The following chapter offers an interdisciplinary review of social science theories of emotion.After summarizing the challenges that the topic of emotion poses for scholars, two kinds of theoretical frameworks are described.The first conceptualizes emotion as a property of individuals and focuses on the individual experiences, causes, and consequences of emotion.The second conceptualizes emotion as an element of culture and examines the sources, circulations, social uses, and consequences of emotion as socially circulating systems of meaning. Benefits and limitations of each theoretical framework are discussed.
Biology, emotion, ethnopsychology, interaction, social structures
Donileen R. Loseke is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of South Florida. Her latest book, Narrative Production of Meaning: Exploring the Work of Stories in Social Life (Lexington, 2019) and her volume coedited with Sara A. Green, New Narratives of Disability (Emerald, 2019) focus on how stories construct cognitive, emotional, and moral meanings and how these meanings are central elements in all stages of social life.
Margarethe Kusenbach is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of South Florida.Her areas of publication include urban and community sociology, social psychology (identity and emotions), disasters and environment, and qualitative methods. For the past several years, her work has focused on issues of home and belonging among mobile-home residents and lifestyle migrants.Her most recent research investigates the intersection of street art and urban development.