2/11/2020 Week 6 -- Differences in Emotional Expressivity

The more I learn about human interaction, the more I am convinced that we are all, like snowflakes, different. There are so many factors that go into who we are and how we communicate with each other. Where do we live? Where do our ancestors come from? Who are we, really?

One thing that sets us apart, in this world where we so want to get along with each other, is how we express emotions. An observation of people from different cultures tells us that some are more outwardly expressive than others, that different cultures tolerate displays of emotion more than others. I wonder, sometimes, if climate has something to do with that. It seems to me that people from warmer climates are more expressive of emotion than those from colder climates. That is just my observation.

The ways that we express ourselves, at least in public, have a lot to do with the culture in which we are raised. People from Asia are less demonstrative in their emotions than those from South America. And even subcultures from the same country, like the United States, have different ways of demonstrating emotion. There is a lot of fuel there for misinterpretation.

Edward T. Hall, in his book Beyond Culture, tells of the sense that some might get about racism between cultures. He gives this example: "It is the practice of my regional subculture to avoid direct eye contact with strangers in public when they are closer than twelve to fourteen feet. A member of any group that is used to visual involvement inside that distance will automatically misread my behavior." (He is referring to the difference between blacks and whites in American culture.) He says, "To categorize all behavior as racist sidesteps the issue that not every white is consciously or even unconsciously racist but will, regardless of how he feels, use white forms of communication (both verbal and nonverbal), if for no other reason than he simply does not know any others." The potential for miscommunication based on how others appear to act comes from, he says, "a built in tendency for all groups to interpret their own nonverbal communicative patterns as though they were universal."  Hall adds, "Each culture has its own characteristic manner of locomotion, sitting, standing, reclining and gesturing." (This is in his chapter on "Rhythm and Body Movement," Beyond Culture, 1976, 1981, p. 75.)

Those who are from areas where there is low tolerance for expressivity might misjudge those from the other extreme as being less civilized, less intelligent, more dangerous than those of their own culture. Those from places where there is a high tolerance for expressivity could see those in the opposite state as being boring, dull, and judgmental. Misunderstandings arise when we fail to understand what we have in common. We are all privately expressive of emotion. We have the same expressions for common emotions of happiness, surprise, disgust. (see lecture by John Ivers,  https://video.byui.edu/media/05+Differences+in+Emotional+Expressivity/0_753le546 )

With all of these differences of expression, culture, and ways of interpreting each other, how are we to bridge these gaps? How can we see past the differences? Most important, I think, is to try to see where we are alike. Snowflakes may all be different, but they are all made of the same stuff. Their structure changes based on temperature and conditions as they are formed, but they are all created from water in the atmosphere. We all are formed from the culture and ancestry that we come from. We may be different in outward ways. But our human bond is stronger than our differences.

Like this popular song from when I was a kid explains, Everything is Beautiful in its own way....