The Discrete Emotions Theory Controversy in Psychology and Relevance to Consumer Behavior

1. The Discrete Emotions Theory Controversy in Psychology and Relevance to Consumer Behavior Louis Daily, Fiona Sussan, and Norris Krueger University of Phoenix Center For Global Business Research

2. HOW WE EXPRESS EMOTION IS ALL IMPORTANT FORCROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION AS WELL AS MANY OTHER PURPOSES

3. THE UNIVERSAL FACIAL EXPRESSION VIEW HAS BEEN DOMINANT FOR FIFTY YEARS SAD, ANGER, FEAR, DISGUST, HAPPY, CONTEMPT AND OTHERS ARE EVOLUTIONARILY DICTATED ADAPTIVE SURVIVAL MECHANISMS Darwin Tompkins Ekman Izard

4. BUT THERE ARE DISSIDENTS James Russell MariekeDeMoii Rachel Jack THERE ARE NO DISCRETE EMOTIONS, THERE ARE EMOTIONAL PATTERNS AND THE PATTERNING IS DIFFERENT AMONG CULTURES. E.G.

5. BOTH CAMPS AGREE THERE ARE AT LEAST SOME DIFFERENCES; ALMOST 100 YEARS OF CROSS –CULTURAL RESEARCH HAS TURNED UP SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES. WHICH ARE MORE IMPORTANT??

6. EKMAN THINKS UNIVERSAL Experiment: Screening Passengers By Observation Technique (SPOT) at U.S. airports. Based on Universal Theory. Not one terrorist caught, lots of congressional criticism. Universal Theory looks to be premature for influencing technology.

7. SOME COMPANIES THINK IT IS THE DIFFERENCES THAT ARE MORE IMPORTANT This company tells us how to get along in China. (Put cursor on above, right click, open hyperlink)

8. Walmart Had To Leave Germany Because of Smiling Clerks! Should they have paid more attention to differences rather than universals?

9. EMOTION IN VARIOUS CULTURES We Need To Explore The Number and Patterns of Emotional Displays in Various Cultures Even If There are Universals. It is important for Marketing, Cross-Cultural Communication, and Catching Terrorists.

10. BASIC PARADIGMS There are a number of ways of doing this but the basic paradigm is to show subjects from various cultures photos of facial expressions and ask them to sort them. Cluster analysis and similar techniques are applied.

11. NEW STUDIES FOR US TO PURSUE Jack et al. found that Chinese subjects did not identify emotion faces similarly to western subjects. Will bicultural Chinese American subjects identify emotion pictures similar to Ekman’s studies or to Jack et al.’s results? What is the influence of culture?

12. Chinese American Subjects will sort Ekman’s photos into piles. The pattern will be analyzed with multidimensional scaling (MDS). They will also make forced choice selection among Ekman’s categories and will give their own emotion label to the pictures. Further, they will be photographed posing Ekman’s set of emotions and any other emotion they feel is important. Is the MDS pattern similar to Russell’s circumplex dimensional model?

13. Finally, and in a simple qualitative exploration, do the Chinese Americans report during a closing interview the same categories of emotions as Ekman? Do they emphasize categories at all? For comparison purposes, Western, Korean and Moroccan samples will also be explored. With the growing importance of Asia in the world economy, these are very important groups to study. Implications for cross-cultural communication will be discussed.

14. THERE ARE MANY OTHER AREAS OF RESEARCH IN THE STUDY OF EMOTION Affective Neuroscience The Facial Feedback Hypothesis Interaction of Cognitive, Cultural, and Biological factors. Are Emotions Best Thought of As Discrete or as Dimensions