What Has Culture Got to Do with Emotions?: (A Lot)

Emotions are relationship engagements that are dynamically and socioculturally constructed. Starting from the historic context in which the current research program originated, this chapter develops a theory in which cultural differences in emotion can be understood from the cultural context’s valued model of self and relating. It presents evidence for a “cultural logic” to emotion in the prevalence and content of emotion as well as to which experiences are associated with positive outcomes and well-being. Furthermore, it shows how a myriad of processes co-constitute the alignment of culture and emotion-processes that can be situated at the personal, interpersonal, and collective levels and that are highlighted when emotions are studied in acculturating individuals or biculturals. In concluding, this chapter presents a dynamic and sociocultural model of emotion in which people collectively construct their experiences in line with the prevalent meanings and practices of their sociocultural context.