Critical Discussion: Universality of Emotions in Psychology

This essay delves into the contentious statement "Emotions are universal," exploring the complexities of human emotional experiences. It critically analyzes the statement through the lens of three prominent psychological theories: attribution theory, Darwinian theory, and the lexical approach. The essay elucidates how attribution theory explains the ways individuals interpret and react to emotional events, while Darwinian theory provides an evolutionary perspective on the biological basis of emotions and their expression. Furthermore, it examines the lexical approach, which posits that the language we use reflects and shapes our understanding of personality traits and emotional tendencies. By integrating these diverse perspectives, the essay argues that while the fundamental capacity for emotions may be universal, the specific ways in which they are experienced, expressed, and interpreted are influenced by cultural and individual factors, leading to a nuanced understanding of the universality debate. The essay aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic, supported by research and critical analysis.

Psychology

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Emotions are universal...........................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
Psychology refers a process or scientific study of human mind as how it behaves, why it
behaves along with its all functions which affect behaviours (Sternberg and Sternberg, 2016).
This present study is going to show and discuss a statement as whether emotions are universal or
not and if they are universal then what are some reasons. This study will also show importance of
psychological theories which helps in defining that there are some emotions which are universal
and all culture of people have but capacity and ways of reacting differ than each others. Some
effective theories which this study will discuss and show include: attribute theories, Darwinian
Theory and Lexical approach.
MAIN BODY
Emotions are universal
Before discussing about this statement is emotions are universal it is important to
understand that what an emotion is. So, in the context of an emotion it can be said that emotions
are biological states which are associated with nervous system. It is associated with thoughts
which people have, feelings, behavioural responses and others. So, overall it can be said that it is
one of the complexes state of feelings which lead in some physical and psychological changes
which influences behaviours of people. There are mainly 7 types of emotions which have been
proved and identified as universal (Trevarthen, 2017).
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Figure 1 Emotions
Sources: (Universal Emotions, 2019)
All these feelings or emotions which are being stated as universal include: anger, sadness,
happiness, fear, surprise, contempt and disgust. It is shocking and interesting to know that many
of them are negative emotions. It can also be said that emotion is one of the important thing
which motivate us to do something it may be right and wrong. It prepares people to deal with all
important events in their lives without even thinking a lot about them. Some emotions do not last
longer than 1 hour.
For understanding that whether all these emotions are universal or cultural specific it is
important to understand that how they are being influenced, experienced and expressed as well.
In this context several authors stated that emotions are universal because all feelings like desire
of getting something, freedom and others are hardwired into all of our brain and Hence, their
range as well as nature are universal which is also being shared by humanity in different surveys
as a whole. There are several ways by which people respond such as physical events, when they
interact with people or social interaction, imagining about an event or remembering of
something/someone and talking about, thinking about (Choudhary and et.al., 2018). All people
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have feelings but everyone does not have same emotions and even they have different ways and
capacity to feel the same emotion in different ways. People try to understand each others’
emotions but it becomes difficult to them to understand that how other people feel and feeling
because they have different capacities to bear problems, happiness and all other emotions and
feelings than others. Some authors and theories state that there are some emotions which are
universal because they are experienced in similar ways as a reaction to similar events across all
cultures, different cultures understand different languages but they have same reaction on some
events which shows that they all have same emotions and feelings but extent and capacity to
show and bear differ them (Bozzo, 2019).
There are several theories in psychology which can help out in understanding and
clearing out that emotions are universal and why they are so. Some psychological theories which
are being discussed in a detailed manner for discussing this main topic related to emotions are:
Attribution theory: It is one of the best and effective psychology theory by which it can be
understood in a detailed manner that emotions are universal along with reasons and examples.
This theory in psychology assumes that people try to determine and identify that why other
people react, why they do, what they do. It believes that attributes causes to behaviours of them.
Attribution can be defined as a procedure by which people try to explain causes of their
behaviours and events. So, it can be said that it is all about identifying and determining by people
that how other people explain their causes and how they react. For more understanding this
theory in the context of knowing that emotions are universal it is important to understand
attribution in an effective and detailed manner as it is being mainly classified into 2 dimensions
like internal and external (Martinko, 2018). It is again subdivided into 2 parts such in internal-
stable and internal unstable, external-stable and external-unstable.
