Emotional responsivity and expressiveness are fundamental contributors to psychosocial and physical well-being. Although emotions are shaped in part by sociocultural context, little attention has been paid to emotional-development in Black Americans. This research program will focus on the normal emotional development of Black American adolescents, and specifically will examine (1) the types of situations that evoke common emotions, and the typical patterns of self-report, expressive behavior, and physiological response to these emotions; (2) the effect of social context on emotional response, particularly the ethnicity, sex, and peer/authority status of other actors; and (3) individual differences in emotional responding, including developmental and sex differences, attitudes toward ethnically similar and dissimilar persons, and patterns of anger expression. Interviews and other self-reports will be used to document situations that can evoke basic emotions (fear, joy, anger or neutral) among Black adolescents. In subsequent studies based on these findings, Black adolescents will encounter a spectrum of emotionally-involving situations through imagery, emotional slide stimuli, and in vivo contact. These situations will include fear, joy, anger, and neutral emotional contexts involving inter- and intra-ethnic contact with peers and authority figures. Autonomic nervous system activity, report of emotion, and facial expression in response to these emotional situations will be assessed. Studying normal emotional experience among Black youth will expand knowledge of this group specifically and human emotions generally, in terms of cultural influences, adolescent development, and individual differences. This research also has important implications for health and social problems facing Black Americans. Study of contextual and personality contributors to physiological reactivity will help elucidate mechanisms connecting psychosocial stress to Black Americans' heightened risk for cardiovascular and stress-related disorders. Also, understanding differences in ethnic consciousness and perceptions of emotional climate may enhance insight into the origins of certain psychological disorders and intra-ethnic violence among Black Americans. Finally, study of expressive behavior in interethnic contexts can help delineate some of the social-contextual contributors to racial tensions and self-esteem among Black Americans.
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