Social and Cultural Perspectives on Emotions

Transcription

1 Social and Cultural Perspectives on Emotions Tobias Schröder University of Waterloo Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience

2 Emotions are Multi-Level Phenomena The body: Emotions as representations of physiological states. The individual mind: Emotions as cognitive appraisals. Social coordination: Emotions as an efficient communication mechanism. The collective mind: Emotions and the cultural order.

3 Warm-up Game a Tree

4 a Lady

5 Fire

6 Semantic Differential (Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957) a Tree is Green.Red Calm. Noisy Immoral. Moral Cold. Hot Powerless. Powerful Light. Heavy Soothing. Arousing Etc.

7 The Dimensionality of Meaning (Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957; Osgood, May, & Miron, 1975) On average, 5% of variation in semantic differential ratings can be explained by three principal components: good, nice.bad, awful strong, powerful.weak, powerless active, excited.passive, calm This finding was confirmed in hundreds, if not thousands of studies in at least 4 different languages and cultures.

8 Affective Meaning (Osgood, 1962; Osgood, May, & Miron, 1975) Later re-interpretation: affective as opposed to denotative meaning. Reflects (likely obsolete!) cognition-emotion dichotomy. EPA: Evaluation, Potency, Activity as fundamental and universal dimensions of affective meaning Emotions and language are intertwined: Psychological constructionism: Conceptualization - Language provides categories for interpretation of core affect (Lisa F. Barrett, James Russell) Neuroscience: Emotions constitutive in quick and early semantic processing (e.g., Schauenburg et al., in prep.)

9 2+'3/4356$ Primary Emotions the Affective Space /.;$A":3(/-$)+-$2'"#)#$ ).8#;! ">$*,23) )+347$G! [#,;! c&g! `&4#! X.$#;#($! &2">$*,23) &2!("'.'2%) C4,1,3&.! E&$#.+G!!/7"#("..)!("'.'2%)

10 The World of Emotions is not 2-D (Fontaine, Scherer, Roesch, & Ellsworth, 27) Analyzed statistical relations of 144 features (appraisals, facial/gestural expressions, physiological changes ) with emotions 4 principal components: EPA + surprise evaluation, potency, activity are not simply dimensions of words, but they are the hidden language, the affective Rosetta stone that allows the mind and the body to communicate (Clore & Pappas, 27)

11 Meaning in the Brain: Semantic Pointers (Eliasmith, 213; Eliasmith, Stewart et al., 212; Fig. from Schröder & Thagard, 213) Concepts: distributed patterns of activity in neurons Recursive binding representations of representations Grounded in sensorimotor and emotional experience

12 Fundamentals of Social Coordination (Scholl, 213) Similar dimensions in many research domains Emotions, language, non-verbal signals, personality traits, interpersonal behaviours => a universal socio-emotional space enabling human cooperation and group coordination Synchronization through attachment / hierarchy Overcoming social dilemmas (cf. game theory) Computational implementation of social coordination through emotion: Affect Control Theory (Thursday!)

13 Sociology of Emotions (e.g., Heise, 27; Hochschild, 1978, 1983; Kemper, 1978, 26) Cultures provide subtle rules for emotional experience and display ( feeling rules ) Cross-cultural differences: e.g., guilt and shame Emotions indicate one s role in the social fabric Status ~Evaluation Power ~Potency Agency ~Activity-arousal => Emotions as a mechanism for maintaining the order of society

14 Affective Meaning, Again Dictionary Studies: Psychologists and sociologists have created culture-specific sentiment repositories, i.e. datasets with 1s of concepts with empirical EPA ratings Identities, Behaviours, Traits, Emotions, Settings Empirical base for Scaling experimental materials Computer models of social interaction and emotion Sentiment analysis Providing artificial agents with cultural knowledge

