Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

People may perceive emotion as residing in the individual and composing some portion of personal subjective experience. However, certain common patterns of emotional experience exist. We have shared social definitions of emotions, which are generally recognized and which can be evoked or referenced in socially appropriate situations. These emotion norms then become incorporated into the definition of the situation. While psychology and psychiatry have investigated emotions as internal to the individual, sociology has only recently contributed a social, interactionist analysis of emotion, or affect, to scholarly discourse. The sociological approach to the study of emotion rests on a two-stage theory of emotion. The first stage is an internal state of biological arousal, and the second is a reflexive process using situational cues to interpret or identify which emotion is an appropriate response in that situation ( Rosenberg 1990 ). There may also be a process of negotiation with others as to the emotional definition of the situation. One of the most fundamental issues in the sociology of emotions is the tension between universality and variability in the experience and expression of emotions, particularly the emotions of shame or embarrassment, since these are so evocative of sympathy or empathy from situated others. Data from cross-cultural research imply that the type of community ... log in or subscribe to read full text