What attributes characterize an individual who exhibits a expressive style of behavior

According to self-monitoring theory, people differ in the extent to which they monitor (observe and control) their expressive behavior and self-presentation. Individuals high in self-monitoring regulate their expressive self-presentation for the sake of public appearances, and thus are highly responsive to social and interpersonal cues to situationally appropriate performances. Individuals low in self-monitoring lack the ability or motivation to regulate their expressive self-presentations for such purposes; their expressive behaviors reflect their inner states and dispositions. Research on self-monitoring typically employs a multi-item self-report measure, the Self-monitoring Scale, to identify people high and low in self-monitoring. Investigations of self-monitoring have examined the relative role of person and situation in determining behavior in diverse domains of individuals' lives, including their friendship worlds, their romantic lives, their interactions with the consumer marketplace, and their work worlds. Theory and research on self-monitoring have also served as focal points for issues in the assessment of personality, in the role of scale construction in theory building, and in examining fundamental questions about personality and social behavior, particularly those concerning how individuals incorporate inputs from their enduring dispositions and inputs from their situational contexts into agendas for action that guide their functioning as individuals and social beings.

Coined in 1846 to describe the customs, superstitions, and arts ‘of the olden time,’ the term folklore has in the 1990s been defined as ‘expressive forms, processes, and behaviors’ that are learned, taught, and utilized ‘during face-to-face interaction’ and are judged to be traditional. In this article these and other definitions and understandings of folklore are addressed. Also discussed are some of the theories proposed to account for the origin, spread, and functions of myths, epics, games, and other folklore materials. In special focus is a survey of six key words in contemporary folklore study: folk, tradition, genre, performance, text, and art. A concluding section assesses the critical role of folklore and folklore study in the cultural politics of many regions, nations, and ethnic groups around the globe.

13.5 Culture

Labarre [28] reviewed a large body of evidence on the cultural differences in using and interpreting body movements, including gesture repertoires that have specific meanings in a given culture (emblems). A most embarrasing situation might occur if someone uses such emblematic gestures unconsciously in interactions with people from other cultures. As earlier noted, the best known example might be the American “OK” sign formed by thumb and index finger, which in Italy is a severe insult. Another example taken from Labarre is a gesture, in which the open right hand is raised to the face, with the thumb on the bridge of the nose. This is used by the Toda in South India to express respect, but an almost identical gesture is used in Germany to mock (i.e., it is a sign of disrespect). Thus, the recognition of specific gestures may give interesting insights into the cultural background of the user or it may cause severe problems in interpreting the semantic content of the gesture if the cultural background is not known. Again, the quality of the movement can serve as necessary evidence for a successful disambiguation.

The kinesthetic features defined by Efron [11] (see Section 13.2) were derived from his study of cultural differences in gesturing, but so far very few approaches take this information into account in an interactive ambient intelligence system. In his study, Efron examined differences in gesturing between Italian and Jewish immigrants as well as assimilated subjects from the same cultural groups. Based on his large amount of data (around 2500 subjects), he could show significant differences in all categories he analyzed: spatiotemporal, interlocutionary, and co-verbal aspects (see Section 13.2). With his sample of assimilated subjects (those already living for a long time in the United States), he was also able to show that differences vanish, giving clear evidence that differences in gestural activity are a learned cultural heuristic. An example of the differences he found is that, whereas Italian subjects used their whole arm for gesturing, Jewish subjects kept their upper arms close to the body, resulting in movements from the elbow downward (i.e., in narrower movements).

This empirical evidence of cultural differences in gestures on the spatiotemporal level is accompanied by a number of anecdotal references in the literature. Hall [16], for instance, gave a number of such references to culture-specific differences in gesture usage. Similar information can be found in Ting-Toomey [41], who found, for instance, that Germans use more gestures than Japanese and that Southern Europeans gesture more frequently then Northern Europeans. As we saw in Section 13.2, Efron's spatiotemporal and interlocutionary aspects are very similar or identical to Gallaher's expressive dimensions [15], which she used to distinguish personal gesturing styles. This implies again that these dimensions might also be useful for describing cultural differences in gesture use.