15 -&.+#/$,12'#.&$,34#!4(5!,*#+34#!6#,.7.8(! 9&:!'&#(!,!:&;'!<=##1>?!! Measuring EPA: Semantic (Heise, 1969, 21; Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957)!! 6&$%#;D!+%71'D!=,$%#;!.,.8#.#%6!./1#,(,.$! 2V! T)/4,/(+-$ 2K! 7.M.7$#1G! #Y$;#6#1G! (+%:,+%! /&:#;1#((! 2d! A7$#! 2S! (178%$1G! L! S!.#$;,1! (178%$1G! B+5#-'6$ 2V! 2K! 7.M.7$#1G! #Y$;#6#1G! T#;%78#.'! +,167.8! 2V! 2d! A7$#! 2S! (178%$1G! Y! L! S!.#$;,1! (178%$1G! Y! Y!Y! d! A7$#! Y! d! A7$#! %'()356$ 2K! 7.M.7$#1G! #Y$;#6#1G! 2d! A7$#! 2S! (178%$1G! L!.#$;,1! Y!Y! S! (178%$1G! d! K! #Y$;#6#1G! K! #Y$;#6#1G! Y! A7$#! K! #Y$;#6#1G! CE)"&$%#;!J!d5KSZS5RLZL5fd!BH#;6,.!',$,F! CE)+%71'!J!d5dLZ2L5dRZd5dR!BH#;6,.!',$,F! CE)=,$%#;!J!S5RVZS5PKZL5RP!BH#;6,.!',$,F!,.8#.#%6! /1#,(,.$! V! 7.M.7$#1G! V! 6e+%38! /&:#;=1! 7.M.7$#1G! V!,=;#8#.'! #Y+73.8! 7.M.7$#1G!

16 Culture as Consensus (Heise, 21; Romney, Boyd, Batchelder, Moore, & Brazill, 1996) Q-Factoring (across persons) reveals one large factor to explain EPA ratings of concepts. Eigenwert Faktor (Schröder, 29) => The conceptual basis of emotional experience and social coordination is largely shared among members of one culture.

17 Affective Meaning and the Social (Ambrasat, v. Scheve, Schauenburg, Conrad, & Schröder, in review) A4,5#:$TB%$C:+U4#;$DP$8+5$'#-5:/4$V+:.$J3.#-((#K$ AWR2!TX$L$ TB%'4,LY$NGZHG]N[ZDH]DZ[G$ AWR2!TX$D$ TB%'4,DY$N[ZLD]DZD[][Z\P$ AWR2!TX$G$ TB%'4,GY$DZ^`]DZ[^][Z``$ AWR2!TX$P$ TB%'4,DY$NDZ[\]N[Z^P]N[ZHP$ Method: Measured EPA of 91 concepts with semantic differential N=2,849 (representative of German population) AWR2!TX$H$ TB%'4,HY$N[ZP[][ZHD][ZD_$

18 !BIJVQF! JVQF! Subtle (sub-)cultural Variations: Socio-Economic Status (Ambrasat, v. Scheve, Schauenburg, Conrad, & Schröder, under review) Family and Community Family and Community evamiddle.4 middle -.5 pot ** middle -.23*** middle pot middle middle eva -.13** middle eva -.13** actmiddle ** potmiddle middle -.12** Non-Conformists / Deviants/ Deviants Non-Conformists coefficients coefficients of linear mixed-effects model of linear mixed-effects model act middle act middle -.14** -.23***.18**.18**.29***.19**.19**.29*** coefficients ofcoefficients linear mixed-effects model of linear mixed-effects model!$&!'+88,-356$+&.+#/$(!]!$%#g!,;#!/#;+#74#'!,(!1#((!/&(734#!,.'!1#((!/&$#,.+#!$&!'+88,-356$+&.+#/$(!]!$%#g!,;#!/#;+#74#'!,(!1#((!/&(734#!,.'!1#(( Working-class vs. academic culture, similar to Eastern, -N'+-1+:835!($;&.8#;!$%,.!1&:#;!@C@!8;&/(!]!$%#G!,;#!/#;+#74#'!1#((!/& +$!-+-N'+-1+:835!($;&.8#;!$%,.!1&:#;!@C@!8;&/(!]!$%#G!,;#!/#;+#74#'!1# collectivist vs Western individualist (cf. Fiske & Markus, 212) -((#$]!$%#G!,;#!/#;+#74#'!,(!1#((!/&(734#D!1#((!/&$#.$D!,.'!1#((!#Y+73.8!$% $3.#-((#$]!$%#G!,;#!/#;+#74#'!,(!1#((!/&(734#D!1#((!/&$#.$D!,.'!1#((!#Y+73 +#/$(5! +&.+#/$(5!

19 Summary Emotions are multi-level: body, mind, culture Affective meaning: language is grounded in emotional experience EPA: evaluation-potency-activity Emotion and social interaction controlled by conceptual structures that are grounded in affect and shared within cultures Next: Affect Control Theory