nal function performed by self-concept is the regulation of affectùfeeling, mood, emotion, and temperament (Markus & Wurf, 1987). Threats to one's self-concept, therefore, may have negative impacts on ones affective stateùemotional state. Three predominant models of emotion are present in the literatureùthe organismic, the interactional, and the social constructionist (Hochschild, 1990). 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 influence, followed in order by the interactionist model and the organismic.
The organismic model posits that "social influences enter in only to elicit feeling, and to regulate expression" (Hochschild, 1990, p. 119). The interactionist model builds on the organismic model to posit that social factors "enter not simply before and after but interactively during the experience of emotion" (Hochschild, 1990, p. 119). Thus, the interactionist model recognizes several "points of social entry" (Hochschild, 1990, p. 119). According to the interactionist model, social factors help to shape feeling as feeling is being experienced by a person. As emotions are conceived i
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