The International Journal of Indian Psychology

ISSN 2348-5396 (e) | ISSN: 2349-3429 (p)

Volume 3, Issue 3, No.2, DIP: 18.01.039/20160303
ISBN: 978-1-365-03418-3
http://www.ijip.in | April - June, 2016

Culture and Emotional Development

Prabhakararao Sampathirao 1*

ABSTRACT

Emotions can be biologically born, but socio-culturally nurtured. Emotions are more than our
personal reactions their antecedents. They play important social and political roles and are
fundamental to identity and community attachments rather than simple biological bases.
Suppression of emotions affects mental health. Emotions are formed and structured within
particular social and cultural environment. The cultural organization of emotion development
implied here is related to the prevailing cultural model of self-construal—the independent or the
interdependent self.

Keywords: Culture, Emotion, Development.

Emotions can be biologically prepared or socio-culturally shaped. Through the biological

processes hormones, neurotransmitters, autonomic reactions interact but cannot determine
emotional qualities and expressions. Particular qualities and expressions are determined by
cultural processes only. We feel happy when we are with our loved ones; sad if we lose
someone near; guilty if we hurt someone unknowingly; and angry if things do not happen as we
planned. There is never a moment when we do not emote. Emotions give meaning to our
existence and the events that we experience. Without emotions, these experiences would be mere
pieces of information. Emotions color our life experiences and inform us as to who we are, and
our relationship with others around us, and how we must act.

The feeling of the bodily response is the feeling of the emotion and bodily expression of emotion
involves the hypothalamus, which controls the autonomic and endocrine systems; whereas
emotional experience involves the limbic system, comprising the paleocortical structures of the
brain plus the amygdalae. Emotional stimulus produces visceral (instinctual)changes in the form
of increased heartbeat, respiration and sweating and motor (muscular-skeletal) changes like
running, hitting, facial expressions etc., and these changes are the source of the subjective
experience, or feeling, of the emotion. Once the emotional stimuli reaches the brain's six-layered
neocortex via subcortical systems, the subcortical systems simultaneously and independently

1
Central Health Education Bureau (CHEB) Kotla Road, New Delhi
*Responding Author
© 2016 I P Sampathirao; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 Culture and Emotional Development

inform both the neocortex, causing emotional experience, and the relevant peripheral bodily
systems, causing bodily responses.

Emotional development includes an understanding of emotions and their meaning, appraisal of

emotion-evoking situations, knowledge of appropriate emotion expression, and regulation of
emotions. Emotional development of a child is depend up on the responses that he received from
his parents (love, warmth, caring etc.) towards his/her own emotions ; or his expressive
behaviours that results in the formation of an attachment/ bond between the two. Such
attachment experiences have a profound influence on the development of other interpersonal
relationships that form later in their life, and have implications for relating them to their own
children in future. (1). If a parent inadvertently or deliberately engages in a pattern of
inappropriate emotional responses (aversion, anger or abuse), the child can be said to have
experienced emotional abuse (2)

The relationship between emotion and cognition is important to understand the reason and
rationality. However, the role of culture in emotion development has not yet been systematically
studied. Research on the socialization and development of emotions and regulation usually
focuses on parenting and family and is mostly conducted among European-American
populations. Even within a culture; different people may not necessarily understand or
experience emotion in exactly the same way. Sometimes the same event may be experienced
differently by people of the same culture. Emotional expression, experience and perception are
innate and genetically transmitted (3). Whether the emotions play a more dominant role in our
actions, thoughts, decisions, planning, reasoning or is it cognition which initiates these processes
is still not very clear. The extent of mediation of culture, emotion and cognition is something
which must be elaborated and researched upon. Because culture is both cumulative and directed,
culture has a unique ability to produce highly complex adaptations to local conditions in
relatively short periods of time.

According to Bhagawadgita, the emotions derive significance when examined in the context of
human desires, and starting with perception and volition, cognition emerges when a desire
crystallizes. Desires lead to behaviors, and the achievement or non-achievement of a desire
causes positive or negative emotions. Through the practice of karmayoga, contemplation and
self- reflection, we can manage our desires and thus manage emotions in a healthy way. This is a
very significant contribution which helps to understand the role of desire in understanding and
predicting emotion and behavior. Positive emotion (Raga) is generated by happiness and (dvesa)
or hostility or negative emotion is generated by unhappiness. Hence, when desires are fulfilled
we are happy and have positive emotions, which then lead us to seek such desires .When desires
are not fulfilled, we become angry, unhappy and hostile. This model is an example of how
indigenous psychologies can contribute to universal psychologies (4).

