Emotion Norms, Display Rules, and Regulation in the Akan Society of Ghana: An Exploration Using Proverbs

Abstract

Proverbs are widely used by the Akan of West Africa. The current study thematically analyzed an Akan proverb compendium for proverbs containing emotion references. Of the identified proverbs, a focus on negative emotions was most typical. Emotion-focused proverbs highlighted four emotion regulation strategies: change in cognition, response modulation, situation modification, and situation selection. A subset of proverbs addressed emotion display rules restricting the expression of emotions such as pride, and emotional contagion associated with emotions such as shame. Additional themes including: social context influences on the expression and experience of emotion; expectations of emotion limits; as well as the nature of emotions were present in the proverb collection. In general, Akan emotion-related proverbs stress individual-level responsibility for affect regulation in interpersonal interactions and societal contexts.

A Comparative Analysis of Emotion-Related Cultural Norms in Popular American and Chinese Storybooks

“…To the best of our knowledge, the only study that examines the emotion-related narrative or text of the storybooks has been conducted by Dyer-Seymour et al (2004), who found that no difference in emotional states (e.g., fear, cheer, fun, kiss, and love) in storybooks written in English for American audiences and those written in Japanese for Japanese audiences. Moreover, cultural variations in emotions have been reported in multifaceted domains in terms of an individual’s emotional process, which includes but is not limited to the expression and perception, understanding and interpretation, and regulation of emotions (Dzokoto et al, 2018; Engelmann & Pogosyan, 2013; Mesquita & Leu, 2007). Yet, past literature on cross-cultural variations in emotion norms portrayed in storybooks either broadly investigates emotional states, such as the general level of emotions (Dyer-Seymour et al, 2004), or specific types of emotions (e.g., positive vs. negative emotions, excited vs. calm smile) (Tsai & Lau, 2013; Wege et al, 2014).…”

Cultural Models of Well-Being Implicit in Four Ghanaian Languages

“…As we define the term, cultural models refer to systems of beliefs and values given material expression in the practices and artifacts of particular cultural worlds. Although the capacity for language may be a universal feature of human psychology, the languages that different societies use are particular cultural products (Gleason, 1961) that function as repositories of cultural models (Ameka, 2004;Kesebir and Kesebir, 2017;Dzokoto et al, 2018).…”

Dilemma Tales as African Knowledge Practice: An Example From Research on Obligations of Support

“…On the other hand, a strength of this procedure is fidelity to the dilemma tale genre, which poses a question in terms of another person and then asks participants how the actor should, or how they would, respond in that situation. In the context of this Frontiers Research Topic, one might understand the genre of dilemma tale, like that of proverbs ( Dzokoto et al, 2018 ), as an African Cultural Model for knowledge, theory, and research practice. Our work suggests that dilemma tales are important as repositories of cultural knowledge (e.g., about relationality), as pedagogical tools, and as an empirical method for investigations of moral reasoning and other psychological tendencies.…”