Emotional Rules Research Articles

Elliot D. Cohen on the Metaphysics of Logic-Based Therapy

In this essay I consider the question of whether Elliot D. Cohen has justified sufficiently the metaphysical basis for his Logic-Based Therapy as presented in his paper on “The Metaphysics of Logic-Based Therapy (IJPP, this issue). Although Cohen discusses four different foundations of his cognitive theory, I focus only on one. It is the most important basis of his theory, viz., that human beings logically deduce the cognitive-behavior com­ponents of their emotions from premises. First, I question Cohen’s analysis of the emotion rules we use to deduce evaluations of actions from. Second, I challenge Cohen’s view that we deduce our evaluations from emotion rules. Although I do not think my challenges completely undermine Cohen’s theory, they do raise serious concerns for a theory faced with a preponderance of causal therapies.

Young children's emotional practices while engaged in long‐term science investigation

AbstractIn this article, the role of young children's emotional practices in science learning is described and analyzed. From the standpoint of performativity theory and social‐constructionist theory of emotion, it is argued that emotion is performative and the expression of emotion in the classroom has its basis in social relationships. Arising from these relationships is the emotional culture of the classroom that plays a key role in the development of classroom emotional rules as well as the legitimation of science knowledge. These relationships are reflected in two levels of classroom dialogue: talking about and doing science, and expressing emotions about science and its learning. The dynamics of the negotiations of classroom emotional rules and science knowledge legitimation may dispose students to act positively or negatively toward science learning. This analysis is illustrated in the experiences of a teacher and her students during a 3‐year ethnographic study of emotions in science teaching and learning. This research suggests the importance of the interrelationship between emotions and science learning and the notion that emotional practices can be powerful in nurturing effective and exciting science learning environments. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 693–719, 2004

Bending the rules of "professional" display: emotional improvisation in caregiver performances

Organizational norms of emotional expression are open to negotiation through improvised performances, as employees may bend or break emotion rules to gain more leeway in expressiveness and participate in the development of their own role identities in the workplace. In this ethnographic study, a dramaturgical perspective is used to analyze the processes and outcomes of emotional improvisation as observed among nurses, technicians, and physicians in a cardiac care center. It was found that the emphasis on maintaining a "professional" appearance in caregiving largely constrains actors to perform along their scripted roles. Results are discussed in terms of practical implications for training/education for health care providers and recipients. This study complements Goffman's (1959, 1961) emphasis on external role-playing by considering actors' internal feelings in relationship to observable emotional displays.

Becoming a Character for Commerce

This study of cruise ship activities’ directors analyzes emotion labor, self-subordination, and discursive construction of identity in the context of a total institution. It opens with a review of social theories of emotion and emotion work and Foucauldian concepts of power and identity. The case, based on fieldnotes, documents, and interview data, analyzes (a) the arbitrary nature of emotion rules; (b) the dispersion of emotion control among supervisors, passengers, peers, and the self; (c) employee self-subordination and privatization of burnout; and (d) identity as coconstituted through resistance and consent to emotion labor norms. The article concludes with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications.

Emotions in Solution‐Focused Therapy: A Re‐examination

This article re-examines whether and how emotions are an aspect of solution-focused therapy. A major theme in the article focuses on the usual ways that therapists define and discuss emotions in solution-focused and other therapies. We argue that these discussions are a source of much confusion about emotions and about solution-focused therapy, including the confusing idea that emotions are neglected in solution-focused therapy. The second major theme describes an alternative approach to these issues, one that we believe better fits with the assumptions and concerns of solution-focused therapy. The approach is based on Wittgenstein's writings about language games, private experience, and how emotions are rule-following activities. Viewed from this perspective, solution-focused therapists take account of their clients' emotions by helping clients to create new emotion rules to follow.