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 Culture and Emotional Development

The cultural organization of emotion development implied here is related to the prevailing
cultural model of self-construal—the independent or the interdependent self. In many Western
cultures, the model of independence dominates, regarding the self as an independent, separate
organism. In contrast, in many non-Western cultures the cultural model of interdependence
prevails, defining the self by social relationships (5).Persons with an independent self-construal
experience and express their emotions as internal personal characteristics striving for autonomy
and individualistic self-assertion.

Person with an interdependent self-construal experience and express emotions as a means for
maintaining interpersonal harmony rather than as an authentic representation of emotions; they
view emotions as part of self-other relationships, reflecting social reality rather than inner
personal experiences (6). Thus, the prevailing cultural model of the self-assumed influences the
appraisal, experience, expression, regulation, and developmental variations of emotions. In
Western cultures, positive and negative emotions are usually seen as being in opposition to each
other while in Asian cultures positive and negative emotions can coexist as complementary
components positively correlating (7. 8).

When the meaning of positive emotions is based on the cultural model of the independent self,
happiness is often related to ego-focused, socially “disengaging emotions” like individual
success, autonomy; self-esteem; pride etc., When the model of the interdependent self prevails,
positive emotions are often experienced as interpersonally “engaging emotions” like success in
tasks of interdependence, good social relations etc., (9).According to the cultural model of the
independent self, a positive self-conscious emotion in the context of independence is pride. Pride
signals and reinforces the accomplishments of the independent self. Pride signals a disengaged
emotion characterized by independence in achieving identity-goal congruence(10).

In contrast, in the cultural model of the interdependent self, positive emotions are defined
through socially engaged emotions based on connectedness to other people and adjustment to
social relationships. Identity-goal congruence is achieved by maintaining harmony in the group,
and promoting group-members’ goals focusing on avoidance of interpersonal conflicts.
Therefore, pride is only evaluated as a positive emotion when one’s achievements serve others’
goals or when success is not attributed to the self but to the joint efforts of the group or social
honor(11). Otherwise, pride indicates an undesirable, isolating social distance between the self
and others. In the cultural model of independence, shame is a negative emotion reducing self-
esteem. In contrast, in cultures favoring an interdependent self, shame is a positive emotion
which indicates social engagement, relatedness, striving for social conformity, and motivation to
perform better in the future; this underlines the preference of self-critical, continuous effort (12).
Therefore, different from the independent self-construal, pride does not fit with the
interdependent self-construal but shame does.

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 Culture and Emotional Development

Shame, the corresponding emotion of pride – affects our identity and interaction in what Cooley
(13) calls the ‘looking-glass self. This implies that others opinion about us and our own
judgment about others opinion, produces a self-image or sense, which causes us to feel pride or
shame. Shame surfaces when we see ourselves negatively through the eyes of the others. Shame
is a taboo for men since they are often socialized to repress all signs of weakness. Rather than
recognizing and accepting shame through withdrawal, men tend to respond to status loss by
defending themselves and resorting to aggression and violence .Shame surfaces when we see
ourselves negatively through the eyes of the other. Suppression of shame contributes to men’s
violence (14, 15, and 16).

The emotional appraisal of antecedent events for universal emotions is quite similar for people in
different cultures. For example, the most frequent elicitors of happiness across cultures have
been “relationships with near ones”, “temporary meetings with friends,” and “achievement
situations”. The most frequent elicitors of anger have been “relationships” and “injustice”. The
most frequent elicitors of sadness have been “relationships” and “death” (17). Cultural events,
the birth of a new family member, body centered “basic pleasures”. Same types of situations or
events not necessarily triggered the same emotion in people across the globe.

In a study of appraisal process of sadness, anger and fear in American and Indian participants
appraisals of powerlessness characterized incidents provoking anger and also fear, whereas
appraisals of relative power differences brought forth anger. Also, appraisals that an event was
caused by someone else elicited anger, but not sadness or fear, whereas events caused by
circumstances elicited sadness or fear but not anger (18). Emotion appraisal processes were more
similar than different across cultures which reveals that we all born with the same capacity to
experience, express, and perceive the same basic set of emotions in so far as appraisal processes
is associated with the seven emotions as: Happiness, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, shame, and
guilt .

It is important to understand that expressive component is relatively independent from other

aspects of emotion appraisal processes and suppression of emotion may lead to negative mental
health. There is an intrinsic link between expression and emotional experience, expressing an
emotion intensifies the negative experience at times as it may allow for a renewed confrontation
with the stimulus situation, open up the possibility for cognitive change as in case of reliving a
traumatic event and thereby influencing negative mental health. Research indicates short term
effects of expression, giving free reign to anger or sadness may establish a self- reinforcing
cycle, where the expression of the emotion intensifies the negative experience (19). We need to
explore the structure and mechanisms underlying affect through a link between emotion and
cognition in an earnest effort to understand how it contributes to wellbeing. Taking a holistic
view of health, emotions are integrated with a particular emphasis on Indian tradition of thought,
the theory of Karma. Thus intention is to stimulate a novel way to look at feelings and improve
our understanding of emotional responses.

