Peculiarities of verbal description of personal emotions by representatives of different ethnocultural communities

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УДК 159.923.2

Peculiarities of verbal description of personal emotions by representatives of different ethnocultural communities

Kyrylenko T. S.,

PhD (Candidate of Psychological Sciences),

Associate professor of the Department of General Psychology,

Master Degree student of 1st year of study Faculty of Psychology,

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

Досліджено особливості словесного письмового опису власних емоцій радості, страху, гніву, печалі у представників України, Росії, Швеції. Проаналізовано відмінності представленості в текстах опису тілесних відчуттів, емоційних переживань, асоціацій та синонімів.

Ключові слова: базові емоції, етнокультурні спільноти, психологічні та лінгвістичні показники опису емоцій.

The peculiarities of verbal written description of personal emotions of joy, fear, anger, sorrow by representatives of Ukraine, Russia and Sweden were studied. The differences of manifestation of descriptions of physical feelings, emotional sufferings, associations and synonyms in the texts were analyzed.

Key words: basic emotions, ethno-cultural communities, psychological and linguistic indicators of description of emotions.

Statement of a problem. Modern problems of socio-political life of Ukraine, problems of European integration involve extension of the content of the social and personal-individual context of communication, more specifically of its emotional aspect, being an important indicator of the knowledge of another person's world and of his own one. However, ignoring the emotional context of cognition in various ethno-cultural communities, lack of interest in the semantic manifestation of emotions of an individual can lead to negative consequences of understanding another person, the complication or the suspension of formation of various means for obtaining information about emotional context of cognition of another person. Particularly interesting is distinct manifestation of emotions both in language and using linguistic means in order to reveal a person's understanding of experiencing specific emotions, which can also serve to others as a guide for the perception and understanding of the emotions of his own inner world. In this case, the special coloring in this context acquires the construct of ethnic, ethnosociological understanding of emotions, their experience, which is associated with the implementation of inner experience of an individual, because the means of ethno-cultural information act as nonverbal media in the process of interethnic communication - rituals, customs, gestures, style of behavior, and verbal language, which can testify to ethnocultural determination as a perception of emotions of other people, as well as understanding and perception by the subject of his own emotions.

Emotions, as a diverse system of signals, are contemplated in a number of foreign and domestic studies (M. Lusher, V. Vimonas, E. Nosenko, A. Piz, H. Chenman, P. Babenko, T. Kyrylenko, K. Izard, P. Simonov, V. Shakhovsky) However, to date, the problem of self-knowledge of own emotions, pe-culiarities of their manifestation using means of verbal speech, which is also important in the process of communicative activity, is not sufficiently researched. Some important extra-linguistic factors that affect the emotional sphere of man are left beyond range of vision. The ethnopsychological peculiarities, peculiarities of the national character, etc., are not taken into consideration to the full extent. At the same time, as is well known, emotions are entrenched in the cultural context of the person's life experience, affecting its behavior, which is important in understanding the aspects of the formation of the cultural identity of an individual.

The mentioned factors predetermined the focus of empirical research, the subject of which is a verbal description of personal emotions by repre-sentatives of various ethno-cultural communities.

The purpose of the study is to identify the cross-cultural features in the verbal description of emotions, which is achieved by solving the following tasks:

* Identify the peculiarities of expressiveness of the verbal description of emotions in different ethno-cultural communities;

* Analyze the verbal description of various emotions in terms of modality and sign;

* Show common and different in verbal descriptions of emotions by representatives of different ethno-cultural communities.

Representatives of three multi-ethnic ethnocultural communities - Ukraine, Russia, Sweden - participated in the study. The quantitative composition of each series is from 26 to 30 people, the total number of persons is 84 persons.

The choice of methodological instrumentarium included the selection of original emotions of negative and positive valency in order to obtain information about the peculiarities of experiencing them for expressing the content psychological fields of emotions among representatives of different ethnic communities. emotion experience ethnocultural

For collecting empirical data, word-stimuli were presented that represented four classical emotions (joy, fear, anger and sorrow) and it was suggested to describe in writing the feelings that appear when experiencing these emotions.