You Never Show You Can't Cope: Women in school leadership roles managing their emotions

In Australia, as elsewhere, education systems and schools are being reformed and restructured. Leadership in times of change is a highly emotionally charged activity. People working in leadership positions are constantly being assailed by the emotional demands placed on them by their peers, students and members of the community. Drawing on the experiences of a group of women in leadership positions in primary and secondary schools in Queensland, Australia, the author illustrates the emotional labour of these women negotiating the demands of continual change. In this article it is argued that the emotions of people working in leadership positions are regulated by emotional rules that are implicit within the organisational ethos of the education system and the school itself. Their emotional responses are shaped by the contextual exigencies in which they work. In the final part of the article the author proposes that there is a need to understand how women are negotiating the emotional terrain that is a consequence of change in their schools and poses some questions that could be used to guide future research activities.

Emotion work and emotion rules: The case of exams

Arlie Hochschild has shown that there is a set of rules governing most life situations concerning the emotions that people involved in these situations should experience, and particularly the optimum pitch at which these emotions should be expressed. She shows further that people who experience emotions at a pitch lower than the optimum or higher, do “work” to come up to the optimum or down to it as the case may be. The fact that some people in the same situation, experience emotions at a pitch higher than the optimum and others lower calls for an explanation. Symbolic interactionists suggest that the level of the pitch experienced by the person is a function of the extent to which self is at risk. Where the person perceives his/her self concept to be at great risk, the emotional pitch experienced will be likely to be higher than the optimum expected in the situation. Conversely, where the person perceives little risk to his/her self concept, the emotional pitch is likely to be lower than the optimum. The focus of the paper is on the “work” done by students at examination times to cope with over anxiety (i.e. higher than optimum pitch) or, sometimes, what they perceive as an abnormal lack of anxiety in themselves (i.e. lower than optimum pitch). A great number of cases will be described and classified in an attempt to formulate generalizations concerning strategies that may be applied, not merely to the examination situation, but to the wider universe of emotional situations. Hypotheses are also offered to explain why more of the emotion work done is in the direction of suppressing over anxiety rather than the opposite.

The Emotional Basis of Charisma*

Charisma is commonly thought of as an extraordinary personal characteristic. In contrast, this paper proposes that charisma is a product of emotional interaction between charismatic leaders and their followers. More specifically, charisma is argued to spring from charismatic leaders' use of emotion rules to redefine both objective and subjective aspects of their followers' realities. Through modeling emotion charismatics first gain legitimacy; then they propose changes in the social order and redefine the emotions necessary for such changes to occur. An analytical model of the emergence of charisma based on the evoking, revoking, and refraining of emotion rules is developed. To tentatively illustrate its utility the model is applied to speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The implications of this analysis of emotional interaction for the study of social change are discussed.

Reply to Hochschild and Hunsaker

Previous articleNext article No AccessCommentary and DebateReply to Hochschild and HunsakerTheodore D. KemperTheodore D. Kemper Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 89, Number 2Sep., 1983 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/227876 Views: 7Total views on this site Citations: 3Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1983 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Rebecca E. Olson, Jordan J. McKenzie, Roger Patulny The sociology of emotions: A meta-reflexive review of a theoretical tradition in flux, Journal of Sociology 53, no.44 (Dec 2017): 800–818.https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783317744112Cheryl Albas, Daniel Albas Emotion work and emotion rules: The case of exams, Qualitative Sociology 11, no.44 (Jan 1988): 259–274.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00988966Norman K. Denzin Emotion as Lived Experience, Symbolic Interaction 8, no.22 (Nov 1985): 223–240.https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1985.8.2.223

On Pierre BourdieuReproduction in Education, Society and Culture.Pierre Bourdieu , Jean-Claude Passeron , Richard NiceOutline of a Theory of Practice.Pierre Bourdieu , Richard Nice

On Pierre Bourdieu<i>Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture.</i>Pierre Bourdieu , Jean-Claude Passeron , Richard Nice<i>Outline of a Theory of Practice.</i>Pierre Bourdieu , Richard Nice