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 Culture and Emotional Development

In India, due to predominance of interdependent self-model of cultural organization of emotional

development, in order to protect the honor of parents and other siblings, the girls used to get
married very early because it was considered disgraceful for a girl to remain unmarried for too
many years after menstruation. Not until mid-twentieth century that compulsory schooling was
introduced and education became a common experience for all children, the poor families put
their children to work at early ages doing activities such as working on the family’s own farm or
elsewhere. Generally, boys were more likely to work earlier than girls who usually stay home to
help their mothers. In large families, some children were sent to school to receive elementary
education or were taught by their parents at home to acquire the necessary knowledge they
would require to work and support their families. Only in wealthy families that boys, and to a
lesser extent girls, would receive higher education.

Emotional development of children were subjected to difficult legal, cultural and political issues,
putting the right of children to be free from harm on one hand, against the right of families to
privacy and the rights of parents to raise and discipline their children without external
interference, on the other. Behaviors like corporal punishment are considered abusive in one
culture may be considered acceptable in another culture. Likewise, parental behaviors that are
appropriate at one stage in a child’s development may be inappropriate at another stage of
development. For example, the level of supervision needed for toddlers may differ from that for
adolescents. There are instances where abuse or neglect can occur even though the perpetrator
did not intend to commit it just like in the case of parent and child.

In India, due to strong inter-play between emotional development and cultural organization of
interdependent-self, orthodoxy and conservatism generally dominate the social and cultural
characteristics and mechanisms of middle class society. Traditional beliefs and customs have
significant influence over a wide range of cultural, behavioral, and attitudinal manifestations in
the society. Children are usually well taken care of in terms of basic needs, and are expected to
show almost total subordination and obedience to their parents. Corporal punishment by parents
is a common practice, especially in less modernized portions of the society. Beating up a child
severely or breaking his or her bones by a total stranger is likely to be considered as a crime
punishable by the law. However, the same act of violence on the child, when committed by the
child’s parent, may, in many societies, raise some second thoughts that, despite the probable
unequivocal condemnation, may delay or prevent the initiation of necessary and appropriate
forms of intervention.

Factors that affects emotional development:

Factors associated with child’s emotional development can be broadly grouped in to four
domains: parent or caregiver factors, family factors, child factors, and environmental factors.
Parent or caregiver factors are related to personality characteristics and psychological wellbeing,
history of maltreatment, substance abuse, attitudes and knowledge, and age. Family factors that

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 Culture and Emotional Development

may stand as impediments emotional development of child include marital conflict, domestic
violence, single parenthood, unemployment, financial stress, and social isolation. Supportive,
emotionally gratifying relationships with a healthy network of relatives or friends may enhance
the chances of better emotional development of child, especially during stressful life events.

Certain child factors can make some children more vulnerable to abusing behavior. The age of
the child, his or her physical, mental, emotional, and social development, may increase the
child’s vulnerability to maltreatment, depending on the interactions of these characteristics with
the parental factors outlined above. Environmental factors are often present in combination with
parent, family, and child factors. They include poverty and unemployment, social isolation, and
community characteristics such as violent neighborhoods, societal attitudes, and promotion of
violence in cultural norms and the media. The factors that may contribute to child maltreatment
in one family, such as poverty, may not result in child abuse in another family. The interaction of
multiple factors across these four domains is recognized to be underlying child maltreatment
incidents.

Emotional abuse and emotional maltreatment and their ramifications on mental health of
children:
Unlike in physical abuse, the weapons used against children in emotional abuse are not visible
such as hands, belts, cords, or sexual acts, but rather ugly, hurting words or cold, uncaring
silence. Although no physical pain or sexual contact is ever endured, the consequences can be
just as severe and long-lasting. Emotional abuse endured over a long period of time results in
post-traumatic stress, depression, suicide, substance abuse, and obesity (Hornor, 2010). Here are
some forms of child abuse and maltreatments commonly experienced by children.

Child abuse constitutes all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse,
neglect or negligent treatment, commercial or other types of exploitation, resulting in actual or
potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity. The abuse takes place in
the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power. Physical abuse Child physical
abuse refers, generally, to the non-accidental use of physical force against a child that results in
harm to the child. Physically abusive behaviors include shoving, hitting, slapping, shaking,
throwing, pushing, kicking, biting, burning, strangling and poisoning. The fabrication or
induction of an illness by a parent or carer (previously known as Munchausen syndrome by
proxy) is also considered physically abusive behavior (20).

