The ways individuals think, feel, and react towards any emotional stimuli are pre-determined as it emerges from the core of their cultural heritage. The reactions to emotional stimuli are regulated by the neuronal differences which are primarily responsible for all the mood-related changes. This view has readily been supported by the social theorists according to whom the amygdala in the brain forms the most reactive part when a person is asked to view violent images. The negative reactions are particularly more prominent among males. The responses thereby generated are not only evolutionary but are culturally learned responses.
Studies related to emotions in social psychology have looked at the impact of social variables and contextual factors including ecological, environmental, and demographic in altering the brain and body processes which in turn provokes mood changes among individuals.
Cultural reactions
The cultural reactions learned in younger phases of life tend to shape the emotional and coping responses within which ethnicity forms an important factor that elicits the changes related to emotions and subsequently mood-related changes.
With regards to ethnicity, it is suggested that the variations in the development of psychological mechanisms pertaining to mood changes are formed at the early stages of life and only modifies over the course of time as a way of coping with the contextual turbulences and changes in life. The mechanisms set at the early stages of life considerably determine the neutral patterns of responses typically in the form of mood.
People belonging to similar ethnic groups share common physical and cultural traits which distinguish them from other people. The influences relative to ethnicity upon an individual’s personality are diverse. Coping responses generated are in line with nativity, language, history, traditional values, and dietary habits.
Coping responses
The common origin, common culture, and similar physical features form a range of similar feelings that characterizes them as a group distinct from other ethnicities and so their responses. For examples, the odds for the physical condition are African Americans as compared to Whites.
The context within which a person has grown up has an impact on the way how he interprets or perceives things. This difference within the feelings and perceptions mainly form the basis how a person’s mood changes with respect to any stimulus. An aspect of social life is the characteristic features of ethnicity.
One’s emotions are related to social life experiences. The ethnicity is split into two dimensions for psychological studies. One dimension pertains to the attributes which are characteristically formed in relation to the unique sociocultural statuses for instance culture and diet.
The other one is the relational dimension which pertains to the characteristics of a relationship between ethnically defined groups.