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

Vivian A Dzokoto,Dzifa A Attah,Annabella Osei-Tutu,Daniel K Ahorsu,Jane J Kyei,Maxwell Twum-Asante

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01916

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.

Highlights

Humans experience and express emotion in order to react to, interface with, and adapt to the physical and social environment
Often using symbolism that draws from physical objects and social occurrences in everyday life, the Akan narrative about emotions is woven around culturally salient elements such as interpersonal interactions
Emotion management is central to many cultural groups including the Akan people, for whom interpersonal associative ties of kinship and other affiliative bodies are central to constructions of identity, and associated behavior and decision-making

Summary

Introduction

Humans experience and express emotion in order to react to, interface with, and adapt to the physical and social environment. Because cultural rules are not routinely explicit, it is often difficult to access cultural expectations and preferred practices concerning emotion display and regulation by directly asking participants of the culture what the rules are This may be true of cultural contexts such as Ghana, where in contrast to many North American settings, the preferred communication style is high context (Hall, 1992); indirectness and symbolism rather than explicit communication is Emotion in Akan Proverbs common (Copeland and Griggs, 1986; Yankah, 1995); emotion is considered less important to attend to in everyday life (Dzokoto, 2010); and emotion discourse in the description of emotionally significant positive and negative life events is less elaborate (in terms of total number of emotion words used) (Dzokoto et al, 2013). The goal of the present study is to identify – through qualitative analysis- cultural rules about emotion regulation in Ghana using a widely used (in Ghana), symbolic cultural artifact that is an important component of everyday discourse, socialization, and intergenerational value transmission (Brookman-Amissah, 1986); the proverb

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Conclusion