THE SOCIOLOGY OF EMOTIONS
James M. Jasper
Sociology 80500: Fall, 2009: Tuesdays 4.15-6.15
This course is a general overview of the sociology of emotions, including both classics and recent
research, and examining structural, cultural, and social-psychological approaches. It draws as well on
theory and findings in related social sciences, especially political science and philosophy. Although
emotions follow neuro-physiological pathways, they are social in their triggers and expressions and –in
some cases – felt experience.
Early in the semester I would like each student to pick an emotion to write about. For any theory, we
can then ask what it means – if anything – for that emotion. Term papers (ten-page maximum) will then
compare different explanations, perhaps examine how that emotion combines or interacts with other
emotions, or examine some other aspect of that emotion.
But the main writing will be a journal of emotions and feelings. Each student will briefly describe at least
three emotional experiences (inchoate feelings, labeled emotions, combinations of feelings, etc) each
week. We will decide in class whether we want to share all these on Blackboard or just bring them to
class to read selectively.
CLASS SCHEDULE AND READINGS
Week 1: Introduction. What are emotions? What gets lumped together in this category? Why have
emotions been linked to irrationality? Why have sociologists tended to ignore them altogether? What
methods can we use to understand emotions? (September 1st)
PART ONE: THEORETICAL ROOTS
Week 2: Art as a Challenge to Theories of Emotions. How can the relatively vicarious experience of art
give us emotions? Such emotions are obviously social, but in part they are also consciously self-induced.
And does music differ from the other arts? We will also take this opportunity to read one of the most
compelling recent philosophies of emotions, the neo-Stoic cognitive theory of Martha Nussbaum.
(September 8th)
Readings: Aristotle, Rhetoric, Book II, chapters 1-10; Martha Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought,
chapters 1, 3, 5.
Week 3: Sociological Precursors. In the early twentieth century, sociological theorists recognized
emotions, but were talking about many different things under that rubric. (September 15th)
Readings: Max Weber, Economy and Society, “Types of Social Action,” pp. 24-26; Max Scheler,
On Feeling, Knowing, and Valuing, part 1: The Emotions and Social Life; Norbert Elias, The Court
Society, “Court Rationality,” (pp. 110-116 in 1983 Blackwell edn.) and “On the Sociogenesis of
Aristocratic Romanticism in the Process of Courtization” (pp. 214-276); “The Middle Class and
the Court Nobility in Germany” (pp. 16-22 in 1978 Blackwell edn. of The Civilizing Process), and
“On Changes in Aggressiveness” (191-205) in same).
Week 4: Psychoanalytic Approaches. In the middle half of the twentieth century, psychoanalysis offered
one of the few serious programs for understanding meaning and feeling. In the wake of the cultural turn
in social science, it is not clear if it still has much utility. (September 22nd)
Readings: Nancy Chodorow, The Power of Feelings.
No class September 29th.
PART TWO: CULTURAL APPROACHES
Week 5: Emotions at Work. The most influential book in the sociology of emotions, and the most
readable. (October 6th)
Readings: Arlie Hochschild, The Managed Heart.
Week 6: Gender Styles. Much of the rediscovery of emotions in sociology was due to feminism’s critique
of the dichotomies of thought and feeling that reinforced the gendered division of labor. (October 13th)
Readings: Hochschild, “Pathways of Feeling,” in The Commercialization of Intimate Life or in
Kemper, Research Agendas in the Sociology of Emotions; Jennifer Pierce, "Emotional Labor
Among Paralegals." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 561 (1999):
127-142.
Week 7: Interaction Rituals. Drawing on Durkheim, Randall Collins has developed a theory of emotions
that aims to provide a theory of motivation for much collective activity. (October 20th)
Readings: Collins, Interaction Ritual Chains, chapters 1-3.
PART THREE: STRUCTURAL APPROACHES
Week 8: Power and Status Hierarchies. How much do emotions reflect people’s positions in social
structures? (October 27th)
Readings: Theodore Kemper, “Social Relations and Emotions,” in Kemper, ed., Research Agendas
in the Sociology of Emotions; Jack Barbalet, Emotions, Social Theory, and Social Structure,
chapters 1, 3; Cecilia Ridgeway, “Status in Groups: The Importance of Motivation,” ASR 47
(1982):76-88; Michael Lovaglia and Jeffrey Houser, “Emotional Reactions and Status in Groups,”
ASR 61 (1996):867-883.
PART FOUR: SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
Week 9: Emotions in Action. How do emotions help people interact with each other? Are weeping and
laughing emotions? (November 3rd)
Readings: Jack Katz, How Emotions Work, chapters 1-4, 6.
Week 10: Identity and Identity Control Theory. Two sophisticated strands of social psychology link
emotions to our self-definitions. (November 10th)
Readings: Sheldon Stryker, “Integrating Emotion into Identity Theory,” Advances in Group
Processes 21 (2004):1-23; Peter Burke, “Identity Processes and Social Stress,” ASR 56
(1991):836-849; Peter Burke and Jan Stets, “Trust and Commitment through Self-Identification,”
Social Psychology Quarterly 57 (1999):300-312.
Week 11: Affect Control Theory. How do we react to evil mothers? This fruitful paradigm traces
emotions to the confirmation or disconfirmation of our cultural expectations. (November 17th)
Readings: David Heise, “Social Action as the Control of Affect,” Behavioral Science 22
(1977):163-177; Lynn Smith-Lovin, “Emotion as the Confirmation and Disconfirmation of
Identity,” in Kemper, Research Agendas; Dawn Robinson et al., “Heinous Crime or Unfortunate
Accident?” Social Forces 73 (1994):175-190.
PART FIVE: EMOTIONS AND POLITICS
Week 12: Nationalism and Emotion. Thomas Scheff has developed a distinctive theory of pride and
shame in social life, interestingly applied here to nationalism and politics. (November 24th)
Readings: Thomas Scheff, Bloody Revenge.
Week 13: The Emotions of Protest. A new, sophisticated book provides a useful take on emotions in
politics. (December 1st)
Readings: Deborah Gould, Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP’s Fight against AIDS, selections.
Week 14: Emotions in the Public Sphere. Emotions can pull people into public life, in good ways and
bad, as well as push them out of it. (December 8th)
Readings: Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought, chapters 6, 8; Jeff Goodwin, “The Libidinal
Constitution of a High-Risk Social Movement: Affectual Ties and Solidarity in the Huk Rebellion,
1946 to 1954,”ASR 62 (1997):53-69; George Marcus et al., Affective Intelligence and Political
Judgment, chapters 4, 7.