Verbal and Non-Verbal Components in Expressing Emotions (Great Britain versus USA)

Background: Emotions are characterized as complex response tendencies that encompass cognitive processing, physiological reactions, and the subjective affective experience, and that transpire within a brief timeframe. Emotions are frequently understood as possessing a valence that ranges from positive, such as happiness, excitement, contentment, and curiosity, to negative, such as sadness, anger, anxiety, and disgust. Individuals perceive positive emotions as sensations that indicate a degree of enjoyable involvement with their surroundings, based on their personal perspective. In contrast to positive emotions, negative emotions are indicative of a pervasive sense of discomfort or unease. It is widely believed that emotions have undergone evolutionary changes in order to facilitate the adoption of behaviors that are essential for survival and prosperity.
Purpose: The present study investigates the impact of emotions on individuals' lives and the linguistic mechanisms through which they are conveyed. This thesis aims to investigate the function of emotions in human existence by analyzing ten films of a single genre from two distinct cultural contexts, particularly American and British. The study involved an examination of the responses and reactions of participants in relation to the expression of a particular emotion, whether positive or negative. The interviews underwent coding of both positive and negative emotion words, and subsequent analyses were carried out through the application of thematic content coding.
Methods: The general developments in life have resulted in a substantial increase in the volume of movie-related information produced on a daily basis. Individuals utilize the movies as a medium to convey their affective states and sentiments. The examination of emotional analysis derived from films is crucial in comprehending the sentiments and affective states of individuals in public settings, particularly within diverse social contexts. The emotions were mainly expressed through verbal and nonverbal communication. The participants who were mainly the characters of the ten collected movies, expressed various emotions differently. The characters of the American movies expressed mainly three different positive emotions which were love, joy and interest. While in the British movies only two positive emotions were noticed which were love and joy. The positive emotions were mostly expressed in a combination of verbal and nonverbal means. The second type of emotions that was expressed in both American and British movies was negative emotions and the most frequent ones were sadness, anger and disappointment. Some of these emotions were expressed verbally and some nonverbally, but the most common way was through a combination of both of them.
Results: The experience of positive emotions has been found to promote approach behavior and sustained action. Specifically, individuals who experience positive affect are more likely to actively engage with their surroundings and participate in behaviors that are deemed beneficial. Conversely, adverse affective states elicit retreat tendencies and indicate when a specific conduct or trajectory may not be conducive.
Conclusion: The study of human emotion, gestures, gaze, facial expressions, and language cannot be conducted in isolation as these entities are interrelated. The interdependent nature of converging and interweaving cognitive processes precludes complete disentanglement. Comprehending the manner in which human communication leverages information from multiple channels that may all contribute, facilitate, and reinforce the speaker's communicative objective necessitates the establishment and composition of a cross-modal and cross-cultural repository encompassing both verbal and non-verbal means.

Almufti R. R. Verbal and Non-Verbal Components in Expressing Emotions (Great Britain versus USA) : master thesis : 035 Philology / supervisor O. Yashenkova. Kyiv, 2023. 79 р.