WEEK 6 - DIFFERENCES IN EMOTIONAL EXPRESSIVITY.

 

I grew up among Italian women speaking loudly, gesticulating wildly during the conversation, and talking to everybody at the same time. It was very messy, but they understood each other. I miss those days a lot because there was a lot of emotion. For sure, my emotional experiences and expressions were shaped by Italians. Well, I got married to a descendant of Germans, and if you can, try to imagine his mind when he started attending my home. Some weeks after his first visit, he asked me if those people were fighting or just speaking. Funny? Yes, I know that! Believe it or not, we are a very happy couple. We found our balance to live well as a family as we were willing to respect low (his) and high (mine) expressivity tolerance.

But what is emotional expressivity? According to Professor Ivers, it is the misinterpretation of “people’s emotions from one culture to another”.  See the picture below to understand countries that have low tolerance expressivity and high tolerance expressivity.

Did you notice the difference between Italy and Germany? Yes! Opposites! However, we can’t forget that human beings don’t differ so much. Professor Ivers said that “studies have shown that in private we all express our emotions in a similar way. But in public, we’re very dissimilar in the way we express our emotions.” Why are we different in public? Due to culture! Some cultures don’t permit the expression of emotions, so human beings, usually enter the world of imagination, considering some cultures as less disciplined, boring, dull, or dangerous. Maybe, because those cultures don’t fit into the things they know.

My husband’s aunt (a German lady) wanted to please my mom (an Italian woman), then she gave my mom a pot of ‘sauerkraut’ and said that it was the yummiest food. My mom arrived home and tried on the sauerkraut. I remember her words, “It is just cabbage with vinegar”. See, the culture doesn’t respect even the people’s taste. Studying more about emotion expressivity we will treat others as we would like to be treated.