Emotions

Nature of emotions ?

We can distinguish two kind of emotion :

- primary emotions
They are universal, everybody has these emotions, but not necessary display it by the same way
These are : fear, anger, surprise, sadness, disgust, and happiness

- secondary emotions
They are component of the culture and more developed or even nonexistent in some cultures. Here we can find : proud, shame, guilt and so on


Emotions in an intercultural context ?
Would an American be able to identify if a Chinese is sad or ashamed ? Yes or no.

Here we have two views of the problem :

"Emotional communicative behavior posed by one culture can be identified by members of another culture" (universalism)
Let's say that emotions are universal but the displaying of these emotion is not necessary universal. But we can admit that some of facial expression are common and can be interpreted by the same way by few people from different culture. For example the happiness is easily recognizable by the smile. But some factors can interfere by creating a misunderstanding between two cultures like ironical smile, or different way to smile.

It's becoming more and more difficult to recognize emotions as they are secondary. (relativism)
When a French wants to show he is pride of his country, he will sing loudly the national anthem and say that France is the best country in the world. When a Finn wants to show he is pride of his country, he will just show a flag. If he sings his national anthem, he will do it very quietly. He can be interpreted as ashamed of his country by a French, but he is not. The displaying of his proud is just different. Finns do not sing their national anthem so much, but when they do, it really means they are proud...

This is an effect of the difference in displaying the emotion, some rules and norms avoid people from showing some emotion (example of Finn national anthem).

But people from different country will not necessary feel the same emotion in the same situation.
Here, all depend of the cultural experience, the history, the personal experience and so on.
For example, I'm really similar to my brother in terms of emotion, we generally like the same things and hate the same things. We also react often in the same way in some kinds of situation. The first time I did skydive, I was really exited, and not afraid at all, but my brother has never wanted to do it, and when I speak with him about my experience I just can read on his face "How can he do ? I would be so scared"
That shows that everyone does not react by the same way in the same situation.
Another situation which shows a cultural difference is :
"in Finland, child birth brings happiness to the family irrespective of the child’s sex. In
China, the birth of a baby girl may not bring joy to a family"

So let's state that emotion can be universal, relative, personal, misunderstood, similar, cultural and historical.