Chapter 8: Summary, Key Themes, and Student Learning Objectives
Chapter Summary
Many of the emotions we experience are rooted in our capacity for role taking and are shaped by
broader cultural forces. As such, they allow for the self-regulation of behavior, signal the
presence of unexpected or inconsistent social information, facilitate the maintenance of social
relationships, and both reflect and perpetuate the distribution of power within the larger society.
Although the various literatures discussed in this chapter vary in their focus, they share a
common theme: Emotions are central to the operation of society. They give meaning,
predictability, and continuity to our experiences. Without emotion, society as we know it would
cease to exist.
Main Points and Key Chapter Themes
1. The social psychological literature on emotions is interdisciplinary and encompasses studies
conducted by both psychologists and sociologists. Although sociological social psychologists
recognize the significance of psychological research on how situational cues contribute to the
construction of emotions, they feel that it is also important to consider how social structure
and culture shape people’s emotive experiences.
2. Sociological social psychologists have studied the effects of emotion norms on individuals’
feelings and behaviors and on the consequences of emotional labor. Jobs traditionally
occupied by women often require more emotional labor than jobs traditionally occupied by
men. Moreover, because of their subordinate position within society, women are more likely
than men to bear the brunt of others’ negative emotions in the workplace.
3. Social psychologists working within the symbolic interactionist (SI) face of sociological
social psychology have directed their attention to the importance of role-taking emotions, in
particular embarrassment and guilt, in the self-regulation of behavior. These individuals
typically align with either Chicago school SI or with the dramaturgical approach.
4. Within the Iowa/Indiana school of SI, identity control theory emphasizes the role of emotions
in the process of self-verification. This model, developed by sociologist Peter Burke, is based
on the notion that negative feelings occur when identities are unverified and serve as an
indicator that the identity control system is in need of adjustment. Research suggests that
people respond to negative feelings by changing their behavior so that the identity in question
is verified or by changing their identity standard.
5. Affect control theory offers a quantitative approach to the study of the interactional process
of interest to SI researchers. Using mathematical equations, it enables researchers to
determine how a typical person would act in particular situations, based on the affective
meanings tied to various identities and to specific events or situations.
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6. Within the group processes and structures face of sociological social psychology, social
exchange theorists have assessed the affective consequences of the balance of costs and
benefits (equity) in exchange relationships. Focusing on a different set of issues, status
characteristics theorists have studied how socioemotive behaviors serve to reproduce status
structures in task groups.
7. Influential theories of emotion within social structure and personality emphasize the link
between interaction rituals, the emotional energy they generate, and macro-level phenomena
(Collins), and the effects of changes in the power and status of the groups to which people
belong on the emotions they experience (Kemper).
8. Because research within each of the different faces of social psychology focuses on different
aspects of emotions and their consequences, it is by combining the results of studies of
emotion from across the different research orientations that we gain a more complete
understanding of the nature of emotions and their functions.
Student Learning Objectives
Students who have read Chapter 8 should understand:

the difference between primary and secondary emotions.

the physiological, cognitive, cultural, and behavioral components of secondary emotions.

the distinction between feeling rules and display rules and how these emotion norms affect
people’s feelings and behaviors.

what emotional labor is and how it varies by gender, that emotional labor has negative effects
on individuals, and why this is the case.

how role-taking emotions such as embarrassment, shame, and guilt serve to control behavior
and make society as we know it possible.

the rules for giving and receiving sympathy.

the role of emotion in the identity control system.

how affect control theorists have linked affective meanings to behavior.

how emotions are related to equity in exchange relationships.

how sociomotive behaviors reproduce social inequalities within task groups.

the central tenets of Collins’s ritual influence theory and Kemper’s power and status theory
of emotions.
© 2014 Taylor & Francis

how the focus of theories and research on emotions differs across the different faces of social
psychology, and how studies from across the different faces can be combined to enhance our
understanding of the role of emotions in social life.
© 2014 Taylor & Francis