(PDF) Emoting: A contextualized process

What We Can Learn About Emotion by Talking With the Hadza

Article

Jul 2023
PERSPECT PSYCHOL SCI

Emotions are often thought of as internal mental states centering on individuals' subjective feelings and evaluations. This understanding is consistent with studies of emotion narratives, or the descriptions people give for experienced events that they regard as emotions. Yet these studies, and contemporary psychology more generally, often rely on observations of educated Europeans and European Americans, constraining psychological theory and methods. In this article, we present observations from an inductive, qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with the Hadza, a community of small-scale hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, and juxtapose them with a set of interviews conducted with Americans from North Carolina. Although North Carolina event descriptions largely conformed to the assumptions of eurocentric psychological theory, Hadza descriptions foregrounded action and bodily sensations, the physical environment, immediate needs, and the experiences of social others. These observations suggest that subjective feelings and internal mental states may not be the organizing principle of emotion the world around. Qualitative analysis of emotion narratives from outside of a U.S. (and western) cultural context has the potential to uncover additional diversity in meaning-making, offering a descriptive foundation on which to build a more robust and inclusive science of emotion.

Marcadores del discurso en contextos de emoción

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2022

Noemi Dominguez Garcia

En este trabajo analizaremos los marcadores del discurso que se sitúan en las reacciones emotivas de una conversación coloquial, con el fin de comprobar si a sus funciones habituales de argumentación, reformulación, etc. y a sus funciones metadiscursivas de control del discurso puede añadírsele también la función metadiscursiva de anuncio de reacción emotiva. Las unidades conversacionales seleccionadas están, pues, marcadas por algún tipo de fuerza ilocutiva expresiva o emotiva. Nos situamos, así, en la línea de las investigaciones que está llevando a cabo el Grupo Fonoemoción en el seno del Proyecto EHSEE (Padilla et alii, 2017) y que suponen una nueva aportación a los estudios del llamado “discurso emotivo”. A él se acercan disciplinas lingüísticas como la fonopragmática (Rittaud-Hutinet 1995; Acuña 2011; Carbajal et alii 2014) o la fonocortesía (Hidalgo 2007; Hidalgo et alii 2010; Estellés 2013), interesadas en la relación entre el valor contextual de los enunciados y su reflejo fónico en el habla. La observación y el análisis de la conversación coloquial espontánea nos muestran que el habla se presenta continuamente como un reflejo de las emociones, de las actitudes y de los sentimientos de los usuarios (Cowie y Cornelius 2003; Padilla 2004; 2017; 2020; 2021). Para llevar a cabo esta investigación, y partiendo de la división de seis emociones básicas de Ekman (1970; 1999), se ha analizado un corpus de ochenta y nueve intervenciones emotivas procedentes de dos conversaciones coloquiales reales. Se han tomado como unidades de análisis conversacional la intervención, el acto y el subacto (Briz y Grupo Val.Es.Co. 2003; Grupo Val.Es.Co. 2014) y se han localizado quince marcadores discursivos diferentes. Aunque, dada la extensión de la muestra, aún no pueden extraerse conclusiones definitivas, sí se apuntan algunas tendencias, como la preferencia de aparición de los marcadores en las reacciones emotivas de sorpresa y enfado o la aparición del valor metadiscursivo de “anuncio de reacción emotiva” común a todos ellos.

Quantum Core Affect. Process-Semantic Theory of Emotions

Preprint

Full-text available

Nov 2021

Ilya A. Surov

The paper describes model of human affect based on quantum theory of semantics. The model considers emotion as subjective representation of behavioral context relative to a basis binary choice, organized by cyclical process structure and an orthogonal evaluation axis. The resulting spherical space, generalizing well-known circumplex models, accommodates basic emotions in specific angular domains. Predicted process-semantic structure of affect is observed in the word2vec data, as well as in the previously obtained spaces of emotion concepts. The established quantum-theoretic structure of affective space connects emotion science with quantum models of cognition and behavior, opening perspective for synergetic progress in these fields.

Fighting Social Isolation With Nostalgia: Nostalgia as a Resource for Feeling Connected and Appreciated and Instilling Optimism and Vitality During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2021

In two experiments, we tested the influence of bringing to mind a memory of a special moment versus an ordinary moment on nostalgia and whether this elicited nostalgia was related directly to gratitude and the satisfaction of need for relatedness and indirectly to optimism and vitality. Participants from Mexico were first asked to state how the pandemic of COVID-19 has affected their lives. After, participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: Memory of special moment versus memory of ordinary recent moment (study 1) or memory of special moment versus or memory of ordinary moment from the same life period as the special moment (study 2). After, participants completed a battery of questionnaires assessing nostalgia, gratitude and optimism (study 1) or nostalgia, satisfaction of need for relatedness, and vitality (study 2). Results from study 1 showed a positive influence of bringing to mind a special moment on nostalgia. Nostalgia was positively related to gratitude, which was then related positively to optimism. Similarly, results from study 2 showed a positive influence of bringing to mind a special moment on nostalgia. Nostalgia was positively related to satisfaction of need for relatedness, which then had a positive relationship with vitality. In both studies, the indirect sequential effect of bringing to mind a special moment on optimism and vitality was significant.

