Display rules

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[1] Display rules are a social group or culture's informal norms that distinguish how one should express oneself. They function as a way to maintain the social order of a given culture, creating an expected standard of behaviour to guide people in their interactions. Display rules can help to decrease situational ambiguity, help individuals to be accepted by their social groups, and can help groups to increase their group efficacy. [1] They can be described as culturally prescribed rules that people learn early on in their lives by interactions and socializations with other people. [2] Members of a social group learn these cultural standards at a young age which determine when one would express certain emotions, where and to what extent.

Contents

Emotions can be conveyed through both non-verbal interactions such as facial expressions, hand gestures and body language as well as verbal interactions. People are able to intensify emotions in certain situations such as smiling widely even when they receive a gift that they are not happy about or "masking" their negative emotions with a polite smile. As well, people learn to de-intensify emotions in situations such as suppressing the urge to laugh when somebody falls or neutralizing their emotions such as maintaining a serious poker face after being dealt a good hand. [3] Display rules determine how we act and to what extent an emotion is expressed in any given situation. They are often used to protect one's own self-image or those of another person.

The understanding of display rules is a complex, multifaceted task. Display rules are understood differentially depending upon their mode of expression (verbal/facial) and the motivation for their use (prosocial/self-protective). [4]

Emotion

Emotions can be defined as brief, specific, and multidimensional responses to challenges or opportunities that are important to both personal and social goals. [3] Emotions last up to a few seconds or minutes, and not hours or days. [3] [5] Emotions are very specific which suggests that there is a clear reason why a person may be feeling a certain emotion. [3] Emotions are also used to help individuals achieve their social goals. Individuals may respond to certain challenges or opportunities during social interactions with different emotions. The selected emotions can guide a specific goal-directed behavior that can either support or hinder social relationships.

Concepts of emotion

Emotions can be broken down into different components. The first component of emotion is the appraisal stage. In this stage, individuals process an event and its impact on their personal goals. Depending on the outcome, the individual will either go through positive or negative feelings. [3] Next, there are distinct physiological responses such as blushing, increased heart rate or sweating. [6] The following stage of emotion is the expressive behavior; vocal or facial expressions follow an emotional state and serve to communicate their reactions or intentions (social). The fourth component is the subjective feeling, [3] [6] which refers to the quality that defines the experience of a specific emotion by expressing it by words or other methods. Finally, the last component is action tendencies. This suggests that emotion will motivate or guide specific behavior and bodily responses. [3]

Theories of emotion

Emotions can be expressed verbally, with facial expressions, and with gestures. Darwin's hypothesis concerning emotion stated that the way emotions are expressed is universal, and therefore independent of culture. [5] Ekman and Friesen conducted a study to test this theory. The study included introducing basic emotions found in the western world and introduced them to different cultures around the world (Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and the United States). [6] Across the 5 cultures they were all able to accurately determine the emotion (success rates of 70–90%). They also introduced these selected emotions to an isolated community in Papua New Guinea that was not in contact with the western world. [5] The results revealed that both the other cultures and isolated communities could effectively match and detect the emotional meaning of the different faces. This became evidence that emotions are expressed facially in the same way across the world. [5]

Culture

Culture is defined as "shared behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, and values communicated from generation to generation via language or some other means." [7] Unique individuals within cultures acquire differences affecting displays of emotions emphasized by one's status, role, and diverse behaviours. Some cultures value certain emotions more over others. The affect theory argues that emotions that promote important cultural ideals will become focal in their social interactions. For example in America, they value the emotion excitement as it represents the cultural idea of independence. In many Asian cultures it is inappropriate to discuss personal enthusiasms. Greater value is placed on emotions such as calmness and contentedness, representing the ideal harmonious relationships. These different cultural values affect a person's everyday behaviours, decisions and emotional display. [3]

People learn how to greet one another, how to interact with others, what, where, when and how to display emotions through the people they interact with and the place they grow up in. Everything can be traced back to one's culture. [6] Gestures is an example of how one may express oneself, however these gestures represent different meanings depending on the culture. For example, in Canada, sticking out one's tongue is a sign of disgust or disapproval, however in Tibet it is a sign of respect when greeting someone. In America, holding one's middle and index fingers up makes the peace sign, while in some countries such as the UK and Australia it a sign of disrespect. [8]

