2/08/21; Week 6: Response to Differences in Emotional Expressivity

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Differences in Emotional Expressivity Around the World

We all know that there are many cultural differences around the world, but have you already thought that these differences are also associated with how people express their emotions and feelings?




Professor John Ivers from BYU-Idaho explains that "emotional expressivity is one of the things that are more easily misunderstood than many other things in cross-cultural differences". Although the emotions are universal and we all feel the same emotions, like happiness, anger, sadness, excitement, and so on, we express these emotions in different ways based on our "cultural tolerance for expressivity" (Professor J. Ivers).

For example, most of the countries in Asia don't allow public showing of emotion as much as the countries in Latin America, where there is a higher tolerance for emotional expressivity in public. I live in Brazil, and I can tell you that here we are more intense and dynamic in our talks. We are used to express our emotions in an outgoing way. We like kissing to express love, we like making jokes, laughing out loud, and talking openly to people we just met. Some people, from Japan, for instance, may interpret our way of talking a little unpolite or even aggressive. 

However, no one wants to be seen as less civilized, less disciplined, less intelligent, and more dangerous. No one wants to be considered boring as well as "full of oneself".  Sometimes we think of people from different cultures like that just because of the way they express their emotions. Being aware of those differences will help us to avoid a cultural conflict. We all just have different levels of expressivity, or "different tolerances", as Professor J. Ivers says.

In a real classroom, we may face those differences. I think there are many ways to approach that with our students and help them open their eyes to those differences. One great way is to create an activity about emotions and feelings and make the students say how they usually react to each emotion publicly. This activity will create a very interesting environment where everybody will be able to learn from one another and become closer to one another. 


 
References:
 
https://video.byui.edu/media/05+Differences+in+Emotional+Expressivity/0_753le546 
 

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