Relatively Happy: The Role of the Positive-to-Negative Affect Ratio in Japanese and Belgian Couples

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2021

Satisfied couples in European-American cultural contexts experience higher ratios of positive to negative affect during interactions than their less satisfied counterparts. The current research tests the possibility that this finding is culture-bound. It compares proportions of positive to negative affect during couple interactions in two different cultural contexts: Belgium and Japan. Whereas Belgian relationship goals (e.g., mutual affirmation and self-esteem) call for the experience of positive affect, Japanese relationship goals (e.g., harmony and self-adjustment) call for the avoidance of negative affect. We propose that these differences result in different affect ratios in close relationships. To test this idea, we tracked positive and negative feelings during couple interactions. Fifty-eight Belgian and 80 Japanese romantic couples took part in a lab interaction study, in which they discussed a topic of disagreement. Using a video-mediated recall, participants rated their positive and negative feelings during the interaction; relationship satisfaction was assessed before the interaction. As expected, Belgian couples’ positive-to-negative affect ratios were more positive than those of Japanese couples. Furthermore, in both cultures relationship satisfaction was positively associated with more positive affect ratios, but this effect was significantly stronger for Belgian than Japanese couples. Finally, mediation analyses showed that higher affect ratios were achieved in culturally different and meaningful ways: satisfied Belgian couples showed higher ratios primarily through higher levels of positive feelings, whereas satisfied Japanese couples showed higher ratios primarily through lower levels of negative feelings.

Complexity in Second Language Study Emotions: Emergent Sensemaking in Social Context

Book

Full-text available

Jan 2023

Richard J. Sampson

This short-form research monograph offers a socially situated view of the emergence of emotionality for additional language (L2) learners in classroom interaction in Japan. Grounded in a complexity perspective, I argue that emotions need to be studied as they are dynamically experienced and understood in all of their multidimensional colors by individuals (in interaction). Via practitioner research, I apply a small-lens focus (Ushioda, 2016), interweaving experiential and discursive data, offering possibilities for exploring, interpreting and representing the lived experience of L2 study emotions in a more holistic yet detailed, social yet individual fashion. Amidst the currently expanding interest in L2 study emotions, the book presents a strong case for the benefits of locating interpretations of the emergence of L2 study emotions back into situated, dynamic, social context. The electronic version of this book is available open access - free to view or download - from the following URL (Routledge): https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003306955/complexity-second-language-study-emotions-richard-sampson

Approche intégrative des processus de régulation émotionnelle dans l’apprentissage évaluatif

Thesis

Full-text available

Nov 2021

Théo Besson

Dans ce travail, nous avons souhaité explorer la dimension émotionnelle du conditionnement évaluatif. Nous postulons que celui-ci provient d’un processus de double évaluation, d’une part émotionnelle et d’autre part cognitive. Nous nous sommes focalisés sur l’étude des processus émotionnels à travers la régulation émotionnelle. Pour cela nous avons réalisé trois séries d’études. Dans la première, nous avons mis en évidence que la dérégulation émotionnelle diminuait le conditionnement positif. Dans deux autres études visant à explorer les stratégies de régulation, nous avons observé qu’un mésusage des stratégies engendrait un conditionnement négatif plus fort et un conditionnement positif plus faible. Ces premiers résultats sont appuyés par deux études utilisant la variabilité de la fréquence cardiaque comme indicateur des capacités d’autorégulation. Le conditionnement évaluatif paraît associé à la dérégulation émotionnelle à travers des difficultés d’adaptation durant le stress et de récupération post-stress. Enfin, deux études ont essayé d’observer les effets d’un prédicteur de la régulation émotionnelle : la pleine conscience. Dans aucune des deux études nous n’avons trouvé de lien entre la pleine conscience et le conditionnement évaluatif. Nous avons donc pu observer à travers différentes méthodes un lien entre le conditionnement évaluatif et la régulation émotionnelle. Celui-ci est discuté et des pistes de recherches sont envisagées.

Shifting focus through a small lens: Discursive and introspective perspectives on the emergence of L2 study emotions

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2022

Richard J. Sampson

While perennial in the research landscape, empirical work investigating second language (L2) study emotions has proliferated in the past ten years (Dewaele, 2019). Nevertheless, this article argues there is space for more holistic yet detailed, social yet individual perspectives when conducting such research. As one avenue, the paper explores the potential of a “small lens” approach (Ushioda, 2016) to delve into particular emotional events in situ from learner-internal and learner-external points of view. It details an example of such an approach put into practice, in which the author examined the emergence of emotionally significant episodes for English as a foreign language undergraduates in Japan during short conversation sessions. The research explored data from discursive (video-recordings and transcripts of short conversations) and introspective (learner journals) angles. As a result, it was possible to observe the ways in which students’ emotional moves were both afforded by and acted on those of the other through their social interactions, and through interactions with additional aspects of their ongoing psychologies and relationships. The article thus aims to promote further situated L2 emotion research examining the dynamic interplay between various aspects of learners’ psychologies and the co-formed social context.

Power: A Key Idea for Business and Society

Book