Are emotions universal, or are they socially

constructed? A Reflection Paper

By: Rey A.
Human beings share many similarities with one another, including the genetic
component. Genes give rise to overt physical characteristics and emotions shared by
many human beings worldwide. In this paper, I will be reflecting concisely on why
emotions are universal and not socially constructed.

Despite the variations in the expression of emotions across various cultures, many
of the physiological aspect associated with emotions are quite similar. Mauss and
colleagues (2010) explored whether or not similarities in emotional expressions might
exist within two cultures. They researched how do Asian vs European Americans differ in
expressing and experiencing anger and obtained results that does not show variations
between the two groups in experiencing the specified emotion.

From an evolutionary perspective, emotions have shown to be similar across

cultures and generations. Evolutionists believe that emotions exist till today because they
are evolutionary adaptive. In other words, emotions have helped our ancestors increase
their fitness by aiding in their social interactions as well as protecting them from harmful
objects in the environment.

A look at the universality of emotions is never complete without a reference to

Ekmans six basic emotions and his influential findings. Ekman believed that emotions

are universal and included: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. In
addition, Ekman believed that emotions are evolutionary and passed down from our
ancestors. In order to test his theory, Ekman (1968) travelled to an excluded tribe where
he presented pictures to them of different facial expressions portraying the six basic
emotions. Even though the tribe did not have access to the media or any outside culture,
they were still able to correctly identify the emotions based on the facial expressions
presented in the photos. This study is beneficial in proving why emotions are universal
and not socially constructed since they are shared by individuals regardless of being
similar culturally or socially. Ekman has contributed to the psychology of emotions by
carrying on from Darwins concept on how humans are biological and evolutionary
species that possess a nonverbal aspect of communication that is innate.

Emotions must be universal and not socially constructed because of various

reasons and one of the most important one is it being presented in different cultures that
dont have any exposure to one another. In addition, emotions are obviously not learned
for the most part as they surface in human beings and some animals at an early age before
any learning can takes place. To conclude, emotions are universal and expressed by
human beings as well as other species across the world.