Batja Mesquita

Last updated
Batja Gomes de Mesquita
Born1960
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Alma materUniversity of Amsterdam, University of Michigan
Known forTheory of socio-cultural construction of emotions
Scientific career
Fieldssocial psychology, cultural psychology, affective sciences
Thesis  (Ph.D. 1993)
Doctoral advisor Nico H. Frijda
Website https://ppw.kuleuven.be/cscp/batjamesquita

Batja Mesquita is a Dutch social psychologist, a cultural psychologist and an affective scientist. She is a professor of psychology at the University of Leuven, Belgium, where she studies the role of culture in emotions, and of emotions in culture and society. She is director of the Center for Social and Cultural Psychology in Leuven. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Mesquita was born in Amsterdam in 1960 to Jewish Dutch parents who had survived the World War II in hiding. [2] Her father, Albert Gomes de Mesquita was a class mate of Anne Frank. [3] Her mother, Lien de Jong, was orphaned in the war. [4] Both parents were educated, and the family lived a comfortable middle-class life. Mesquita has two younger brothers.

Mesquita obtained a bachelor's degree in psychology and a bachelor's degree in philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. She obtained a master's degree in experimental psychology from the same university, focusing her master thesis on gender differences in emotions. During her Ph.D. in psychology, she developed her initial insights in the role of culture for emotions. Mesquita spent her postdoc years at the University of Michigan, [5] where she was part of the ‘Culture and Cognition group’. [6] This group combined psychological perspectives with those of neighboring disciplines as anthropology and sociology to learn how individual psychological processes are shaped through socio-cultural participation.

Career

Interested by the contrast between the ethnographic findings of marked cultural differences in emotions [7] and psychological research that yielded universality, [8] Mesquita set out to understand the role of culture in emotions. In an extensive literature review that appeared in Psychological Bulletin, [9] she and Nico H. Frijda arrived at a synthesis of the research findings from different disciplines, which challenged the notion of universal basic emotions. They concluded that, while some aspects of emotions may be universal, other aspects are cross-culturally different. [9] In later work, Mesquita found that cultural differences in emotions are systematic and meaningful, and can be understood from cultural differences in self and relationship models (e.g., Mesquita, 2003 [10] ). The finding of systematic and meaningful cultural differences led Mesquita to formulate a socio-cultural theory of emotions. According to this theory, emotions emerge from interpersonal interactions that are bound and guided by cultural meanings and practices. [11] Her current research focuses on unveiling the interpersonal processes that give rise to cross-culturally different emotions. [12] In another line of research, Mesquita and her colleagues study the consequences of cultural differences in emotions for the multicultural society. They have yielded evidence for emotional acculturation: Emotions change as a result of contact with another culture. The work on acculturation shows the role of culture in producing and reproducing emotions, even beyond their initial socialization. [13] It has also led to a cultural psychological theory of acculturation, in which ‘deep’ psychological processes, such as emotions, change upon contact with another culture. [14] Mesquita’s research interests include the consequences of emotional misfit of immigrant minorities for their belonging to and inclusion in majority culture. The recently published book, Between Us, highlights precisely this theory. It combines a diversity of psychological research and intimate personal stories from different cultures. [15] Notwithstanding, Between Us was nominated for The Next Big Idea. It was also part of the Behavioral Scientist's Summer Book List 2022 and reviewed by Science and The New Yorker. [16]

In 2020, Batja received an Advanced Grant, funded by the European Research Council under the H2020 programme, for the project called EmotionAcculturation. [17] The Advanced Grants support Principal Investigators that have established excellent research achievements. [18] The project is responsible for investigating how emotions, as crucial interaction processes, reflect on immigrant minorities’ social inclusion and wellbeing.

Other positions and activities

Honors

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emotion</span> Conscious subjective experience of humans

Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is no scientific consensus on a definition. Emotions are often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, or creativity.

Acculturation is a process of social, psychological, and cultural change that stems from the balancing of two cultures while adapting to the prevailing culture of the society. Acculturation is a process in which an individual adopts, acquires and adjusts to a new cultural environment as a result of being placed into a new culture, or when another culture is brought to someone. Individuals of a differing culture try to incorporate themselves into the new more prevalent culture by participating in aspects of the more prevalent culture, such as their traditions, but still hold onto their original cultural values and traditions. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both the devotee of the prevailing culture and those who are assimilating into the culture.

An emotional expression is a behavior that communicates an emotional state or attitude. It can be verbal or nonverbal, and can occur with or without self-awareness. Emotional expressions include facial movements like smiling or scowling, simple behaviors like crying, laughing, or saying "thank you," and more complex behaviors like writing a letter or giving a gift. Individuals have some conscious control of their emotional expressions; however, they need not have conscious awareness of their emotional or affective state in order to express emotion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural psychology</span> How cultures reflect and shape their psychology

Cultural psychology is the study of how cultures reflect and shape their members' psychological processes.

