Investigating Emotional Expressions and Coping in Sport from a Sociocultural Perspective

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Background

Cross-cultural variations in the experience and expression of emotions are key topics in current scholarly discourse in psychology. Cultural differences in emotions present means by which sociocultural environments impact basic emotions. Hence, variations in emotions and their adaptation depict specific sociocultural environment in which they happen. To understand why cultural differences in emotions exist, it is important to understand that emotions infer individuals standing in their specific context. Emotions are not mere subjective experiences, but rather, they show an idiosyncratic representation of diverse societies through dominant codes to the individual and are significant of the individual’s social environment. Also important to understand the relational content of emotions is the dichotomy between positively and negatively toned emotions. Any emotion regardless of its state (i.e., positive/facilitative or negative/debilitative) could provide both a functional and/or dysfunctional implication on the individual.

Cultural differences in emotional experience occur in different ways. Previous research has shown cultural variations in the prevalence and intensity of peculiar emotional experiences like happiness and anger. The underlying assumption is that there is an overlap in the experience of emotions cross-culturally. Again, specific emotional constructs have comparable parallels across cultures, and the degree to which these emotions mirror similar or different experiences. It is assumed that, while different emotion constructs can be expressively compared, they can also deviate in many ways. Further, emotional researchers have argued that individuals are more able to accurately recall and report frequency of affect experience than intensity dimension of affect. Hence, the frequency dimension appears to be more sensitive to temporal changes of emotional experiences.

To manage these emotional experiences, individuals ought to have a repertoire of different coping options available to them. Insofar as context-specific characteristics might be common across cultures, other peculiarities may vary between societies; hence, the linkages between culture and coping may also be similar and distinct from a sociocultural perspective. The assumption is that people hold beliefs about the controllability of emotions and about how much they can control their own emotions (i.e., emotion regulation). Therefore, by inculcating the expectancy that one can effectively regulate one’s emotional experience to reflect one’s desired emotional state, these beliefs promote functional emotional coping adaptation.

Although considerable research exist on emotional expression and regulation in social psychology, there seems to be limited attention concerning the linkages between these relational psychological constructs in sport psychology literature. Besides, cross-cultural studies exploring the affective experiences of competitive athletes are sparse. Given that cultural models or agencies such as gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, religion, and professional status do shape the structure of individuals’ reality, family dynamics, and other cultural characteristics, providing a research agenda to show the linkages may guide future athletes’ psychological intervention framework that maintains respect for indigenous discourses and diverse cultural identities. Some scholars have reiterated the need for more awareness of cultural diversity in sport and culturally informed sport psychology research and practice.

Further, understanding cross-cultural emotional experiences in the context of sport practice not only holds practical importance for consultants and coaches working with different standards of diverse athletes under varied emotional experiences, but also aid theoretical and empirical enquiry.

The main objective of this Research Topic is to investigate factors that influence discrete emotions and coping from a sociocultural lens. Understanding what sociocultural factors impact emotions and coping is important given the role both these factors play in determining the well-being and functioning of individuals and groups in sport. Well-designed cross-sectional and longitudinal studies involving athletes of different geographical boundaries are required.

Specific Themes
1. Types of emotions: positive and negative
2. Relational content: intensity, duration, frequency
3. Antecedents of emotions in sport
4. Consequences of emotions
5. Coping with emotions in sport
a. Problem-emotion focused coping
b. Approach-avoidance coping
6. Religion and emotions
a. Types of religions and emotions
b. Religious coping and emotions

Suggested Research Designs
1. Well-designed cross-sectional and longitudinal studies
2. Cross-cultural validation studies

Keywords: coping, cross-culture, emotions, frequency, intensity, relational content, sport

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