Theoretic Theory Paper

The sociology of emotion, in general, is a theoretic perspective that focuses upon the way in which social and cultural interactions influence emotions, and in turn, the way in which emotions effect social and cultural interactions. Due to the great variety of such theories, the purview of this paper will be confined to a brief overview of the theoretic orientations of Susan Shott and the sociology of emotions, Arlie Hochschild’s view of emotional management, as well as Theodore Kemper’s perspective of power and status. In order to better understand the unique perspective provided by each theorist, their theoretic concepts will be considered in relation to three basic questions. The first question, ‘what are emotions?’, relates to the theoretic …show more content…
All theorists concerned with the social study of emotion, agree upon the importance of emotions in understanding the social world (Stets & Turner, 2014, p. 1, para. 1). Further to this, most theorists agree that there is a biological basis of emotions, however, that is where consensus regarding the sociological determinants of emotion ends. The vast difference in perception regarding the exact role of biological and sociological influences in emotional construction can begin to be seen in the definitions of emotion used by each theorist. To illustrate, Shott defines emotion as being “a state of physiological arousal defined by the actor as emotionally induced” (Shott, 1979, p. 1318, para. 3). This definition dictates that the emotional experience of an actor, or individual, begins with a state of physiological arousal which is then cognitively identified and labeled by that actor. Through this scope, biology has a lesser part to play in specific emotional experience as it simply provides a general starting point. Indeed, Shott views all emotions as being physiologically similar, with differentiation being dictated through cognitive labelling. Further to this, the author views ‘emotion’, ‘feeling’, ‘affect’, and ‘sentiment’ as terms which essentially describing the same thing (Shott, 1979, p. 1319, para. …show more content…
1318, para. 1), the experience, interpretation, and expression of specific emotion requires guidance; which is provided through individual and sociocultural frameworks. Concordantly, cultural frameworks are made up of social feeling rules, the appraisal of emotion, and language development which guide individual experiences of emotion (Shott, 1979, p. 1321, paras. 4, 5). This theorist concentrates her focus upon the way in which said sociocultural influences levy a form of social control over the individual.
To expand upon this, consider that socially normative behavior generates socioculturally specific feeling rules. These feeling rules then dictate what specific internal emotion states and external emotional expressions are circumstantially appropriate, thereby applying comformative social pressure to individuals (Shott, 1979, p. 1319, para. 1). In exemplification, consider the Canadian norm to feel sad and act somber during a funeral, whereas the external expression of excitement would likely be met with social disapproval intended to silence the ‘inappropriate’ emotional expressions and impose conformity. Furthermore, the internal feeling of happiness would likely be met with the individual attempting to rectify their non-normative internal state. According to contemporary research, it is plausible to successfully modify internal emotional states through the adjustment