Lewis R. Goldberg is an American personality psychologist and a professor emeritus at the University of Oregon. He is closely associated with the lexical hypothesis that any culturally important personality characteristic will be represented in the language of that culture. This hypothesis led to a five factor structure of personality trait adjectives. When applied to personality items this structure is also known as the five-factor model (FFM) of personality. He is the creator of the International Personality Item Pool(IPIP), a website that provides public-domain personality measures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Feldman Barrett</span> American psychological scientist and neuroscientist

Lisa Feldman Barrett is a University Distinguished Professor of psychology at Northeastern University, where she focuses on affective science. She is a director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory. Along with James Russell, she is the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Emotion Review. Along with James Gross, she founded the Society for Affective Science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cross-cultural psychology</span> Scientific study of human behaviour

Cross-cultural psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes, including both their variability and invariance, under diverse cultural conditions. Through expanding research methodologies to recognize cultural variance in behavior, language, and meaning it seeks to extend and develop psychology. Since psychology as an academic discipline was developed largely in North America and Europe, some psychologists became concerned that constructs and phenomena accepted as universal were not as invariant as previously assumed, especially since many attempts to replicate notable experiments in other cultures had varying success. Since there are questions as to whether theories dealing with central themes, such as affect, cognition, conceptions of the self, and issues such as psychopathology, anxiety, and depression, may lack external validity when "exported" to other cultural contexts, cross-cultural psychology re-examines them using methodologies designed to factor in cultural differences so as to account for cultural variance. Some critics have pointed to methodological flaws in cross-cultural psychological research, and claim that serious shortcomings in the theoretical and methodological bases used impede, rather than help the scientific search for universal principles in psychology. Cross-cultural psychologists are turning more to the study of how differences (variance) occur, rather than searching for universals in the style of physics or chemistry.

Klaus Rainer Scherer is former Professor of Psychology and director of the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences in Geneva. He is a specialist in the psychology of emotion. He is known for editing the Handbook of Affective Sciences and several other influential articles on emotions, expression, personality and music.

Hazel June Linda Rose Markus is an American social psychologist and a pioneer in the field of cultural psychology. She is the Davis-Brack Professor in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University in Stanford, California. She is also a founder and faculty director of Stanford SPARQ, a "do tank" that partners with industry leaders to tackle disparities and inspire culture change using insights from behavioral science. She is a founder and former director of the Research Institute of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE). Her research focuses on how culture shapes mind and behavior. She examines how many forms of culture influence the self, and in turn, how we think, feel, and act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emotion classification</span> Contrast of one emotion from another

Emotion classification, the means by which one may distinguish or contrast one emotion from another, is a contested issue in emotion research and in affective science. Researchers have approached the classification of emotions from one of two fundamental viewpoints:

  1. that emotions are discrete and fundamentally different constructs
  2. that emotions can be characterized on a dimensional basis in groupings

Phoebe C. Ellsworth is an American social psychologist and professor at the University of Michigan, holding dual appointments at the Psychology Department and in the Law School.

Bertram Gawronski is a social psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is known for his research in the areas of attitudes, social cognition, decision making, and moral psychology.

Takahiko Masuda is a cultural psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Alberta. Masuda received his B.A. from Hokkaido University in 1993, M.A from Kyoto university in 1996 under the supervision of Shinobu Kitayama, and later received his Ph.D from the University of Michigan where his adviser was Richard E. Nisbett. In perhaps his most popular study, Masuda displayed a series of images with characters of varied emotional expression. There was a distinct measurable difference in the way North Americans and Japanese perceived the emotion of the central figure of the image, such that for North Americans the perception of the emotion of the central figure was not affected by whether or not the figures in the background showed a congruent emotion. Whereas the Japanese participants were markedly influenced in their judgement of the central figures emotional state depending on the emotional states of the surrounding figure.

John Widdup Berry is a psychologist known for his work in two areas: ecological and cultural influences on behavior; and the adaptation of immigrants and indigenous peoples following intercultural contact. The first is broadly in the domain of cross-cultural psychology; the second is in the domain of intercultural psychology.

Wendy Wood is a UK-born psychologist who is the Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at University of Southern California, where she has been a faculty member since 2009. She previously served as vice dean of social sciences at the Dornsife College of the University of Southern California. Her primary research contributions are in habits and behavior change along with the psychology of gender.