In an internal type of attribution people guess that other person’s behaviours and
reactions is due to their personal factors like their feelings, abilities and others. Whereas, in
external type of attribution, they understand and guess that person’s their behaviours and ways of
reacting is all because of some external and situational factors. Reacting according to internal
and external basis is all depend upon the thought of an individual for example: If an individual’s
car breakdown not on highway but on freeway then that individual can either make internal
attribution or external as it all depends upon his thinking and thoughts. If he thinks that this car
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breakdown happens due to his ignorance about cars and he did not take care of car then he may
behave as like internal attribution. Whereas, if he thinks that car breakdown happens because of
old model and car is old then his reaction or attribution will be external attribution. Reaction will
be anger and depression but extent and capacity will be different. So, it can be said that emotions
are universal just extent and capacity of showing them, bearing them differ than each others. One
of the best models of attribution theory is Kelley’s covariation model because this model is
being developed in a logical manner which can help people in understand all attributes and
reasons of people to behave and react (Attribution Theory, 2012). It also helps them out in
understanding that whether people’s reaction or action should be attributed to some
characteristics or dispositional or situational. Covariation defines that an individual has
information from different or multiple observations at different situations. For identifying causes
of behaviours and action of people, other try to focus on 3 evidence like consensus,
distinctiveness and consistency. Consensus can be defined by same reaction as like others as a
group of people is laughing and we have to judge only one person among them then we can
identify his behaviour by his reaction as if he is also laughing then it can be known as consensus.
In same situation if an individual among a group of people and if that individual laugh at
everything then it may be identified by distinctiveness and if an individual rarely laugh then it
can be judged by consistency. So, overall it can be said that causes may differ, capacity of
reacting, laughing in same situations may differ but having same feelings than others is universal
(Shaver, 2016).
Darwinian Theory: It is a biological evolution theory which can also help in identifying that
whether emotions are universal or not. This theory states that all organisms on this planet
develop via the natural selection of inherited variations which increases ability of people to
survive, reproduce and compete as well. Evolution or changes in characteristics of people or
species have some variation but process of growing and developing is same. Emotions are
universal because it is stated by some authors as per this theory that all life on this earth is
connected or interlinked with each other’s and this diversity of life is a product of "modifications
of populations by natural selection. Emotions are considered a natural process and natural thing
which all people have. Natural selection causes populations to become adapted and well suited as
well. It is stated that process of getting changed and changes in characteristics of different culture
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of people and population happen over many generation. There are different cultures or
generations of people who have feelings and basic needs. All people need food water and other
resources for living and when they do not get it for the long term then they become tired and
frustrated which lead anger sometimes. Way of showing their feelings may differ but having
feelings for the same event cannot be changed. Changes in reaction depend upon the
environment and culture in which they live. So, it can be understood clearly that emotions are
universal but reacting and capacity to react on those emotions are cultural or environmental (The
Evolution of Emotion: Charles Darwin’s little Known Psychology Experimen, 2010).
Darwin stated that facial expressions of emotions which show anger, sadness, happiness
and others are universal. For example if someone is happy then he will either smile or laugh and
it cannot be possible that if someone is happy then he will express sadness or crying so, it can be
said that extent may differ but reaction on events and feelings are same so, emotions are
universal. In addition, he also said that all humans as well as animals show their emotions
through remarkably similar behaviours. Emotions have an evolutionary history as like
development of human body which can be traced across species and cultures. It has been proven
by several surveys in which different cultures of people share their feelings on the same event
and most of them have same feelings but extent was different (Flew, 2018). Darwin also wanted
to prove that there is a series of cardinal emotions which are expressed by all human in the same
way and all these are biological.
Lexical approach: Lexical approach is based on assumption which states that the most
important personality traits are encoded as words in natural languages. As per this approach there
are mainly 5 attributes on which this discusses as whether emotions are evolution or universal.
