Sociology Plus
Sociology of Emotions Definition
The sociology of emotions is an area of study that examines the role, experience, and function of emotions within social life. Historically, mainstream sociology tended to prioritise thoughts, values, and beliefs when explaining human action, often overlooking emotion as a primary subject. However, since the 1970s, there has been a growing focus on emotions, leading to approaches that explore how feelings are shaped by social context, communication, and interaction.
Emotions are understood not merely as internal feelings or bodily sensations, but as experiences of involvement. Their genesis and quality are crucially dependent upon social circumstances, expressive communication, and the intentions of the actor. Consequently, emotions are implicated in both rational and irrational actions, underscoring underlying values and meanings within social life. While some research focuses on the management of these feelings, other approaches seek to understand how emotions spontaneously emerge in social processes and constrain or orient behaviour.
Historical Context and Methodological Challenges
The historical relevance of emotion to sociological inquiry dates back to precursors like Adam Smith and Adam Ferguson, and later thinkers such as Durkheim and Simmel. Despite this lineage, the discipline often struggled to incorporate emotion systematically because emotions are inherently difficult to access through objective, systematic methodologies; they are typically raw and unreflected. Furthermore, understanding individual emotional states is complex, as many important emotions operate below the threshold of conscious awareness, as demonstrated by research into social conformity (e.g., Thomas J. Scheff’s work on shame).
Emotion Management and Labour
A significant strand within this field concerns emotion management and emotional labour, famously explored by Arlie Russell Hochschild in The Managed Heart (1983). Emotional labour is defined as the activities performed in an employment setting to induce or suppress feelings in order to maintain an outward emotional expression that aligns with social expectations. The affective parameters governing this work are the culturally defined rules that dictate appropriate emotional displays. Hochschild argued that emotional labour carries high costs, affecting individuals’ capacity to feel and potentially leading to emotional exhaustion. Empirical studies suggest that factors such as job autonomy and involvement determine whether emotional labour results in exhaustion or a sense of inauthenticity.
Structural Theories of Emotion
Beyond the focus on management, some sociological approaches seek a deeper structural understanding of emotion. Theodore Kemper’s Social Interactional Theory of Emotions (1978) posits that emotions arise from the structure of social relations concerning power and status. This theory suggests three core propositions: social interactions can be measured by degrees of compliance (involuntary or voluntary); specific physiological processes are stimulated by experiences of power and status; and particular emotions are physiologically specific. In this view, emotions are an intermediary mechanism translating the structure of social relationships into the emotional experience of the actors. Emotion is thus seen as intrinsically linked to the subject’s position within power dynamics, where changes in emotional experience motivate changes in social relations themselves.