Rehm and colleagues [37] presented a corpus study designed to shed light on specific differences in gesture usage in individualistic and collectivistic cultures, with the aim of deriving expressive profiles for these cultures as a way to adapt the behavior of virtual agents to a user's cultural background. They recorded around 20 hours of interactions in Germany (21 pairs) and Japan (26 pairs). Their analysis focused on nonverbal behavior such as gesture and postures. Gestural expressivity was analyzed, focusing on parameters that had been proven successful in animating a virtual agent [33]: spatial extent, speed, overall activation, fluidity, and power.

Results from this corpus analysis show significant differences in the expressive profiles of participants from the two cultures. The frequency of gesture use is consistent with information from the literature [41] in that a significant difference can be seen in the number of gestures used in the German and the Japanese samples. German participants use over three times more gestures than Japanese participants on average. Other significant differences were found for the expressive parameters spatial extent and speed.

Rehm et al. [36] gave an example of how this information can be used to infer the cultural background of the user based on his gestural expressivity. They presented a Bayesian network model of cultural influences on expressivity for analyzing the user's expressive behavior and deriving his cultural background. Culture in their approach was defined as a dimensional model following Hofstede's suggestions [18]. A given culture was thus a point in a five-dimensional space where dimensions described dichotomies such as individualistic versus collectivistic or high-power versus low-power distance. Table 13.3 gives cultural profiles for four example countries.

Table 13.3. Hofstede's Ratings on a Scale from 1 to 100 for Selected Countries

Hierarchy. This dimension describes the extent to which different distributions of power are accepted by less powerful members. According to Hofstede, more coercive and referent power (based on personal charisma and identification with the powerful) is used in societies scoring high on the hierarchy dimension; more reward, legitimate, and expert power, in those scoring low.

Identity. Here the degree to which individuals are integrated into a group is defined. On the individualist side, ties between individuals are loose, and each member is expected to take care of himself. On the collectivist side, members are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups.

Gender. The gender dimension describes the distribution of roles between genders. In feminine cultures roles differ less than in masculine cultures, where competition is accepted and status symbols are important.

Uncertainty. Tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity is defined in this dimension. It indicates to what extent the members of a culture feel uncomfortable in unstructured situations that are novel, unknown, surprising, or different from usual. Whereas uncertainty-avoiding cultures have rules to avoid unknown situations, uncertainty-accepting cultures are tolerant of situations different from what they are used to and have as few rules as possible.

Orientation. This dimension distinguishes long- and short-term orientation. The values associated with long-term orientation are thrift and perseverance, whereas those associated with short-term orientation are respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and saving face.

According to Hofstede [18], nonverbal behavior is strongly affected by cultural affordances. The identity dimension, for example, is tightly related to the expression of emotions and acceptable emotional displays in a culture, in that, for instance, individualistic cultures tolerate individual expressions of anger more easily than do collectivistic cultures. Hofstede et al. [19] explicitly examined the differences that arise in the use of sound and space for the five dimensions. By relating the results from their corpus study to Hofstede's dimensional model, Rehm and colleagues showed how a user's expressive gestural behavior can be recognized with high accuracy and then used to infer the user's position on Hofstede's cultural dimensions. With this contextual information it becomes possible to modify the behavior of an interactive system.

2 Emotion and Inhibition

Emotions may be considered transactions between individuals and their social environment. They give personal meaning to external and internal stimuli and communicate meaning from the individual to others. Emotions consist of interpretations of intero- and exteroceptive stimuli, intentions, physiological patterns of arousal, and motor behavior including overt emotional expressiveness. The interaction of these different components in the individual and the social and physical environment are mediated by the central nervous system (CNS). From a regulation point of view, emotional expressiveness has two important functions: first, it serves a communicative function by facilitating the regulation of person–environment transactions and, second, the feedback function of behavioral expressions controls the intra-individual regulation of emotion. This means that an experience may be influenced indirectly by actively responding towards a negative emotional stimulus in the environment, in order to attenuate it, or directly through self-regulation. Thus, expressive behavior can serve simultaneously as a component of emotional processes and as a coping response.