Emotional abuse, also called emotional maltreatment, psychological maltreatment or

psychological abuse refers to a parent or caregiver’s inappropriate verbal or symbolic acts
toward a child and/or a pattern of failure over time to provide a child with adequate non-physical
nurture and emotional availability. Such acts of commission or omission have a high probability
of damaging a child’s self-esteem or social competence and may be perpetrated in following five
behavioural forms (21).

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 Culture and Emotional Development

Rejection is a form of emotional abuse, whereby the adult refuses to acknowledge the child’s
worth and the legitimacy of the child’s needs. Isolating, involves the adult cutting the child off
from normal social experiences, preventing the child from forming friendships, and making the
child believe that he or she is alone in the world. Terrorizing is that the adult verbally assaults
the child, creating a climate of fear, bullying and frightening the child, and making the child
believes that the world is capricious and hostile. Ignorance involves deprivation of the child of
essential stimulation and responsiveness, stifling the emotional growth and intellectual
development. Finally, corruption involves the adult ‘dissocializing’ the child, stimulating the
child to engage in destructive antisocial behavior, reinforcing that deviance, and making the
child unfit for normal social experience.

Neglect refers to the failure by the parent or caregiver to provide a child, where they are in a
position to do so, with the conditions that are culturally acceptable as being essential for their
physical and emotional development and wellbeing (22). Neglectful behaviors can be divided
into different subcategories. Physical neglect is characterized by the parent’s or caregiver’s
failure to provide basic physical necessities, such as safe, clean and adequate clothing, housing,
food and health care. Emotional or psychological neglect is characterized by a lack of parents’ or
caregivers’ warmth, nurturance, encouragement and support; it is noted here that emotional
neglect is sometimes considered a form of emotional abuse or maltreatment. Educational neglect
is characterized by a parent’s or caregiver’s failure to provide supportive educational
opportunities for the child. Finally, environmental neglect is characterized by the parent’s or
caregiver’s failure to ensure environmental safety, opportunities and resources (23).

A general definition of child sexual abuse proposes that child sexual abuse involves “the use of a
child for sexual gratification by an adult or significantly older child/adolescent”. Child sexual
abuse as “any act which exposes a child to, or involves a child in, sexual processes beyond his or
her understanding or contrary to accepted community standards”. Sexually abusive behaviors can
include the fondling of genitals, masturbation, and oral sex, vaginal or anal penetration by a
penis, finger or any other object, fondling of breasts, voyeurism, and exhibitionism and exposing
the child to or involving the child in pornography (24).

Other forms of child abuse bullying or peer abuse, sibling abuse and institutional abuse, which
involves the abuse that occurs in institutions such as foster homes, group homes, voluntary or
charity organizations and child care centers and organizational exploitation like child sex rings,
child pornography, child prostitution, and state-sanctioned abuse.

Emotions during War, terrorism, communal violence and natural disasters:

Violence suffered during war, terrorist attacks, and communal/ethnic conflicts shatters a
community’s routine and safety to the extent that powerful emotions have generated often linger
long. Haunted by memories of pain and suffering, the victims paradoxically search to forget the

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 Culture and Emotional Development

horror associated with such events while emotionally fixated and constituted by it. The emotions
that typically accompany war terrorism and ethnic violence and the associated trauma are fear,
anger anxiety, humiliation, shame and even guilt. There is a need to work through these emotions
to build an environment defined by search for collective empathy and compassion. Keeping in
view of the complexity of emotions, and to understand the traumatic nature of violence and
remembering violence could be used as the very instrument to achieve a shift away from
destructive and conflict perpetuating emotions towards those that facilitate conciliation. Reflex-
like responses to the trauma of war may simply memorialize the trauma in ways that keep it
‘fresh’ and unresolved for an affected community. Grief, emotionally and politically
transformative ‘working through’ the course of trauma. A turn to grief recognizes the inherent
need for individuals and communities to confront intensely painful emotions and memories in
order to be free of rather than trapped by them (25).

CONCLUSION:
In a science of emotion, we need to know how the experience, expression, and regulation of
emotions are linked to cultural values and socialization conditions in individual development.
Different paths for the development of emotions and regulation are to be expected in contexts
differing in the cultural model of the self. Theoretical approaches to the socialization and
development of emotions and regulation need to integrate other relevant research, focus on
universalities and culture-specific pathways, inter-cultural and intra-cultural differences, and
overcome ethnocentric biases. Whether the emotions play a more dominant role in our actions,
thoughts, decisions, planning, and reasoning or is it cognition which initiates these processes is
still not very clear. The extent of mediation of culture, emotion and cognition is something which
must be elaborated and researched upon. Because culture is both cumulative and directed, culture
has a unique ability to produce highly complex adaptations to local conditions in relatively short
periods of time.

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