All 5 attributes are: openness, Conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. It
is a sedimentation thesis. It also states that personality traits as per this approach are the most
important to people which become a part of their language. By making use of languages in an
effective manner people show their feelings and personality traits. There are several different
approaches which have used this approach in order to develop their personality taxonomies
(Lexical Hypothesis 2019). In the context of personality traits it is being analysed and identified
that neuroticism is one of the main personality traits helps in studying of psychology in a detailed
and effective manner. As per this personality traits behaviours and reactions of different cultures
of people cab be understand. In this context it is also identified that people show scores high in
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this personality trait are more likely to average to be moody and have several negative emotions
and feelings such as: anger, frustration, jealousy, fear, worry, anxiety, loneliness etc. So, as per
this personality trait it can b said that different people have different extent of sharing their
feelings and behaviours. Some people often seem depressed and some seems to be happy (Yu,
2018). It all because of their neuroticism personality trait but it does not mean that happier
people only have feelings or emotions related to happiness and sad people only have sadness
emotions and feelings, The only difference is their behaviours as some people have capacity to
hide their emotions and as compare to others they have less neuroticism traits.
This approach is being used by several authors and researchers in order to identify
different dimensions of personality (Chapman, Reeves and Chapin, 2018). Personality is
conveyed through different parts of speech which include: adverbs and nouns. In addition, other
main personality trait is openness which characteristics imagination and insight. People who
scores in this trait are more likely to have a broad range of interest and creative as well. They do
not feel hesitate to share something to someone and also focus on tackling or dealing new
challenges. Whereas, people who scores less in this personality trait do not like changes and are
less creative. So, from the above it can be said that all people have this trait but some people
have high traits and some have less which proves that emotions and behaviours are universal as
just extent and capacity differ which can be identified by evaluating and measuring these all 5
personality traits. Conscientiousness personality trait refers high level of thoughtfulness as well
as goal oriented behaviours. People who scores high in this trait are more likely to pay attention
to detail, finished important tasks in a timely manner or eliminate procrastination and those who
do not score high become fail to return things and procrastinate the most.
So, overall it can be said that emotions are universal as all people have same feelings with
different capacity and extent.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been summarized that emotions played an important role as it
shows behaviours and reaction on some events. This study has discussed as whether emotions
are universal or not and with the help of effective strategies and models it has shown that
emotions are universal. Al cultures of people have feelings which they show by reacting on some
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situations and their internal attributes or factors. The only difference is ways of showing feelings,
extent of feelings or capacity to bear it and show it. It is a psychological factor which all people
have. Theories which this study has discussed for discussing this statement about emotions are
universal include attribution theory which has being categorized in 2 parts such as internal and
external attributes, lexical approach and Darwinian evolution theory.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journal
Bozzo, L., 2019. Human Emotions. Carson-Dellosa Publishing.
Chapman, D.S., Reeves, P. and Chapin, M., 2018. A Lexical Approach to Identifying
Dimensions of Organizational Culture. Frontiers in psychology. 9. p.876.
Choudhary, N. and et.al., 2018. Emotions are universal: Learning sentiment based
representations of resource-poor languages using siamese networks. arXiv preprint
arXiv:1804.00805.
Flew, A., 2018. Darwinian evolution. Routledge.
Martinko, M., 2018. Attribution theory: An organizational perspective. Routledge.
Shaver, K.G., 2016. An introduction to attribution processes. Routledge.
Sternberg, R.J. and Sternberg, K., 2016. Cognitive psychology. Nelson Education.
Trevarthen, C., 2017. The function of emotions in early infant communication and development.
In New perspectives in early communicative development (pp. 48-81). Routledge.
Yu, M., 2018, January. Research on Lexical Approach in College English Reading Teaching in
Ethnic Minority Areas. In 2017 7th International Conference on Education and
Management (ICEM 2017). Atlantis Press.
Online
Universal Emotions. 2019. [Online]. Available through <https://www.paulekman.com/universal-
emotions/>
Attribution Theory. 2012. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.simplypsychology.org/attribution-theory.html>
The Evolution of Emotion: Charles Darwin’s little Known Psychology Experiment. 2010.
[Online]. Available through <https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-
evolution-of-emotion-charles-darwins-little-known-psychology-experiment/>
Lexical Hypothesis. 2019. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Lexical+Hypothesis>
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