Both psychoanalysis and neurophysiology advanced to the concept of inhibition in different contexts in the twentieth century. For many years, an inverse relationship between expressive behavior and autonomic responsivity has been documented, such that the inhibition of overt emotional expressiveness can lead to an autonomic over-reaction. This has been considered a significant factor in the etiology and maintenance of psychosomatic disorders. A number of early researchers in the first two decades of the twentieth century reported measurements of high physiological activity in subjects suppressing emotional expression. These studies led to the concept of internalization and externalization, where two behavioral coping styles for dealing with psychic tension were discerned: either behaviorally, outwardly directed, or physiologically, within the individual. According to this concept, the term ‘internalizer’ describes a person exhibiting a low level of overt expressiveness under stress yet a high level of physiological excitation, whereas an ‘externalizer’ is characterized by high expressiveness and a low level of physiological expressiveness in social situations. Different health models explain on internalizing and externalizing in terms of stress and coping or in terms of inhibition as physiological work. Over time, the work of inhibition acts as a low-level cumulative stressor. As with all cumulative stressors, sustained inhibition is linked to increases in stress-related diseases, and various other disorders such as cardiovascular and skin disorders, asthma, cancer, and also pain (Traue and Pennebaker 1993).

2.3 Group Behaviors

2.2 Are There Changes in the Expression of Emotion?

The bulk of research on the nonverbal communication of emotion during this century and even during Darwin's time has been conducted on facial expressions. Research has shown that there is increasing conventionalization of facial expressions across the childhood years, which in large measure involves adopting cultural and familial display rules and includes a general dampening of expressive behavior; there is far less research on adulthood. Although patterns of muscular activity remain basically the same, for example, oblique brows that signal sadness in children, signal sadness in younger and older adults as well, Carol Malatesta-Magai and colleagues have found several distinguishing differences in older vs. younger adult faces (see the review in Magai and Passman 1998). In one study, younger and older participants were videotaped during an emotion-induction procedure in which they relived and recounted emotionally charged episodes involving four basic emotions. Older individuals (50 years old or above) were found to be more emotionally expressive than younger subjects in terms of the frequency of expressive behavior across a range of emotions; they expressed a higher rate of anger expressions in the anger-induction condition, a higher rate of sadness during the sadness induction, greater fear under the fear-induction condition, and greater interest during the interest condition.

In another study, older adults were found to be more expressive in another sense. Malatesta-Magai and Izard videotaped and coded the facial expressions of young, middle-aged and older women while they recounted emotional experiences. Using an objective facial affect coding system, they found that while the facial expressions of the older vs. younger women were more telegraphic in that they tended to involve fewer regions of the face, they were also more complex in that they showed more instances of blended expressions where signals of one emotion were mixed with those of another. This greater complexity of older faces appears to pose a problem for those who would interpret their expressions. Young, middle-aged, and untrained ‘judges’ attempted to ‘decode’ the videotaped expressions of the women in the above study. With the objectively coded material serving as the index of accuracy, Malatesta-Magai and colleagues found that judges had the greatest difficulty with and were most inaccurate when decoding older faces; however, the accuracy with which judges decoded expressions varied with age congruence between judges and emotion expressors, suggesting a decoding advantage accruing through social contact with like-aged peers (Magai and Passman 1998).

Another aspect of facial behavior that appears to change with age has to do with what Ekman has called ‘slow sign vehicle’ changes—changes accruing from the wrinkle and sag of facial musculature with age. Malatesta-Magai has also noted a personality-based effect involving the ‘crystallization’ of emotion on the face as people get older; that is, emotion-based aspects of personality seem to become imprinted on the face and become observable as static facial characteristics in middle and old age. In one study, untrained decoders rating the facial expressions of older individuals expressing a range of emotions made a preponderance of errors; the errors were found to be associated with the emotion traits of the older expressors.

4 Methodological Issues

Brissett and Edgley (1990) provide a list of some of the critiques that have been made of dramaturgy. For some critics, dramaturgy is a pedestrian, nonsystematic form of inquiry that does not possess the properties of formal theory. Brissett and Edgley agree, but indicate that is it linked propositionally to other forms of social thought, such as symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, existential sociology, interpersonal psychology, and other humanistic models in the social sciences.

