccessfully reproduce.Darwin (1872) also pointed out that emotional displays serve the important functionof informing other organisms about an individual’s internal state. When facingan aggressive rival, the snarl of a baboon signals its readiness to fight. A wolf rollingsubmissively on its back telegraphs its willingness to back down and avoid a fight.Emotions are also important in situations that go well beyond physical survival.Virtually all human relationships are heavily influenced by emotions. Our emotionalexperience and expression, as well as our ability to understand the emotions of others,are crucial to the maintenance of social relationships (Reis & others, 2000).In the next several sections, we’ll consider each of the components of emotion inturn, beginning with the component that is most familiar: the subjective experienceof emotion.The Subjective Experience of EmotionMost emotion researchers today agree that there are a limited number of basicemotions that all humans, in every culture, experience. These basic emotions arethought to be biologically determined, the products of evolution. And what are thesebasic emotions? As shown in Table 8.3, fear, disgust, surprise, happiness, anger, andsadness are most commonly cited as the basic emotions (Ekman, 1992a; Izard, 2007).Many psychologists contend that each basic emotion represents a sequence ofresponses that is innate and hard-wired in the brain (Tooby & Cosmides, 2000).But your emotional experience is not limited to pure forms of each basic emotion.Rather, each basic emotion represents a family of related emotional states (Ekman,1994a, 1994b). For example, consider the many types of angry feelings, which canrange from mild annoyance to bitter resentment or fierce rage.Further, psychologists recognize that emotional experience can be complex andmultifaceted (Cacioppo & Gardner, 1999). People often experience a blend of emotions.In more complex situations, people may experience mixed emotions, in whichvery different emotions are experienced simultaneously or in rapid succession.A common belief is that women are “naturally” more emotional than men. Infact, both men and women tend to view women as the more emotional sex (Hess &others, 2000). But are they? We explore this question in the Critical Thinking box,“Are Women Really More Emotional Than Men?”Culture and Emotional ExperienceIn diverse cultures, psychologists have found general agreement regarding thesubjective experience and meaning of different basic emotions (Scherer &Wallbott, 1994). Canadian psychologist James Russell (1991) compared emotiondescriptions by people from several different cultures. He found that emotionswere most commonly classified according to two dimensions: (1) the degree towhich the emotion is pleasant or unpleasant and (2) the level of activation, orarousal, associated with the emotion. For example, joy and contentment areboth pleasant emotions, but joy is associated with a higher degree of activation(Feldman Barrett & Russell, 1999).While these may be the most fundamental dimensions of emotion, culturalvariations in classifying emotions do exist (White, 1994). For example, Hazel RoseMarkus and Shinobu Kitayama (1991, 1994) found that Japanese subjects classifiedemotions in terms of not two but three important dimensions. Along with the pleasantnessand activation dimensions, they also categorized emotions along a dimensionof interpersonal engagement. This dimension reflects the idea that someemotions result from your connections and interactions with other people(Kitayama & others, 2000). Japanese participants rated anger and shame as beingabout the same in terms of unpleasantness and activation, but they rated shame asbeing much higher than anger on the dimension of interpersonal engagement.