In the choice of indicators for assessing the characteristics of verbal written description of emotions, taking into account the features of emotions as a psychic phenomenon, namely their dual psychophysiological character - the presence of changes in the body, manifested in physical feelings and the presence of feelings as a phenomenological level of emotions, as well as their connection with cognitive processes. This afforded ground for distinguishing physical feelings, emotional sufferings and the use of associations in the verbal descriptions as psychological indicators of the analysis of description of emotions. As a linguistic indicator of verbal description of emotions, the use of synonyms was used to determine the role of psychological and linguistic indicators in a verbal description by representatives of various ethno-cultural communities, native speakers of different languages.

The expressiveness analysis of the use of the distinguished indicators of the verbal emotion description was carried out using percentages of the representation of individual indicators in the description according to the number of respondents providing them.

Analysis of the results. The comparison of the expressiveness of the indicators of verbal descriptions of emotions in various ethno-cultural communities showed that the Ukrainians had the largest share (45 %) of the description of emotions belonging to bodily senses: used physiological indicators of one or another emotion (fear - trembling, sorrow - drowsiness). Approximately the same numerical expressions of expressiveness are in describing emotional sufferings (high spirits, feeling of happiness) and associations, they are 21 % and 24 % respectively. The smallest representation is 10 % of synonyms. Ukrainians are a very expressive nation, and it is perhaps easier for them to describe the situation, or the body's reaction to a certain emotion, than to find synonyms for this emotion.

Fig.1. Percentage of the indicators of written emotion description by representatives of different ethno-cultural communities - (Ukraine, Russia, Sweden)

Responses of respondents in Russia showed that physical feelings, as well as in the Ukrainian-speaking community, dominate in the description - 45 %. As for emotional sufferings («anxiety, horror, need to get rid of it right away»), they also, unlike the Ukrainian community, account for a significant share of responses of Russian respondents - 36 %. The smallest number of their written descriptions was associated with associations and synonyms.

The results obtained from the representatives of the Swedish ethnic culture contain differences that may be related to geographical and cultural differentiations.

In the description of emotions in Swedish, almost half (49 %) of the re-sponses concerned physical feelings, as in previous ethno-cultural groups. The second half of the answers were divided among the other three indicators of expression of the language description of emotions.

The most notable is the share of the indicator «synonyms», which is twice as high as that of Ukrainians. That is, the Swedes preferred to rather pick up synonyms than they tried to describe their feelings. This may be due to their restraint and Scandinavian leisureliness, as manifestations of mentality.

Another aspect to be analyzed is the distinct manifastation of the indicators of describing different emotions:

As we see, (Fig. 2), preference was given to physical feelings in the pro-cess of description, regardless of the modality of emotions. At the same time, the lowest percentage has anger (32 %), and the greatest (64 %) one has fear, although both emotions have a negative sign, and in emotions of joy and sadness, this indicator is almost the same (46 % and 50 % respectively).

Fig.2. Percentage of the indicators of written emotion description of isolated emotions (joy, fear, anger, sorrow)

Analysis of the description of specific emotions shows the following:

* When describing joy, respondents in their majority used physical fee-lings, which have 46 % and emotional sufferings - 38 %

* When describing fear, body feeligs are prevalent (64 %). In the de-scription of this category, people usually used phrases: «pulse reads off-scale» and «legs stop dead.» Other 36 % shared in almost equal measure of emotional sufferings, associations and synonyms.

* In the description of anger, the indicators were divided almost equally. The largest share, of course, belonged to the bodily sensation (32 %), in the second place of the association (28 %). Most anger at the respondents was associated with the loss of something important in their lives, or with the offense of a closed person.

* When describing sorrow 50 % of the responses related to the description of physical feelings. Almost the same representation in the descriptions had associations (21 %) and emotional sufferings (19 %), and synonyms were used least in the description (10 %).

Summarizing the written description of emotions (joy, fear, anger, sor-row), regardless of the ethnocultural features of Ukraine, Sweden and Russia, we can see that the indicator of «physical feelings» was emphasized most in all ethnic cultures and its share is 47 %. Emotional sufferings in the description are also distinctly manifested, but not so bright - it accounts only for 24 % of the responses of all respondents, the use of associations - for 18 %. Synonyms had the least percentage - 11 % in the description of emotions.

The analysis of the description of individual emotions by representatives of different ethno-cultural communities is of significant interest (Table 1).

For a written description, four emotions were given that differed in mo-dality and sign - joy, sorrow, fear, anger.

