Why do we believe that there are universal emotions?
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- Why do we believe that there are universal emotions?
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Why do we believe that there are universal emotions?
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[post_content] => Practice Passage (Question 1-5)
*This passage is the property of Khan Academy and has been reformatted into an AAMC-style interface in their entirety by MedLife Mastery. MedLife Mastery does not endorse and is not an affiliate of Khan Academy.
There are 6 universal emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust; each can be identified by universally produced facial muscle movements. Culturally linked emotional expressions also exist, such as winking or raising one eyebrow. In addition, the triggers for the display of emotion are often linked to cultural factors, such as Western cultures’ propensity to display emotion more openly than Eastern cultures.
Darwin believed facial muscles signaled emotion and since the configuration of the facial muscles is universal, facial expressions enhanced communication. This, in turn, led to an increased chance of survival. In 1971, Ekman and Friesen published a study which supported the Darwinian viewpoint. They visited a Neolithic, preliterate culture in New Guinea called the Fore people, which had been isolated from Western contact until 12 years earlier. Only subjects that met very specific criteria were recruited, amounting to less than 3% of the total Fore population. A judgment task was given through a translator, who was instructed that there were no correct answers for the task. The translator told a well-rehearsed story which is shown in Table 1. After the story, subjects were presented with 3 pictures, each displaying a different emotion 1 correct, 2 distractors). These pictures had to be correctly identified by at least 70% of the literate participants of Western or Eastern ancestry in a previous study. The subject was asked to point to the picture presented, which displayed the emotion that the subject believed was being described. Table 1 displays universal emotions along with the corresponding story that was told to study subjects.
Table 1
The null hypothesis was that there are no differences between the subjects representing the Fore tribe and the subjects representing Western or Eastern culture. No statistically significant differences were found in identification of emotions between groups except in the discrimination of fear from surprise and sadness, when the emotion described in the story was fear. Often, the subject could not tell the gender of the person but was still able to correctly identify the picture displaying the correct facial expression. Table 2 displays the results of the Fore Tribe responses in identifying the correct photograph corresponding with the correct emotion in the story.
Table 2
Adapted from: Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1971). Constants Across Cultures in the Face and Emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 11, 124-129.
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[question] => What bias between the Fore people and Westerners could produce confounding results with the usage of the fear story (Table 1)?
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[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
While many emotions have similar expressions, such as fear and surprise, sadness is less likely to elicit a physiologically similar response to fear and surprise (fight or flight), but was highly correlated with anger.
The Fore people were able to understand the questions being posed to them. The stories were translated into an intermediate language, which could then be translated to the Fore people’s native language.
While facial expressions associated with emotion are universal, emotions can be evoked and shaped by many factors. The Fore people have different social constructs, taboos, and may interpret a situation differently when compared to Westerners. Likely, most situations which would cause a member of the Fore tribe to feel fear would also cause surprise or sadness, such as the sudden arrival of a warrior from another tribe or an unexpected encounter with a spirit.
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[each_answer] => A. Fore people have many emotions that are very similar in their expression, while individual Westerners display widely differing emotions.
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[each_answer] => B. The Fore people have different social constructs, taboos, and may interpret a situation differently when compared to Westerners.
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[each_answer] => C. The Fore people had difficulty understanding fear, surprise, and sadness because they had not been able to learn these facial expressions through imitation. Westerners, however, have observed these facial expressions constantly.
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[each_answer] => D. The Fore people could not interpret which emotion was being elicited due to a lack of common language, while Western people have a common language, English.
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[question] => What is meant by “No statistically significant differences were found in identification of emotions between groups except in the discrimination of fear from surprise and sadness?”
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[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
There is no significant difference in the facial structure or facial expressions between different cultures. Emotions differ culturally in relation to how and when it is appropriate to express a certain emotion.
The null hypothesis in this case describes no difference between groups (literate participants of Western or Eastern ancestry compared to Fore tribe members). There is little statistical difference between the interpretation of facial expressions by the Fore tribe when compared to the Western and Eastern interpretation.
