Culture and Emotional Development

Emotions can be biologically born, but socio-culturally nurtured. Emotions are more than our personal reactions their antecedents. They play important social and political roles and are fundamental to identity and community attachments rather than simple biological bases. Suppression of emotions affects mental health. Emotions are formed and structured within particular social and cultural environment. The cultural organization of emotion development implied here is related to the prevailing cultural model of self-construal—the independent or the interdependent self.