A second criticism is that dramaturgy does not produce universal statements about human behavior. It is said to be an artifact of studying the situational behavior in Western culture. In response, Brissett and Edgley first note that understanding how people interact in Western society is no small achievement, but go on to point to the fact that the expressive behavior of individuals is well-documented in the anthropological literature.

Dramaturgy, or at least Goffman's version of it, has also been criticized for its methodology. It is said to have no specific, systematic method of testing propositions about the world. Brissett and Edgley claim that there is nothing special about doing dramaturgy. Being sensitive to the expressive dimension of behavior demands no special methodology or observational skills. However, there should be an unnerving and single-minded commitment to the observation of people's doings.

Another criticism is that dramaturgy slights the impact of larger social units, such as institutions, on human behavior. In response, Brissett and Edgley assert that there can be no doubt that people's interaction contexts are circumscribed by structural arrangements. However, rather than dwelling on the limitations, dramaturgy focuses on what people do within the contexts that are available to them. The concept of role is used as a way of accounting for people's connections to one another as well as to the structures and organizations with which they are identified.

Finally, the most prevalent critique has to do with the theatrical metaphor. Critics say that the theater is make-believe and everyday life is real. Brissett and Edgely respond that life is neither theater nor is it different from theater. It is theater like.

20.3 Observations from perception experiments

Observers are not omniscient decoders of expressed emotion. For example, when actors are asked to portray a set of emotions, groups of observers correctly interpret the emotion only 50% to 80% of the time, where accuracy is defined in terms of correctly identifying the actors' intentions [28,103]. This demonstrates that emotion annotation is imperfect, even given clear emotional expression goals.

Emotion perception is influenced by the clarity of emotional displays. For example, individuals may intentionally suppress their emotion. Gross and Levenson conducted a study investigating the influence of emotion suppression on expressive behavior[41]. The participants of the study were asked to watch a short disgust-inducing video in two conditions: (1) with no suppression, and (2) behaving “in such a way that a person watching you would not know you were feeling anything.” They found that in (2), the expression behavior of the participants was reduced, compared to (1). Another example is the existence of micro-expressions. A micro-expression is a fleeting facial expression, which reveals a true emotion that a person is trying to suppress [29]. They are hard to detect by the naked eye because of their brevity (they last less than 0.5 s) [130].

Emotion perception is also influenced by differences between the individuals who are tasked with perceiving the emotion. The ability to decode emotion, often referred to as “emotion sensitivity” differs across individuals [10,92]. Past research has developed various methods for detecting the differences in emotion sensitivity, such as the Affective Sensitivity Test [18] and the Brief Affect Recognition Test [30], among other work [65,77].

Finally, emotion perception is influenced by additional factors, such as culture and gender differences [66,135]. For example, Ekman et al. conducted cross-cultural experiments on emotion perception from facial expressions [32]. They found that there were differences in the judgments of the absolute level of emotional intensity across cultures. The work of Elfenbein and Ambady found a within-group advantage for emotion perception [34,35]. More specifically, they found that individuals can recognize the emotion of people from the same ethnic, national, or regional group more accurately than the emotion of people from different backgrounds. In addition, people may depend on different signals during emotion perception. Yuki, Maddux, and Masud found that individuals from cultures that encourage emotional display rely more on the mouth region than the eyes region, while individuals from cultures that control for emotional display focus more heavily on the eyes, compared to the mouth [135]. Further, Hall found that females can convey emotion through facial expression better than males [43]. Rotter and Rotter found that women are better at recognizing emotion expression of both males and females in general [93].

The links and differences between emotion expression and perception can be studied within Brunswik's theoretical framework. For example, Laukka et al. found that there are many acoustic cues that are correlated with both the intended emotion of musicians (linked to distal indicators) and the perceptions of listeners (linked to proximal percepts) [56]. Biersack and Kempe investigated whether the self-reported happiness of speakers and the perception of happiness by outside evaluators were linked to the same vocal cues [7]. They identified differences between distal indicators and proximal percepts. For example, perceived happiness was associated with higher pitch and pitch range, higher F1, faster speech rate, and lower jitter. However, only the wider pitch range of the female speaker and higher F1 were found to be related to the self-report happiness of the speakers.