High and low-contact cultures also vary in the amount of physical interaction and direct contact there is during one-on-one communication. High-contact cultures involve people practicing direct eye contact, frequent touching, physical contact, and having close proximity to others. Examples of countries that have a high-contact culture include Mexico, Italy, and Brazil. Low-contact cultures involve people who practice less direct eye contact, little touching, have indirect body orientation, and more physical distance between people. Examples of countries that have a low-contact culture include the United States, Canada, and Japan. [9]

Individualist and collectivistic cultures have different social norms for display rules. Personal feelings and expressionism tend to have greater importance in individualistic cultures than collectivistic ones. Although there is still variability within the two, further research is needed on intercultural variability. It is hypothesized that there would be greater ingroup differences within individualistic cultures from person to person, known as interindividual variations. [1]

Social influence

Family and peers

Ekman and Friesen (1975) have suggested that unwritten codes or "display rules" govern the manner in which emotions may be expressed, and that different rules may be internalized as a function of an individual's culture, gender or family background. [10] For instance, many different cultures necessitate that particular emotions should be masked and that other emotions should be expressed drastically. Emotions can have significant consequences on the founding of interpersonal relationships.

Children's understanding and use of display rules is strongly associated with their social competence and surrounding. [11] Many personal display rules are learned in the context of a particular family or experience; many expressive behaviour and rule displays are adopted by copying or adopting similar behaviours than their social and familial surrounding. [12] Parents' affect and control influence their children's display rule through both positive and negative responses. [11] Mcdowell and Parke (2005) suggested that parents who exert more control over their children's emotions/behaviour would deprive them of many opportunities to learn about appropriate vs. inappropriate emotional/rule displays. [11] Hence, by depriving children from learning through control (i.e. not allowing them to learn from their own mistakes), parents are restraining children's learning of prosocial rule display.

The social environment can influence whether one controls or displays their emotions. There are few factors influencing the children's decision to either control or express an emotion that they are experiencing including the type of audience. In fact, depending on if children are in the presence of peers or of family (i.e. mother or father), they will report different control over their expression of emotions. [13] Regardless of the type of emotion experienced, children control significantly more their expression of emotion in the presence of peers than when they are with their caregiver or alone. [13]

School environment

The school environment is also a place where emotions and behaviours are influenced. During a child's grade school years, they can become increasingly more aware of the accepted display rules that are found in their social environment. They learn more and more about which emotions to express and which emotions not to express in certain social situations at school. [6]

Emotions and social relationships

Emotions can serve as a way of communicating with others and can guide social interactions. [14] Being able to express or understand other emotions can help encourage social interactions and help achieve personal goals. When expressing or understanding one's emotions is difficult, social interactions can be negatively impacted. [6]

Emotional intelligence is a concept that is defined by four skills: [5] [14]

  1. The ability to accurately perceive other emotions.
  2. The ability to understand one's own emotions.
  3. The ability to use current feelings to help in making decisions.
  4. The ability to manage one's emotions to best match the current situation.

Development

Age plays an important role in the development of display rules. Throughout life a person will gain experience and have more social interactions. According to a study by Jones, [15] social interactions are the main factor in the creation and understanding of display rules. It starts at a very young age with family, and continues with peers. By meeting more people, facing more challenges, and advancing in life, a person will develop different responses which will depend mostly on the age of the person. This explains why a young person will have different social interactions than someone older. [16]

Infancy

Infancy is a complex period when studying display rules. At a very young age, an infant does not know how to talk, therefore they express themselves in different ways. In order to communicate with others, they use facial and vocal displays that are specific for each age-period. A study conducted by Malatesta and Haviland [12] demonstrated that a baby can have 10 different categories for facial expression:

However, fear and disgust will develop progressively during childhood. They are complex facial expressions that require knowledge and understanding and must be learned, not copied; this is why not everybody is afraid of the same things. Most of the facial expressions will be learned through the parents, mainly from the mother. The mother-infant [12] relationship is key in the development of display rules during infancy. It is the synchrony of mother-infant expressions. To express themselves vocally babies require the use of "screaming" or "crying". There is no differentiation for the request of a baby. This is why the relationship with the parents is important: they must teach the infant when and for what reason to cry (i.e. need of food).

