This research reviews the concepts and theories related to the sociology of emotions. The principal concepts and theories of the sociology of emotions are described and discussed. The presentation of the concepts and theories is followed by a consideration of the arguments and counter arguments of proponents and opponents of a theory of the sociology of emotions.
Sociology of emotions is "a name for a body of work that articulates the links between cultural ideas, structural arrangement, and several things about feelings: the way we wish we felt, the way we try to feel, the way we feel, the way we show what we feel, and the way we pay attention to, label, and make sense of what we feel" (Hochschild, 1990, p. 117). The sociology of emotions "supplements and deepens theories about how people think or act" (Hochschild, 1990, p. 117).
Hochschild (1990, pp. 118-119) defined emotion as "an awareness of four elements that we usually experience at the same time: (a) appraisals of a situation, (b) changes in bodily sensations, (c) the free or inhibited display of expressive gestures, and (d) a cultural label applied to specific constellations of the first three elements." A feeling, in contrast to an emotion, is less "marked by bodily sensation; it is a 'milder' emotion" (Hochschild, 1990, p. 119). Emotion functions as a sense; thus, emotion "is a part of our sentient nature" (Hochschild, 1975, p. 282). Within the context of the uncertainty that characterizes a person's perception of her or his standing in a society, "one important clue is how we feel" (Hochschild, 1990, p. 119).
Three predominant models of emotion are present in the literature--the organismic, the interactional, and the social constructionist (Hochschild, 1990, p. 119). The major difference between these models is the significance accorded in them to social influence. The social constructionist models accords the greatest level of importance to social influenc...