These observations provide evidence supporting the differences that exist between self-report and perceived emotion. It highlights the importance of carefully considering label type when designing automatic emotion recognition systems.

Meanings

Emotions, in the context of this chapter, are described as those feelings that influence and impact patient self-efficacy and control beliefs, empowerment, and patient agency for engagement and motivation. This discussion is particularly focused on patient education and information technologies in relation to patient emotions that include online settings, environments, and relationships.

The Oxford Dictionary (2014) defines emotion as a strong feeling deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others. Also that emotion is an instinctive or intuitive feeling that is distinguished from reasoning or knowledge (www.oxforddictionaries.com). Accordingly, Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2014) maintains that “emotions are generally understood as representing a synthesis of subjective experience, expressive behavior, and neurochemical activity” and that they “serve adaptive ends by adding to general awareness and facilitation of social communication” (www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emotion). The same dictionary also has a medical definition of emotion: (1) affective aspect of consciousness, (2) a state of feeling, and (3) a conscious mental reaction (anger, fear) subjectively experienced as a strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavior changes in the body. Hockenbury and Hockenbury (2007) state that “an emotion is a complex psychological state that involves three distinct components: a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioral or expressive response.”

The Oxford Dictionary defines the word feeling as “an emotional state or reaction” as, too, does the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which both also describe feeling as something that can be sensed in or on the body. Throughout this chapter, the word feeling is often used with these definitions in mind.

Self-efficacy can often be associated with affect and emotions. Self-efficacy is the individual belief in one’s own abilities based on feelings of confidence and control and has often been considered the determining factor for motivation and behavior. Bandura (1993) considers that “efficacy beliefs regulate human functioning through four major processes” which are “cognitive, motivational, affective, and selection processes.” Poignantly, Bandura postulates “that these usually operate in concert, rather than isolation, in the ongoing regulation of human functioning” (p. 5).

Control beliefs according to Ajzen (2002) are factors that individuals perceive as being present that may facilitate or impede performance of their behavior. Control beliefs refer to the ability to influence what is happening and/or what will happen. Wallston (1991) determines that: “better health outcomes are typically associated with more internal beliefs about control of one’s health.” Individuals who believe they have control over their health, who feel accepted, and in equal communication with their healthcare professionals are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors, maintain positive emotions, and therefore have better outcomes (p. 252).

Patient agency can also be included as a way of describing engagement and motivation which is defined by Street, Makoul, Arora, and Epstein (2009) as requiring skills across the spectrum of participation of care, ranging from active participation in medical encounters and decision-making to self-care skills for managing one’s own health-related activities (p. 298). Patient agency is important for sense of control and has also been aligned with emotional well-being and “coping during survivorship.”

In connection, a review by Kuijpers, Groen, Aaronson, and Harten (2013) leaves no doubt as to the efficacy of online patient education technology. The review showed that web-based interactive interventions have a beneficial effect on patient empowerment and physical activity (p. 15).

The final term that needs to be articulated is that of the noun “patient.” It is not used as a deficit or depreciation of “consumer,” “client,” or “service user,” rather chosen as a term that is a determinant of the setting, current literature, and knowing of all key stakeholders.

2 Methodological Innovations

These influences have legitimized performance as a topic within anthropology, and Turner's last writings on performances as liminoid phenomena have promoted an interest in nontraditional performance, overlapping with performance studies and cultural studies. There has also been a belated recognition of the importance of embodied behavior and bodily techniques.

