Emotional Expression

Emotional expression refers to the ways people communicate feelings through facial expressions, voice, gesture, language, and action, and to the social norms that govern what may be shown, to whom, and when. Charles Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals argued that expressions have evolutionary roots, and Paul Ekman proposed universal basic emotions alongside culturally specific display rules. Sociologists emphasize that expression is socially regulated. Erving Goffman analyzed how people manage appearances, embarrassment, and face during interaction, and Arlie Hochschild’s concept of feeling rules explains how norms shape emotion, with emotional labor requiring employees to display feelings as part of their job. Thomas Scheff examined the social management of shame and pride, and Norbert Elias traced how the civilizing process encouraged emotional restraint. Lisa Feldman Barrett and James Russell have challenged universal readings, arguing that emotion concepts are constructed in context. Gender, class, and culture shape expression, with men often discouraged from showing vulnerability and cultures differing in display norms, as Hazel Markus and Shinobu Kitayama showed in comparing independent and interdependent selves. Emotional expression remains central to research on interaction, gender, culture, work, and communication.