Managing Emotion through Display Rules

Showing an emotion that is different that one feels

Ekman’s (1971) neuro-cultural theory of facial expression of affect

• innate neural links between emotional states and specific facial muscles
• social learning
• overlay of cultural/social learning can intervene between a felt and expressed emotion
• the individual comes to learn a set of display rules (personal, situational, and cultural norms) that govern the presence and form of facial expressions
• display rules involves knowledge about the do's and don'ts of expressing particular feelings in particular social contexts as well as the motivation and ability to control one=s own behavior in accordance with that knowledge.

Simulation -- acting like you feel an emotion when no such emotion is present.

 Examples:

1) Smiling with out experiencing happiness.

2) Expressing guilt when you have not remorse.

3) Showing surprise when you fully expected an event to occur.

Inhibition: (Neutralization) -- giving the impression of having no feelings when one truly experiences emotion.  Reverse of simulation.

Examples:

1) Keeping a straight face when something strikes one as funny.

2) Hiding attraction to a third party when one=s spouse is present.

3) Suppressing anger at one's boss.

Intensification -- giving the appearance of having stronger feelings than one actually has.

Examples:

1) Showing more grief at a funeral than one actually feels.

2) Laughing heartily at your boss=s joke when you barely think it is funny.

3) Communicating love to a distant relative for whom one only feels slight affection.

Deintensification – giving  the appearance of experiencing an emotion with less intensity than one actually is feeling.  Similar to inhibition except with inhibition you show no emotion and with deintensification you show emotion but to a lesser degree.

Examples:

1) Children raising their voices slightly rather than yelling when angry.

2) Teens trying to act cool by smiling instead of laughing at a very humorous joke.

Masking -- communicating an emotion that is entirely different than the one a person is experiencing.  This type of display rules occurs later in a person=s developmental cycle because it is easier to moderate an emotion (ex. Acting less angry than you actually feel) than it is to express an emotion entirely different than you feel (ex. Acting happy when you're really upset).

Examples:

1)  Looking brave when you are afraid.

2)  Looking confident when you are anxious.

3)  Looking humble when you are proud.