Increasing attention is being paid to different performance skills and genres, not simply as objects of study but also methodologically. Anthropology has always been a discipline which attracts people with an experience of life outside academe, and the 1980s saw the emergence of performer-anthropologists, scholars who had previously worked on the stage professionally as dancers and actors. Anthropologists who have not been professional actors or dancers may choose to include training in performance as part of their research, using their bodies to explore familiar or unfamiliar techniques self-consciously by learning alongside aspiring professionals and experts. This recognition of the importance of embodiment is part of a broader trend to understand human knowledge as a reflexive situated practice, validated not by observation, but by experience (Hastrup 1995, p. 83).

The traditional anthropological interest in ritual which Turner extended to theater also resulted in an intellectual collaboration with Richard Schechner, a theatre director and academic. After Turner's death in 1983 Schechner kept the effort alive, both practically and theoretically. The continuum between performance with ritual efficacy and theatrical performance rests on the theory that performance is ‘restored behavior’, strips of behavior with ‘a life of their own’, which can be rearranged or reconstructed independently of the various causal systems which brought them into existence (Schechner 1985, p. 35).

Schechner has played an important role in forging a meeting between the performers, anthropologists and other researchers of intercultural performance. This wide and fuzzy interdisciplinary field has become well established in the USA and is gaining momentum in the UK and Europe. The International School of Theatre Anthropology founded by Eugenio Barba and Nicola Savarese has involved performers from Japan, India, Indonesia, and Brazil. Theater anthropology is not the study of the performative phenomena by anthropologists, but rather the study of the pre-expressive behavior of the human being in an organized performance situation (Barba 1995, p. 10).

In 1990, the anthropologist Kirsten Hastrup's life story was ‘restored’ (to use Schechner's term) as a drama, Talabot by Barba's Odin Teatret (Hastrup 1995, pp. 123–45). New and established anthropologists are also turning to different performance arenas, including cinema, television, and the internet, to explore further permutations of sociality which would have been unimaginable a hundred years ago (Hughes-Freeland and Crain 1998).

Anthropological analyses and uses of performance are not limited to the technicalities of theater and acting. Johannes Fabian (1990) has argued that performance must deal with the political, and has worked with a theater troupe in Zaire to explore local concepts of power through drama and television. The sociolinguistic approach to performance has also been applied to analyze powerful speaking in Sumba, East Indonesia, which has been repressed by the State and transformed into textbook culture (Kuipers 1990). The social processes of power are also the center of Ward Keeler's (1987) study of shadow puppet theatre in Java. Studies such as these are found among the ethnography of every region, and often remain independent of the meeting between anthropology and performance studies.

The relationship between ritual and performance is generating approaches to the study of healing in a number of interesting ways. Such studies use transactional and conflict models but also consider the power of the aesthetic and expressive dimensions of performance in the face of political repression or disenfranchisement. For example, the healing power of comedy in an exorcism in Sri Lanka restores the sick person to a sense of social integration, in line with G. H. Mead's theory (Kapferer 1991). Michael Taussig (1993) invokes Marx and the Frankfurt School to explore mimetic behavior which lies at the heart of shamanic healing and social imagery, simultaneously representing and falsifying the world, and demonstrates how irrationality is being performed at the heart of the everyday. ‘Mimetic excess’ creates ‘reflexive awareness’, which makes connections between history, make-believe, and otherness.

Bureaucratic resistance to the irrational is also at issue, as in the case of professional female performers in Indonesia, who had the power to mediate between the village spirit made manifest by the village elder and the community, and brought healing and protective energies to local communities (see Fig. 1). These performers are being made extinct by the processes of state education and professionalization, which tend to deny female power (Hughes-Freeland 1997).

Performance here differs from the rational calculation of Goffman's social agents, and introduces complexity into the debate about the extent of individual human choice and intentionality. Such explorations are a reminder of the continuing usefulness of studying ritual performance to understand how humans express their possession and dispossession, and the permeability of the boundary between ritual performance and artistic performance.

More radically, anthropologists have applied healing processes from other cultures to help the sick at heart in their own societies by means of ‘a theatre model of dramatherapy’ (Jennings 1995, p. xxvii). While Aristotle's concept of catharsis may seem universal, different theatres produce forms of what Sue Jennings (1995, p. 185) calls ‘abandonment’, which vary greatly in their effects and forms of control. Ultimately it is this variation which must concern the anthropologist.