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2012
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(2012): Minimal Cooperation. In: Philosophy of the Social Sciences 44 (1), S. 45-73. DOI: 10.1177/0048393112457428
2008
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(2008): Managing emotional expressions in social contexts. The motivations for emotional equilibrium in small-town Yucatan. In: Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering 68 (10-B)
Abstract: Current academic research on Americans who consistently suppress their emotional expressions tends to provide empirical proof for the negative consequences of such actions. In particular, some researchers believe that suppression of emotional expressions leads to a decrease in well-being and proves to be less adaptive (for example, for interpersonal relations and long-term health) over time (Gross, 2003; Butler 2003 offers two examples). Yet this is a decidedly Western view of emotion regulation. This project used ethnographic observations, open-ended interviews, and questionnaires within a psychiatric hospital in Merida, Yucatan, and a rural community in Yucatan, Mexico, in order to explore the apparently protective ideology of emotional regulation in their cultural context-a cultural context that places an emphasis on preserving and cultivating familial relations and maintaining emotional equilibrium. This study had two stages. In stage one, the nonclinical stage, I asked: Why was it important for women to hide certain emotional expressions around family members? After analyzing the findings, I came to believe that culturally appropriate down-regulation of emotional expressions provided people with social benefits. In turn, these social benefits contributed to the personal well-being of the women. In stage two, the clinical stage, I sought to understand whether and, if so, how depressed women's emotion-regulation practices differed from those of nondepressed women. In addition, I attempted to ascertain whether the clinical participants' emotion-display rules had created barriers for their psychiatric treatment. In fact, I discovered that through their psychiatric treatment they were encouraged to emote in new ways. In treatment, they were exposed to a new set of emotion-display rules. The seemingly culturally sterile psychiatric clinic had actually imparted a reasonable amount of cultural influence on these women. The findings suggest that both groups prefer to regulate or deamplify (i.e., lessen) the expression of emotions. Participants from both groups mentioned three possible motivations for regulating emotional expressions. Preliminary analysis suggests that such behavior is culturally normative and encouraged, as personal decorum is highly valued and control over one's speech and behavior is lauded as a valuable character trait. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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