Childhood

During childhood, the expression of display rules becomes more complex. Children develop the ability to modulate their emotional expressions growing up, this development depends on the level of maturity and the level of social interactions with others. Children growing up start to become aware of oneself and slowly aware of others. At this time, they understand the importance of non-verbal communication, and shape the manner in which emotion may be expressed, with this change in perception, children will internalize different rules. Those rules are relative to two major factors:

These two factors will help create "personal display rules" and the development of a sense of empathy toward others (i.e., feeling sad when a friend lost a relative even if one did not know the person).

This process will continue to change and grow until adulthood. During adolescence, a transition period where the person is not a child anymore but not an adult yet, is a test period as they learn to deal with internal conflict. Emotions are more intense and harder to control due to the hormonal changes that come at this period of time.

Adulthood

During adulthood, people are capable of using a lot of different display rules depending on the situation they are facing and the people they are with. Society governs how and when someone should express emotions, however display rules are not something static, they are in a constant evolution. Therefore, even during adulthood, a person will develop new ways to hide, express or cope with emotions. At the same time, adults will develop a greater control of their feelings and this can be seen mostly in the work environment. A study presented by the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology showed that nurses working in the same environment are more likely to share the same display rules in order to achieve an organisational objective. Display rules are not only personal, but they are shared between people and can differ according to the hierarchy of the society. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

A facial expression is one or more motions or positions of the muscles beneath the skin of the face. These movements convey the emotional state of an individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information between humans, but they also occur in most other mammals and some other animal species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Body language</span> Type of nonverbal communication

Body language is a type of communication in which physical behaviors, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. The term body language is usually applied in regard to people but may also be applied to animals. The study of body language is also known as kinesics. Although body language is an important part of communication, most of it happens without conscious awareness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microexpression</span> Innate result of voluntary, involuntary, and conflicting emotional responses

A microexpression is a facial expression that only lasts for a short moment. It is the innate result of a voluntary and an involuntary emotional response occurring simultaneously and conflicting with one another, and occurs when the amygdala responds appropriately to the stimuli that the individual experiences and the individual wishes to conceal this specific emotion. This results in the individual very briefly displaying their true emotions followed by a false emotional reaction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonverbal communication</span> Interpersonal communication through wordless (mostly visual) cues

Nonverbal communication is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact (oculesics), body language (kinesics), social distance (proxemics), touch (haptics), voice (paralanguage), physical environments/appearance, and use of objects. When communicating, we utilize nonverbal channels as means to convey different messages or signals, whereas others can interpret these message. The study of nonverbal communication started in 1872 with the publication of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin. Darwin began to study nonverbal communication as he noticed the interactions between animals such as lions, tigers, dogs etc. and realized they also communicated by gestures and expressions. For the first time, nonverbal communication was studied and its relevance questioned. Today, scholars argue that nonverbal communication can convey more meaning than verbal communication.

Sympathy is the perception of, understanding of, and reaction to the distress or need of another life form.

Kinesics is the interpretation of body communication such as facial expressions and gestures, nonverbal behavior related to movement of any part of the body or the body as a whole. The equivalent popular culture term is body language, a term Ray Birdwhistell, considered the founder of this area of study, neither used nor liked.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social behavior</span> Behavior among two or more organisms within the same species

Social behavior is behavior among two or more organisms within the same species, and encompasses any behavior in which one member affects the other. This is due to an interaction among those members. Social behavior can be seen as similar to an exchange of goods, with the expectation that when you give, you will receive the same. This behavior can be affected by both the qualities of the individual and the environmental (situational) factors. Therefore, social behavior arises as a result of an interaction between the two—the organism and its environment. This means that, in regards to humans, social behavior can be determined by both the individual characteristics of the person, and the situation they are in.

