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In text Find Out more  boxes provide a brief, easy-to-read synopsis of a recently published SAGE Journal Article studies and research. For further research and exploration, each journal article is reprinted in full, below.

Research 5.1

Lindquist, K.A. & Gendron, M. (2013). What’s in a word? Language constructs emotion perception. Emotion Review, 5, 66-71.

Abstract: In this review, we highlight evidence suggesting that concepts represented in language are used to create a perception of emotion from the constant ebb and flow of other people’s facial muscle movements. In this “construction hypothesis,” (cf. Gendron, Lindquist, Barsalou, & Barrett, 2012) (see also Barrett, 2006b; Barrett, Lindquist, & Gendron, 2007; Barrett, Mesquita, & Gendron, 2011), language plays a constitutive role in emotion perception because words ground the otherwise highly variable instances of an emotion category. We demonstrate that language plays a constitutive role in emotion perception by discussing findings from behavior, neuropsychology, development, and neuroimaging. We close by discussing implications of a constructionist view for the science of emotion.

Research 5.2

Van Kleef, G.A. (2009). How emotions regulate social life: The emotions as Social Information (EASI) Model. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 184-188.

Abstract: The idea that emotions regulate social interaction is increasingly popular. But exactly how do emotions do this? To address this question, I drawon research on the interpersonal effects of emotions on behavior in personal relationships, parent–child interactions, conflict, negotiation, and leadership, and propose a new framework that can account for existing findings and guide future research: the emotions as social information (EASI) model. I demonstrate that emotional expressions affect observers’ behavior by triggering inferential processes and/or affective reactions in them. The predictive strength of these two processes—which may inspire different behaviors—depends on the observer’s information processing and on social-relational factors. Examples of moderators that determine the relative predictive strength of inferences and affective reactions include power, need for cognitive closure, time pressure, display rules, and the appropriateness and target of the emotional expression, which are all discussed.

Research 5.3

Matsumoto, D., Hwang, H.S., & Yamada, H. (2012). Cultural differences in the relative contributions of face and context to the judgment of emotions, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 43, 198-218.

Abstract: Previous judgment studies of facial expressions of emotion in context have provided mixed results. This article clarifies and extends this literature by testing judgments across cultures and by using novel methodologies that examine both face and context effects. Two studies involving observers from three cultures provided evidence for both face and context effects in emotion judgments and cultural differences in both. Japanese and South Korean observers were more influenced by context than Americans, and these differences were mediated by personality traits. The results provided a more nuanced view of how both culture and emotion moderate judgments of faces in context and how cultural differences existed in the judgments, which were predicted using a construct known as Context Differentiation.