Affectivity

Definition

Affectivity describes situations in which emotional life is openly expressed with minimal restriction. Talcott Parsons recognized it as one of the pattern variables connected to traditional cultural societies.

Explanation

Emotions have affectivity or affect. The phrase is mainly used in sociology to indicate that an action is being or is being performed out for emotional fulfillment. It is the capacity to experience affects, including feelings, emotions, judgments, and motives.

For instance, Mary R. Jackman and Robert W. Jackman explore “affective class connections” in their book Class Awareness in the United States (1983), which is about whether subjective social class contains an emotional attachment instead of being only a question of nominal identity.

“Affectivity versus affective neutrality” is one of Talcott Parsons’s “pattern variables” that can be used to group and study different societies and cultures across the globe. The concepts of affective involvement and affective action are heavily influenced by this term.