Cultural differences can interact with positive psychology to create great variation, potentially impacting positive psychology interventions. Culture differences have an impact on the interventions of positive psychology. Culture influences how people seek psychological help, their definitions of social structure, and coping strategies.

A functional account of emotions posits that emotions facilitate adaptive responses to environmental challenges. In other words, emotions are systems that respond to environmental input, such as a social or physical challenge, and produce adaptive output, such as a particular behavior. Under such accounts, emotions can manifest in maladaptive feelings and behaviors, but they are largely beneficial insofar as they inform and prepare individuals to respond to environmental challenges, and play a crucial role in structuring social interactions and relationships.

Harry Charalambos Triandis was Professor Emeritus at the Department of Psychology of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He was considered a pioneer of cross-cultural psychology and his research focused on the cognitive aspects of attitudes, norms, roles and values in different cultures.

Heejung Kim is a South Korean psychologist and a professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on how culture influences humans' thought process. She is co-editor of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review.

Iris Mauss is a social psychologist known for her research on emotions and emotion regulation. She holds the position of Professor of Psychology at University of California, Berkeley and Director of the Emotion & Emotion Regulation Lab. Her research has been cited in various publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Psychology Today.

References

  1. ↑ "Leuven Culture and Emotion Lab". ppw.kuleuven.be.
  2. ↑ "Majoor FAMILY". db.yadvashem.org. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
  3. ↑ "Albert gomes de mesquita, compañero de escuela de ana frank, visitará nuestro país del 4 al 11 de mayo | Centro Ana Frank Argentina". centroanafrank.com.ar. Archived from the original on 2018-08-25. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
  4. ↑ The Cut Out Girl by Bart van Es | PenguinRandomHouse.com.
  5. 1 2 "Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University: Batja Mesquira".
  6. ↑ "Culture and Cognition: University of Michigan". rcgd.isr.umich.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
  7. ↑ Catherine., Lutz (1988-10-15). Unnatural emotions : everyday sentiments on a Micronesian Atoll & their challenge to western theory . Chicago. ISBN   9780226497228. OCLC   17484529.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ↑ Paul, Ekman (1970). "Universal Facial Expressions of Emotions" (PDF). California Mental Health Digest. 8: 151–158. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-03. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
  9. 1 2 Mesquita, Batja; Frijda, Nico H. (1992). "Cultural variations in emotions: A review". Psychological Bulletin. 112 (2): 179–204. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.112.2.179. PMID   1454891.
  10. ↑ Mesquita, B. (2003). Emotions as dynamic cultural phenomena. In R. Davidson, H. Goldsmith, & K. R. Scherer (Eds.), The handbook of the affective sciences (pp. 871-890). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  11. ↑ Mesquita, Batja; Boiger, Michael (Fall 2014). "Emotions in Context: A Sociodynamic Model of Emotions". Emotion Review. 6 (4): 298–302. doi:10.1177/1754073914534480. S2CID   145265798.
  12. ↑ Mesquita, Batja; Boiger, Michael; Leersnyder, Jozefien De (2016). "The cultural construction of emotions". Current Opinion in Psychology. 8: 31–36. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.722.1969 . doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.09.015. PMID   29506799. S2CID   3752454.
  13. ↑ De Leersnyder, Jozefien; Mesquita, Batja; Kim, Heejung S. (April 2011). "Where do my emotions belong? A study of immigrants' emotional acculturation". Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin. 37 (4): 451–463. doi:10.1177/0146167211399103. ISSN   1552-7433. PMID   21357754. S2CID   18590014.
  14. ↑ Jozefien, De Leersnyder; Mesquita, Batja; Kim, Heejung (2013). "Emotional acculturation". In Hermans, Dirk; Mesquita, Batja (eds.). Changing emotions. New York: Psychology Press. pp. 127–133.
  15. ↑ "Between Us".
  16. ↑ "News about Between Us".
  17. ↑ "EmotionAcculturation".
  18. ↑ "ERC Advanced Grants".
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Prof. Batja Gomes de Mesquita". AcademiaNet.
  20. ↑ "Batja Mesquita seizes the 2022 Outstanding Achievement Award for Advancing Cultural Psychology".
  21. ↑ "The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium".
  22. ↑ "Past Fellows, Research Affiliates, and Visiting Scholars | Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences". casbs.stanford.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-06-11. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  23. ↑ "Leden | Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten". kvab.be (in Dutch). Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  24. ↑ "APA Fellows". fellows.apa.org. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  25. ↑ "Fellowship | SPSP". spsp.org. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  26. ↑ "Association for Psychological Science: APS Fellows". psychologicalscience.org. Archived from the original on 2020-08-13. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
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