The Sociology of Emotions

Changing Meanings of Emotions

Two meanings of feeling highly of yourself: -Pride (first and most serious of the 7 deadly sins) -Self-esteem: basic human need required for healthy self development

Closure as Political argument

-Death penalty advocates argue that executing murderers is needed to help family members find closure -Death penalty opponents argue that life imprisonment is better at providing closure since executions come after years of appeals and executions make reconciliation impossible -Closure has been institutionalized through victim impact statements and right-to-view laws

Some implications of closure

-No agreement about what closure is or how to achieve it. -Does closure involve forgetting or remembering? -Attempting but failing to achieve closure may result in emotive dissonance-closure mat offer a false promise of healing -Closure may be used to sell people unnecessary products -Closure may displace other useful aways of dealing with loss

Constructing Closure

-People may have always felt grief and wanted it to stop -Closure is an emotional state where grief has closed that people want for themselves and others

Strategies of Emotion Management

1. Transforming the contact: mentally transforming patients into something less personal 2. Accentuating the positive: focusing on the excitement of practicing "real medicine," satisfaction of learning, pride of living up to medical ideals 3. Using the patient: either empathizing with the patient or blaming the patient 4. Laughing about it: finding humor in uncomfortable situations 5. Avoiding the contact (that results in unwanted emotions)

Types of Emotion Management

Emotion Evocation: Type of emotion management that involves bringing about a desired emotion Emotion suppression: type of emotion management that involves stifling an undesired emotion Surface acting: type of emotion management that focuses on the outward presentation of emotion Deep acting: type of emotion management that focuses on actually bringing about desired emotions

Feeling rules

Important part of any society's (or institution's) culture -Norms for how people are supposed to feel n particular situations -Emotion Management: people's efforts to make their emotions match feeling rules. Artie Hochschild

Emotional Socialization

Learning feeling rules and how to achieve them through emotion management

Emotion Management for Pay

Many people's jobs involve managing emotions- their own and other people's -Interpersonal emotional management: effort to shape other people's emotions -Emotive dissonance: the disconnect between how people feel and how they think they should feel

Common-sense belief

Our emotions represent our "true" self, not social rules

Managing Emotions in Medical School

Researchers: Allen Smith and Sherryl Kleinman Methods: participant observation, interviews -Medical students must be resocialized into their profession -Medical students must deal with their feelings as they make contact with patients' bodies

Closure as a Sales tool

Selling closure is a way for funeral directors to justify and promote their services -Closure is also used to sell products for pet deaths, break-ups, divorce -Competing claims are made about which products best provide closure