Article on American Emotion Culture Reading and Discussion Assignment #! All groups read the article (seen at Course Documents of Blackboard) and respond to the assignment. Kotchemidova, C. (2010). Emotion culture and cognitive constructions of reality. Communication Quarterly, 58(2), 207-234. This article investigates how Americans uphold a standard emotion culture that is commonly practiced in interpersonal communication. Typical discourse practices are reported in various contexts with explanations and analysis. Americans tend to use exclamations and superlatives (''great,'' ''fabulous,'' etc.), brag about themselves, aim to be liked, praise others, and engage in mutual complimentingall of which usually lifts up participants' spirits. Americans also smile more frequently and much more avidly than Europeans, and exhibit niceness and friendliness to othersthat is, behaviors underpinned by somewhat elevated, nonerotic, positive emotions ''Wow! Great! How nice! That's fantastic! I had a terrific time! It was wonderful! Have a nice day! Americans. So damned cheerful."

After reading the article, respond to the following questions : 1. Do you have similar experiences or examples that reflect such emotional norm in your interpersonal, business, or professional communication? 2. Why do we uphold such cheerful discourse representations, verbal and nonverbal, in American conversation? What does it say about the overall American identity? 3. How did the author conduct research for this article? What do you learn from such research methodology that you can apply in your prospective identity study?