Everyday Conceptions of Emotion: An Introduction to the Psychology, Anthropology and Linguistics of Emotion

580 Pages·1995·34.7 MB·English

by  Z. Kövecses (auth.)

Everyday Conceptions of Emotion
An Introduction to the Psychology,
Anthropology and Linguistics of Emotion
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Series D: Behavioural and Social Sciences - Vol. 81
Everyday Conceptions
of Emotion
An In troduction to the Psychology,
Anthropology and Linguistics of Emotion
edited by
James A. Russell
Department of Psychology,
The University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Jose-Miguel Fernandez-Dais
Facultad de PSicologia,
Universidad Aut6noma de Madrid,
Madrid, Spain
Antony S. R. Manstead
Department of Social Psychology,
University of Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
and
J. C. Wellenkamp
Department of Anthropology & School of Dentistry,
University of California,
los Angeles, CA, U.SA
Springer-Science+Business Media, B.Y.
Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on
Everyday Conceptions of Emotion
Almagro, Spain
May 3-8, 1994
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-90-481-4551-5 ISBN 978-94-015-8484-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-8484-5
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
@1995 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1995.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1995
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
List of contributors xvii
Section 1: Emotion Concepts and What LanguageReveals About Them
Z.KOVECSES
Introduction: Language and emotion concepts 3
ANNA WIERZBICKA
Everyday conceptions of emotion: A semantic perspective 17
Z.KOVECSES
Metaphor and the folk understanding of anger 49
W. GERROD PARROTT
The heart and the head: Everyday conceptions ofb eing emotional 73
KYLE D. SMITH and DEBBIE TKEL-SBAL
Prototype analyses of emotion terms in Palau, Micronesia 85
SEYDA TURK SMTIH and KYLE D. SMITH
Turkish emotion concepts: A prototype analysis 103
NICO H. FRIJDA, SUPRAPTI MARKAM, KAORI SATO,
and REINOUT WIERS
Emotions and emotion words 121
KEITH OATLEY and LAURETTE LAROCQUE
Everyday concepts ofe motions following every-other-day
errors in joint plans 145
vi
Sedion Z: Anthropological Studies of Emotion Concepts
J. C. WELLENKAMP
Introduction: Ethnotheories ofE motion 167
DOROTHY HOLlAND and ANDREW KIPNIS
American cultural models ofe mbarrassment: The not-so egocentric
self laid bare 181
J. L. BRIGGS
The study ofI nuit emotions: Lessons from a personal retrospective 203
NIKO BESNIER
The politics of emotion in Nukulaelae gossip 221
D. L. BRENNEIS
"Caught in the web ofw ords:" Performing theory in a Fiji Indian
community 241
J. T. IRVINE
A sociolinguistic apporach to emotion concepts in a
Senegalese community 251
J. C. WELLENKAMP
Everyday conceptions ofd istress: A case study from
Toraja, Indonesia 267
Sedion 3: The Developing Child's Theory of Emotion
PAUL L. HARRIS
Introduction: The Child's Concept ofE motion 283
HENRY M. WELLMAN
Young Children's Conception ofM ind and Emotion:
Evidence from English Speakers 289
ANTONY S.R. MANSTEAD
Children's Understanding ofE motion 315
vii
K. PAPADOPOULOU
The Development of Children's Understanding ofN egative
Reflexive Social Emotions 333
PAUL L. HARRIS
Developmental Constraints ofE motion Categories 353
M. MEERUM TERWOGT AND H. STEGGE
Children's Understanding of the Strategic Control of
Negative Emotions 373
MA YUMI KARASAWA
Intersubjective Emotions and the Theory ofM ind Research:
A Cultural Critique 391
Section 4: Social Influences on Conceptions of Emotion
KYLE D. SMITH
Introduction: Social Psychological Perspectives on.Laypersons'
Theories ofE motion 397
D. PAEZ and A.!. VERGARA
Culture Differences in Emotional Knowledge: A Study in
Mexico, Chile, Belgium and the Basque Country (Spain) 415
VA NDA LUCIA ZAMMUNER
Naive Theories of Emotional Experience: Jealousy 435
AGNETA H. FISCHER
Emotion Concepts as a Function of Gender 457
BERNARD RIME
The Social Sharing ofE motion as a Source for the Social
Knowledge ofE motion 475
G.BELLELLI
Knowing and Labeling Emotions: The Role ofS ocial Sharing 491
viii
I.M. FERNA.NDEZ-DOLS and M.A. RUIZ-BELDA
Expression ofE motion Versus Expressions ofE motions:
Everyday Conceptions about Spontaneous Facial Behavior 505
SlflNOBU KITAYAMA, HAZEL ROSE MARKUS,
and CARY LIEBERMAN
The Collective Construction ofS elf Esteem: Implications for
Culture, Self, and Emotion 523
Section S: Concluding Comments
ANTONY S.R. MANSTEAD
Final Session 553
NIKO BESNIER
The Appeal and Pitfalls ofC ross-Disciplinary Dialogues 559
lAMES A. RUSSELL
Afterword 571
Index 575
PREFACE
The concepts of emotion, anger, fear, and the like seem like natural
categories. Many investigators in different disciplines have assumed that emotions
are naturally distinguished from non-emotions and that anger, fear, sadness, and so
forth are everywhere recognized as natural kinds. At the same time, anthropologists
and linguists have obtained evidence that different languages recognize different
categories of emotion -- they carve up the domain of emotion differently. Not all
languages even have a concept equivalent to emotion.
Claims of variation in how emotions are categorized raise fundamental
questions for the study of emotion. Is it possible that the emotions are categorized
differently in different languages? If so, how large and widespread are the
differences? What are the relations among words for emotions, concepts for
emotions, and the emotions themselves? What emotions might exist but go
nameless in English? Might the concept expressed by the English word emotion be
culture-bound? What would such differences reveal about the nature of emotion
categories, or about where those categories come from in the first place? What
would such differences reveal about the emotions themselves? What would be the
implications for scientific theories of emotion stated in English? Would we be
justified in using in other cultures our English words for emotions? On the other
hand, is there good evidence of cultural differences, or are the reported differences
isolated curiosities, or perhaps even mistranslations? Do lexical differences indicate
any real differences in how people think? What about evidence familiar to all
psychologists that recognition of facial expressions of emotion is universal -- what
does that evidence say about the role of culture in how emotions are categorized?
Or vice versa?
In response to such questions, an Advanced Research Workshop was held
in Almagro, Spain on May 3rd through the 8th, 1994. The topic of our workshop
was the ordinary person's conceptualization of emotion: that is, people's mental
categories and concepts of emotion, embedded within a broader network of
knowledge. We considered the nature of these conceptions, how they are used in
everyday life, how they come about, and how they change.. (Our focus was thus not
emotions per se, nor scientific theories of emotion, although these topics certainly
came up. Our focus was everyday "folk" theories of emotion.) The ordinary
everyday understanding of emotion is at the center of how one person understands
(and responds to, seeks to influence, and remembers) another. On some theories,
understanding of emotion is at the center of the experience of emotion and emotion
itself. The way that groups differ in their understanding of emotion is relevant to
cultural, linguistic, and intergroup conflict, cross-cultural mental health, and ethnic
misunderstanding. A group's conceptualization of emotion is a part of a much larger
pattern that is that group's behaviour and thought.
Given this interest, different theoretical stances on emotion per se (stances
ranging from biological determinism to social constructionism) do not necessarily
ix