When describing the emotion of «joy», representatives of different ethno-cultural communities favored different descriptors both psychological and linguistic. So Ukrainians and Russians in the experience of joy prefer a physical feeling - 50 %; Swedes use associations 46 %. At the same time, 40 % of Russians prefer emotional experience in the description of joy, while less than 10 % of Swedes and Ukrainians (8 % and 5 % respectively) prefer them. An interesting fact was the use of the linguistic indicator - synonyms in the description of emotion of joy, which represented 24 % and 13 % respectively in the Swedish and Ukrainian ethno-communities, compared with 3 % in Russians.

That is, when describing the feeling of joy Ukrainians and Swedes with different dominant psychological indicators of the description, prefer the lin-guistic indicator - synonyms in comparison with the psychological indicator of emotional sufferings. At the same time, compared with the description of sorrow, the use of synonyms decreases among Ukrainians and Swedes. In Swedes it is from 23 % to 7 %, in Ukrainians - from 13 % to 7 %, while in Russians it increases from 3 % to 13 %. At the same time, the percentage of emotional sufferings increases in the description of Ukrainians, and the per-centage of the use of associations - in Russians. Representation of dominant psychological indicators remains the same as in the description of joy.

Table 1. Differences in the description of individual emotions by representatives of Ukraine, Sweden, and Russia

As far the description of such negative experiences as fear and anger by representatives of various ethno-cultural communities is concerned, physical feelings were the most distinctly manifested ones in the description of fear, regardless of ethnocultural affiliation: 54 % in Swedes, 46 % in Russians and 30 % in Ukrainians. In addition, the use of emotional sufferings is more pronounced in Russians, associations are more pronounced in Ukrainians, and the linguistic indicator - synonyms is distinctly manifested in Ukrainians and Swedes - 22 % and 23 % respectively.

The study of the description of anger was of much interest. In the de-scription of this negative emotion, there are differences in the dominant characteristics of the description - the domination of physical feelings among Ukrainians (44 %) and Swedes (46 %) and domination of emotional sufferings in Russians (44 %). At the same time, if we compare the descrip-tion of fear and anger in Ukrainians and Russians, we note the changes in expressiveness in the description of the emotions of the analyzed indicators, then in the Swedes, they are almost absent, with the exception of an increase of emotional sufferings in the description of anger from 8 % in the description of fear to 15 % in the description of anger.

Thus, when analyzing the descriptions of such negative emotions as fear and anger, in Ukrainians and Swedes, with dominance of physical feelings in the description of fear, we should also note that the use of associations is more distinctly manifested among Ukrainians in fear, while in Swedes these are emotional sufferings, but in Russians emotional sufferings dominate in the description of anger and expressiveness of associations increases. Expressiveness of the linguistic indicator - synonyms - in the description increases in Ukrainians in the description of fear.

Thus, in the description of negative emotions, there is a significant ten-dency to differences in the percentage of representation of psychological indicators of feelings, namely, the predominance of physical feelings when describing fear in the respondents, regardless of the ethno-cultural community and domination of emotional sufferings in the description of anger and sorrow in Russians. The linguistic indicator - synonyms - was distinctly manifested in the description of fear and anger in Swedes, and in the description of fear in Ukrainians, and it is least distinctly used by Russians.

An analysis of the description of positive emotion «joy» showed that physical feelings dominated in Ukrainians and Russians and use of associations in Swedes. Emotional sufferings are still distinctly manifested in Russians among psychological indicators of description of emotions, and associations in Ukrainians. The linguistic indicator - synonyms - is distinctly manifested in Swedes and Ukrainians.

The conducted study enables to identify the content psychological fields in experiencing emotions by representatives of different ethno-cultural communities. These fields are represented by the psychological characteristics of a written linguistic description by the subject of his own experience of emotions proposed to him. This is the use of physical feelings, emotional sufferings and associations to describe one or another emotion. The use of a linguistic indicator, namely synonyms, to describe emotions was also registered. Representatives of different ethno-cultural communities - Ukrainians, Russians, Swedes, as it turned out, have their own psychological fields of understanding and describing their emotions, where isolated indicators can fulfil a role of content boundaries.

