Everyday Conceptions of Emotion An Introduction to the Psychology, Anthropology and Linguistics of Emotion NATO ASI Series Advanced Science Institutes Series A Series presenting the results of activities sponsored by the NA TO Science Committee, which aims at the dissemination of advanced scientific and technological knowledge, with a view to strengthening links between scientific communities. The Series is published by an international board of publishers in conjunction with the NATO Scientific Affairs Division A Life Sciences Plenum Publishing Corporation B Physics London and New York C Mathematical and Physical Sciences Kluwer Academic Publishers D Behavioural and Social Sciences Dordrecht, Boston and London E Applied Sciences F Computer and Systems Sciences Springer-Verlag G Ecological Sciences Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, H Cell Biology Paris and Tokyo I Global Environmental Change PARTNERSHIP SUB·SERIES 1. Disarmament Technologies Kluwer Academic Publishers 2. Environment Springer-Verlag / Kluwer Academic Publishers 3. High Technology Kluwer Academic Publishers 4. Science and Technology Policy Kluwer Academic Publishers 5. Computer Networking Kluwer Academic Publishers The Partnership Sub-Series incorporates activities undertaken in collaboration with NA TO's Cooperation Partners, the countries of the CIS and Central and Eastern Europe, in Priority Areas of concern to those countries. NATO-Pce·DATA BASE The electronic index to the NATO ASI Series provides full bibliographical references (with keywords and/or abstracts) to more than 50000 contributions from international scientists published in all sections of the NATO ASI Series. Access to the NA To-PCO-DAT A BASE is possible in two ways: - via online FILE 128 (NATo-PCo-DATA BASE) hosted by ESRIN, Via Galileo Galilei,1-00044 Frascati,ltaly. - via CD-ROM "NATO-PCo-DATA BASE" with user-friendly retrieval software in English, French and German (© WTV GmbH and DATAWARE Technologies Inc. 1989). The CD-ROM can be ordered through any member of the Board of Publishers or through NATO PCO, Overijse, Belgium. 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 utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo copying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. 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