Expression

19 October 2020

Week 6: Differences in Emotional Expressivity

In a lecture by a BYUI professor, we learn that emotional expressivity is one of the most misinterpreted cultural norms. These expressions can be put on a scale from low to high emotional expressivity based on how much a country shows there emotions outwardly. Many Asian cultures are found on the low side of the emotional expressivity scale whereas many European and Hispanic cultures are found on the high emotional expressivity scale the United States is found towards the middle of this scale.

In many times in a private setting all strong emotions are the same through out different cultures. The difference in emotion is seen more as you observe people in public. There can also be differences in emotion within the same culture such as the United States. In the United States you can see that the amount of emotional expressivity is different from those who live in the mid west verses those who live in some of the big cities such as Chicago and New York.

I have seen many of these difference as I have moved to many different places in my life. I have noticed that everywhere I go I have to learn something new that is social expectable in public. I could feel as I walked the streets of Chicago that I felt awkward smiling everywhere I went. At that point I was from Texas and found that smiling was just apart of the day. Talking and asking how people were doing were part of what we did. By simply changing the culture I was able to see a change in what was normal for there cultures emotional expressivity.