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.

Emotional contagion is a form of social contagion that involves the spontaneous spread of emotions and related behaviors. Such emotional convergence can happen from one person to another, or in a larger group. Emotions can be shared across individuals in many ways, both implicitly or explicitly. For instance, conscious reasoning, analysis, and imagination have all been found to contribute to the phenomenon. The behaviour has been found in humans, other primates, dogs, and chickens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emotionality</span>

Emotionality is the observable behavioral and physiological component of emotion. It is a measure of a person's emotional reactivity to a stimulus. Most of these responses can be observed by other people, while some emotional responses can only be observed by the person experiencing them. Observable responses to emotion do not have a single meaning. A smile can be used to express happiness or anxiety, while a frown can communicate sadness or anger. Emotionality is often used by experimental psychology researchers to operationalize emotion in research studies.

According to some theories, emotions are universal phenomena, albeit affected by culture. Emotions are "internal phenomena that can, but do not always, make themselves observable through expression and behavior". While some emotions are universal and are experienced in similar ways as a reaction to similar events across all cultures, other emotions show considerable cultural differences in their antecedent events, the way they are experienced, the reactions they provoke and the way they are perceived by the surrounding society. According to other theories, termed social constructionist, emotions are more deeply culturally influenced. The components of emotions are universal, but the patterns are social constructions. Some also theorize that culture is affected by the emotions of the people.

Affect displays are the verbal and non-verbal displays of affect (emotion). These displays can be through facial expressions, gestures and body language, volume and tone of voice, laughing, crying, etc. Affect displays can be altered or faked so one may appear one way, when they feel another. Affect can be conscious or non-conscious and can be discreet or obvious. The display of positive emotions, such as smiling, laughing, etc., is termed "positive affect", while the displays of more negative emotions, such as crying and tense gestures, is respectively termed "negative affect".

The self-regulation of emotion or emotion regulation is the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of experience with the range of emotions in a manner that is socially tolerable and sufficiently flexible to permit spontaneous reactions as well as the ability to delay spontaneous reactions as needed. It can also be defined as extrinsic and intrinsic processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions. The self-regulation of emotion belongs to the broader set of emotion regulation processes, which includes both the regulation of one's own feelings and the regulation of other people's feelings.

Non-verbal leakage is a form of non-verbal behavior that occurs when a person verbalizes one thing, but their body language indicates another, common forms of which include facial movements and hand-to-face gestures. The term "non-verbal leakage" got its origin in literature in 1968, leading to many subsequent studies on the topic throughout the 1970s, with related studies continuing today.

Body-to-body communication is a way of communicating with others through the use of nonverbal communication, without using speech or verbalization. It can include body language, facial expressions, and other bodily gestures in order to communicate with others without the need of verbal communication. Body-to-body communication accounts for postures, body language, physical touch, nonverbal language, and other bodily gestures.

Social cues are verbal or non-verbal signals expressed through the face, body, voice, motion and guide conversations as well as other social interactions by influencing our impressions of and responses to others. These percepts are important communicative tools as they convey important social and contextual information and therefore facilitate social understanding.

Expressive suppression is defined as the intentional reduction of the facial expression of an emotion. It is a component of emotion regulation.

Facial expressions are used to communicate emotions. They can also occur solitarily, without other people being present. People often imagine themselves in social situations when alone, resulting in solitary facial expressions. Toddlers and children in early childhood use social cues and contexts to discriminate and recognize facial expressions. They develop at this early stage facial expressions in order to provoke reactions from their caregivers and receive nurturance and support. Children reflect their peers' emotions in their own expressions for social interaction.

The study of the relationship between gender and emotional expression is the study of the differences between men and women in behavior that expresses emotions. These differences in emotional expression may be primarily due to cultural expectations of femininity and masculinity.