The null hypothesis was confirmed. There are likely cultural differences in the interpretation of fear which contributed to the difficulty with the distractors surprise and sadness.
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[each_answer] => A. The null hypothesis was confirmed. There are likely cultural differences in the interpretation of fear which contributed to the difficulty with the distractors’ surprise and sadness.
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[each_answer] => B. The null hypothesis was confirmed. There are no significant differences between Western and Eastern groups of people in the expression of emotions, except between fear, surprise, and sadness.
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[each_answer] => C. A The alternative hypothesis was confirmed. With a 1 in 3 chance, the subject had a better chance of choosing the correct photograph with happiness than with fear as the correct photograph.
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[each_answer] => D. The alternative hypothesis was confirmed. There were likely biological differences in facial structure which caused the problems with the interpretation between fear, surprise, and sadness.
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[question] => During the 1950s and 1950s, the Fore people suffered from Kuru, a spongiform encephalopathy. Suppose that during the examination of brain tissue samples from tribe members who had died from natural causes, many samples had bilateral damage to the amygdala which was not related to Kuru. Which designation (Table 2) would most likely be affected by this discovery?
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[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
The orbitofrontal cortex is associated with the processing of both positively and negatively balanced emotions. When activity is lowered in the right hemisphere, euphoria is experienced. Conversely, when activity is lowered in the left hemisphere, depression is reported.
The recognition of facial expressions associated with sadness have been linked to the subcallosal cingulate.
The insula and basal ganglia are most often associated with disgust.
Anger has been associated with the left superior temporal sulcus.
The correct photograph was fear, while the distractors were surprise and sadness. The amygdala is most consistently associated with fear. Damage to the amygdala has been linked to difficulty attending to facial expressions that would normally signal fear.
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[each_answer] => A. The correct photograph was sadness, while the distractors were anger and disgust.
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[each_answer] => B. The correct photograph was fear, while the distractors were surprise and sadness.
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[each_answer] => C. The correct photograph was disgust, while the distractors were surprise and sadness.
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[each_answer] => D. The correct photograph was surprise, while the distractors were happiness and anger.
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[question] => Which of these theories accurately describes the process through which emotion is perceived by the Fore people during Ekman and Friesen’s experiment?
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[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
The Schachter-Singer theory of emotion describes an event (story describing fear) followed by a physiological response (fight or flight) which is interpreted as fear and fear is perceived.
Cannon-Bard theory describes an event (story describing fear) which elicits simultaneous physiological response (fight or flight) and perception of an emotion (fear).
The James-Lange theory describes an event (story describing fear) which elicits physiological response (fight or flight).
Lazarus theory requires that interpretation must happen before arousal or emotion, which happen simultaneously. Since the event (story describing fear) was interpreted as being non-threatening before a physiological response (fight or flight) and emotion (fear) were to be perceived simultaneously, neither the physiological response (fight or flight) nor the emotion (fear) were elicited.
Since there is no evidence that any of the subjects experienced a physiological response to any of the stories, the Lazarus theory is the correct response.
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[each_answer] => A. Lazarus theory
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[each_answer] => B. Cannon-Bard theory
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[each_answer] => C. Schachter-Singer theory
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[each_answer] => D. James-Lange theory
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[question] => The task given to the Fore people was originally developed by John Frederick Dashiell in 1927 for use with young children. What advantage(s) does this task have which allows it to be applied to the Fore people?
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[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
A perfect translation was not possible, since an English language story was being translated into a regional language, Pidgin. The story was then translated again by a more Westernized tribe member to the tribe’s native language. One of the reasons for the choice of this task was that rehearsal by the translator was extensive, thus controlling for elaboration and story changes.
The subject was not required to know or remember any emotions or words representing emotions for this experiment.
By requiring the subject to point to the picture which best described the emotion from the story, this task did not require literacy or a verbal response from the subject.
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[each_answer] => A. The translator does not have to speak the language of the Fore people.
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[each_answer] => B. The subject must remember what emotion is being described.
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[each_answer] => C. A perfect translation is necessary to ensure that the emotion described in the story is understood.
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[each_answer] => D. This task does not require literacy or a verbal response from the subject.
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