So the Swedes' psychological field of description of emotions provided includes the equality of dominance of physical feelings (fear and anger), associations (joy, sorrow) and expressiveness of synonyms (joy, fear, anger and, least of all, sorrow).

For Ukrainians, the field of emotional description includes the hierarchy of expressiveness of domination of physical feelings (joy, sorrow, anger, fear); emotional sufferings (anger, fear, sorrow, joy); associations (joy, equal-ity of fear and sorrow, and, least of all, anger); expressiveness of synonyms (fear, joy, anger).

Psychological field of description of emotions in Russians includes the hierarchy of the domination of physical feelings (joy, fear), emotional suf-ferings (anger and sorrow); the hierarchy of associations (anger, sorrow) and indistinctness of the representation of synonyms, as a linguistic indicator in the description of emotions.

The identified fields of description of emotions by representatives of different ethno-cultural communities may have the following names:

* for Swedes - physical-associative with synonyms;

* for Ukrainians - physical-associative-emotional with synonyms;

* for Russian - physical-emotional-associative.

The analysis shows that there are differences in the description of emotions by representatives of different ethno-cultural communities: indistinctness of emotional sufferings in the description of emotions by the Swedes, indistinctness of the use of synonyms in the description of emotions by the Russians and, at the same time, the most expressive of them in emotional sufferings in the description of emotions and distinct manifestation of all indicators of description of emotions in Ukrainians.

Comparing the identified fields of description of basic emotions by repre-sentatives of different ethno-cultural communities, it is possible to emphasize (identify) cross-cultural differences in the written description of the emotions of joy, fear, sorrow, anger. So, when describing joy, Ukrainians are guided by physical feelings and associations; Swedes - by associations and physical feelings, Russians - by emotional sufferings and physical feelings.

When describing sorrow, Ukrainians are guided by physical feelings and associations; Swedes - by associations and physical feelings; Russians - by emotional sufferings and physical feelings.

When describing fear, Ukrainians are guided by physical feelings and associations; Swedes - by physical feelings and synonyms; Russians - by physical feelings and emotional sufferings.

When describing anger, Ukrainians turn to physical feelings and emotional sufferings; Swedes - also to the physical feelings of associations and emotional sufferings; Russians - to emotional sufferings and physical feelings.

As we see, Ukrainians, when describing joy, sorrow and fear, turn to analysis of physical feelings and associations and use emotional sufferings only when describing anger.

When describing joy and sorrow, the Swedes are guided by the description of associations and physical feelings, describing fear - by physical

feelings and synonyms, and when describing anger, like Ukrainians, they turn to physical feelings and emotional sufferings, except for associations.

Russians describe joy, sorrow and anger focusing on emotional sufferings and physical feelings, and physical feelings dominate in them in the descrip-tion of fear in comparison with emotional sufferings.

It should be noted that there are common features in describing the emotions of anger in Ukrainians and Swedes and in describing the emotions of fear in Ukrainians, Russians and Swedes, in the domination of physical feelings.

Conclusions. Analyzing the methods of verbal description of emotions, one can state that the greatest preferrence in the description is given by the representatives of different ethnic cultures to the physical feelings, emotional sufferings are less distinctly manifested. The use of associations is also quite distinctly manifested. The lowest degree of manifestation had synonyms as a linguistic indicator used as a method of verbal description of emotions.

Based on the findings of the study, it can be said that representatives of Ukrainian, Russian and Swedish cultures are more likely to rely in a verbal description of emotions on physical feelings. In Russians, in comparison with Ukrainians, emotional sufferings are more distinctly manifested. In Ukrainians, in comparison with Russians, use of associations is more distinctly manifested. The distinguishing feature of Swedes was distinct manifestation of synonyms and associations and the least distinct manifestation of emotional sufferings.

Detected differences in the manifestation of use of both psychological and linguistic indicators in the description of emotions depending on the modality and the sign by representatives of different ethno-cultural communities.

Based on the results obtained, in accordance with the hierarchy of domi-nation of the indicators of description of emotions, psychological fields of verbal description of emotions were created which differ in the structure of indicators among representatives of different ethno-cultural communities.

The directions for future research are the search for individual psycho-logical (age, sexual, personal) and ethnopsychological determinants for displaying the content of psychological fields in the verbal description of emotions by representatives of different ethno-cultural communities.

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Reference transliterated

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