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Sociology 319
Sociological Approaches to Social Psychology
April 2, 2009: Emotions
A. What are emotions
1. Emotions: short-lived reactions to a stimulus outside of the individual that
involves both physiological and cognitive reactions.
a. Situational stimulus
b. Physiological changes
c. Expressive gesture of some kind
d. A label to apply to the first three.
2. Sentiment. Long-standing emotional states that are heavily shaped by social
context.
3. Mood. A general psychological condition that characterizes our experiences and
emotional orientation for hours or even days.
B. Are Emotions Universal or Socially Constructed? [Universal]
1. Charles Darwin. (The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals). He
argued that if some emotions and expressions were universal, then they must be
genetically encoded, and thus must have value that enhances genetic survival.
Darwin focused heavily on the expression of emotions, which he viewed as
universal and inborn. Much of his research relied on human-animal comparisons.
2. Darwin and more recent scholars including Paul Ekman argue that a set of
emotions are universal, that they are experienced across all cultures, and that
physical displays of such emotions are recognized universally. These ideas are
very important for evolutionary theory; if an emotion is not recognized by others,
then its adaptive value is likely diminished. (e.g., if you are angry and have
adrenalin rushing, this should scare off predators.).
3. Individuals learn that they should shield their physical expression of emotion
from others in some cases, because this may give away our plans or intentions
(e.g., “put on a poker face,” “force a smile,” “fight back tears.”)
4. How do social scientists evaluate these claims that emotions are “universal”?
[video]
a. Ekman took photographs of thousands of people portraying six
fundamental emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger, and
disgust. Each of these expressions has a particular configuration of facial
muscles. The researchers showed these photos to subjects from different
cultures and nations, and asked them to identify which emotion the person
in the photo was feeling. The six emotions were recognized at a very high
rate (roughly 60-90% correct, across cultures and across emotion types),
suggesting that these facial expressions represented a primary set of
emotions across cultural groups.
i. Critics observe that by the 1970s and 1980s, when Ekman did
these studies, Western media had permeated most cultures and thus
people learned how to recognize emotional expressions.
ii. In response to critics, Ekman studied a primitive society in New
Guinea. They had no exposure to western influences. He read them
vignettes, and asked them to show how they felt. The vignettes
included things like “your child has died and you are sad.” Their
expressions generally converged with those detected in other
cultures.
C. Are Emotions Universal or Socially Constructed? [Socially/Culturally
Constructed]
1. Many examples abound of distinctive culturally-bound emotional displays. China
has a notion of “sad love” which is a combination of unrequited love and
nostalgia. In Puerto Rico, ataque de nervios is a highly emotional response to
deaths of loved ones. These emotional displays are not recognized or understood
in other cultures.
2. “Display rules” exist in all cultures. These rules dictate the intensity of emotional
display, the presence of an emotional display, and the ways that one may mask
an emotion for a more appropriate one. Multiple studies by Ekman and others
show that people are most likely to display a strong emotion when surrounded by
people they know well, and when the context supports that display.
3. Even within a culture, rules vary about which emotions to display. In the United
States, women are expected to reveal sadness whereas men are expected to show
anger when something distressing happens to them.
4. There is a continuum of perspectives with respect to how much emotions are
natural, inborn responses versus cultural shaped reactions.
a. Early cognitive models: The early James-Lange model focused heavily on
physiological reactions to a stimulus. Specifically, a stimulus is followed
by a biological reaction, and then the individual cognitively processes the
physiological sensation and interprets it as an emotion. This perspective
has had a very powerful influence on later theories of emotional.
5. The James-Lange model gave rise to empirical and conceptual work by Schachter
and colleagues: cognitive labeling theory nicely incorporates both biological and
social influences on emotion.
a. Schachter proposes that emotional experience is a product of: (1) an event
in the environment that produces a physiological reaction; (2) noticing the
physiological reaction and searching for an appropriate explanation; and
(3) by examining situational cues, we find an emotional label for the
reaction.
b. These ideas were supported in an innovative series of studies by Schachter
& Singer. In one version of the study, researchers gave students an
injection of epinephrine, a drug that produces a mild physiological arousal.
They informed one group of students that this injection would probably
cause them to experience a pounding heart, flushed face, and minor
trembles. The second group was told nothing about the effect. All students
waited in a waiting room with a confederate, who appeared to be another
subject. Depending on the experimental treatment, the other subject
behaved either euphorically (playing with toys, acting silly) or angrily.
The students in the informed group did not need to find an explanation for
their arousal, while those in the control group did. In the latter case,
students’ descriptions of their emotion very much mirrored those of the
confederate.
c. These results have been replicated across multiple studies, most famously
in the Dutton & Aron (1974) “bridge study.” Zillman has called this
phenomenon the “misattribution of emotion.” Subjects on a “high” bridge
and a “low” bridge were approached by a member of the opposite sex (an
interviewer for study). In the former case, the subjects were significantly
more likely than subjects in the latter case to phone and ask the
confederate on a date? Why? In the high bridge case, the physiological
sensation that was likely triggered by the frightening bridge situation was
attributed by subjects to sexual arousal, infatuation, or affection – rather
than to “fear.”
6. An extreme view: social construction of emotion
a. Sociologists, particularly those working in the symbolic interactions
tradition, argue that we are always “acting” in social situations, and cannot
express every emotion we’re having. Thus, we make choices about which
ones to display and which ones to suppress. Arlie Hochschild refers to this
as “emotion work” or attempts to change the intensity or quality of our
emotions to bring them into line with the requirements of the occasion.
b. “Feeling rules” dictate what people with our given role identity should feel
and do in a given situation.
i. Hochschild in “The Managed Heart” studied flight attendants and
bill collectors. She found that flight attendants are supposed to
look happy, even when they are working in very distressing
situations. Flight attendants were trained formally in how to
display particular emotions. For instance, they were told to relax
and smile and in stressful situations. They were told to never look
frightened, to never display anger, and to try to look as sincere as
possible at all times.
ii. Individuals can engage in a variety of ways to bring about
emotions, via various “acting” tactics. We can engage in “surface
acting” which adjusts our expression of emotion to normative
expectations. This means pretending to have an emotion, which
can elicit similar responses from others. Deep acting involves a
more basic manipulation of one’s emotional state – through
things like breathing, shifting focus, altering one’s thoughts –
focusing on the positive and distancing one ’s self from negative
thoughts.
iii. When individuals act in accordance with feelings rules, they often
begin to actually change their internal feelings to bring them into
line with their display. This may occur because of cognitive
consistency effects (e.g., “if I’m smiling, then I must be happy...”).
Or, self-fulfilling prophecy; if we act pleasant, then others will
respond in kind, and their pleasant behavior can enhance our
mood.
iv. Many of they key ideas of “social constructionist” approaches to
emotion inform a topic we will cover later in the year: deviance.
When one’s emotional displays routinely fail to match our cultural
expectations and management efforts are ineffective, then this
emotional deviance may be interpreted as mental illness. The
absence or heightened intensity of a given emotion can both be
assessed as deviant.