Display rules

Display rules are a social group or culture's informal norms that distinguish how one should express themselves.They can be described as culturally prescribed rules that people learn early on in their lives by interactions and socializations with other people. They learn these cultural standards at a young age which determine when one would express certain emotions, where and to what extent. Display rules are a social group or culture's informal norms that distinguish how one should express themselves.They can be described as culturally prescribed rules that people learn early on in their lives by interactions and socializations with other people. They learn these cultural standards at a young age which determine when one would express certain emotions, where and to what extent. 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. 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 feelings 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). Emotions can be defined as brief, specific and multidimensional responses to challenges or opportunities that are important to both personal and social goals. Emotions last up to a few seconds or minutes, and not hours or days. Emotions are very specific which suggest that there is a clear reason of why a person may be feeling a certain emotion. 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 behaviour that can either support or hinder social relationships. Emotions can be broken down into different components. The first component of emotion is the appraisal stage. In this first stage, individual process an event and its impact on their personal goals. Depending on the outcome, the individual will either go through positive or negative feelings. Next, we have distinct physiological responses such as blushing, increased heart rate or sweating. The next stage of emotion is the expressive behavior. Vocal or facial expressions follows an emotional state and serves to communicate their reactions or intentions (social). The next component is the subjective feeling. This is 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 an emotion will motivate or guide specific behavior and bodily responses. Emotions can be expressed verbally, with facial expression and with gestures. Darwin’s hypothesis concerning emotion stated that the way emotions are expressed are universal, and therefore independent of culture. Ekman and Frinsen 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). 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 who was not in contact with the western world. The results revealed that both the other cultures and isolated community 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. To see other theories: Emotions. Culture is defined as 'shared behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, and values communicated from generation to generation via language or some other means.' 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. They place greater value 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. 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. Gestures is an example of how one may express themselves, however these gestures represent different meanings depending on the culture. For example, in Canada, sticking out your tongue is a sign of disgust or disapproval however in Tibet it is a sign of respect when greeting someone. In America, holding your middle finger and index finger up makes the peace sign, in some countries such as the UK and Australia it a sign of disrespect. 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.