Carolyn Ingrid Saarni was a developmental psychologist known for groundbreaking research on children's development of emotional competence and emotional self-regulation, and the role of parental influence in emotional socialization. She was a professor in the Department of Counseling at Sonoma State University from 1980 to 2013.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Matsumoto, David (2008). "Mapping expressive differences around the world: The relationship between emotional display rules and individualism versus collectivism". Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 39 (1): 3–124. doi:10.1177/0022022107311854. hdl: 1822/29563 – via Sage Journals.
  2. ↑ Safdar, Saba; Matsumoto, David (2009). "Variations of Emotional Display Rules Within and Across Cultures: A Comparison Between Canada, USA, and Japan" (PDF). Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science. 41: 1–10. doi:10.1037/a0014387 . Retrieved 2015-04-16.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Thomas, Gilovich; Keltner, Dacher; Chen, Serena; Nisbett, Richard E. (2016). Social psychology (Fourth ed.). New York. ISBN   9780393938968. OCLC   794032898.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ↑ Gnepp, J.; Hess, D.L.R. (1986). "Children's understanding of verbal and facial display rules". Developmental Psychology. 22 (1): 103–108. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.22.1.103.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Manstead, A. (2007). Emotion. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Encyclopedia of social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 286–291). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781412956253.n175
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Shaffer, David R. (2009). Social and Personality Development, Sixth Edition. US: Thomson Wadsworth. p. 121.
  7. ↑ Matsumoto, David (November 3, 1990). "Cultural Similarities and Differences in Display Rules" (PDF). Motivation and Emotion. 14 (3): 195–214. doi:10.1007/bf00995569. S2CID   144320535.
  8. ↑ "What hand gestures mean in different countries – busuu blog". blog.busuu.com. Retrieved 2018-03-21.
  9. ↑ McCornack, Steven (2015). Choices & Connections: An Introduction to Communication. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's. p. 141. ISBN   978-1-319-04352-0.
  10. ↑ Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. Unmasking the face. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1975.
  11. 1 2 3 Mcdowell, D. J. & Parke, R. D. (2005). "Parental Control and Affect as Predictors of Children's Display Rule Use and Social Competence with Peers". Social Development. 14 (3): 440–457. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2005.00310.x.
  12. 1 2 3 Zander Malatesta, Carol; M. Haviland, Jeannette (1982-09-01). "Learning Display Rules: The Socialization of Emotion Expression in Infancy". Child Development. 53 (4): 991–1003. doi:10.2307/1129139. JSTOR   1129139. PMID   7128264.
  13. 1 2 Zeman, Janice; Garber, Judy (1996). "Display Rules for Anger, Sadness, and Pain: It Depends on Who Is Watching". Child Development. 67 (3): 957–973. doi:10.2307/1131873. JSTOR   1131873. PMID   8706538.
  14. 1 2 Brackett, Marc A.; Salovey, Peter (2007). "Emotional Intelligence". Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. p. 294. doi:10.4135/9781412956253.n177. ISBN   9781412916707.
  15. ↑ Jones, Diane Carlson; Abbey, Belynda Bowling; Cumberland, Amanda (1998). "The Development of Display Rule Knowledge: Linkages with Family Expressiveness and Social Competence". Child Development. 69 (4): 1209–1222. doi:10.2307/1132370. JSTOR   1132370. PMID   9768494.
  16. ↑ McConatha, Jasmin Tahmaseb; Huba, Haley M. (1999-06-01). "Primary, secondary, and emotional control across adulthood". Current Psychology. 18 (2): 164–170. doi:10.1007/s12144-999-1025-z. ISSN   0737-8262. S2CID   144261901.
  17. ↑ Zeman, Janice; Garber, Judy (1996-06-01). "Display Rules for Anger, Sadness, and Pain: It Depends on Who Is Watching". Child Development. 67 (3): 957–973. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01776.x. ISSN   1467-8624. PMID   8706538.
  18. ↑ Fischer, Agneta (2000-03-09). Gender and Emotion: Social Psychological Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521639866.
  19. ↑ Diefendorff, James M.; Erickson, Rebecca J.; Grandey, Alicia A.; Dahling, Jason J. (April 2011). "Emotional display rules as work unit norms: a multilevel analysis of emotional labor among nurses". Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. 16 (2): 170–186. doi:10.1037/a0021725. ISSN   1939-1307. PMID   21244168.
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