Re: affect

Charles Bazerman (bazerman who-is-at humanitas.ucsb.edu)
Fri, 10 May 1996 20:54:36 -0700 (PDT)

Tom Scheff has accounts of the cycles of interaction that lead to
downward spirals of negative affect, and he certainly sees causation as
social. Also, as I tried to indicate he has a very particular definition
of pride as essentially the sense of belonging. The kind of behavior we
usually consider proud, in seeing oneself better than and therefore
distant from particular or general others, Scheff would account as false
pride, an aversive relation to others. To give a quick flavor of his
view of shame, I will cite one of his favored images, that typically
gestures of those feeling shame shiled thgeir face with their hands or
look down to avoid the gaze of others, whereas the gestures of pride are
typically those of direct gaze, relaxed but confident bodily posture in
the presence of others, varieties of embrace.

Although I find Scheff's insights intriguing and at times useful, I
mentioned him only for those of you interested in pursuing the literature
on affect to look at, as an intersection of psychological and
sociological approaches. To help locate the work for you, I mention that
he comes from the tration of social psychology and symbolic
interactionism, that he is best known for his work on "labelling theory"
and sees himself as strongly influenced by Norbert Elias.

For a more detailed account, you need to go to his works.
Chuck Bazerman

On Fri, 10 May 1996, Judy Diamondstone wrote:

> Chuck, it sounds kind of individualistic to me. How does he suppose
> those "aversative" relations developed? And if out of the social
> bond, how does he justify valorizing (by implication: = positive
> emotion) pride (the world has been kind to you) and staining shame
> (you've suffered injustices). Sounds like a twisted sociology!
>
> - Judy
>
>
> At 08:50 AM 5/10/96 -0700, you wrote:
> >The psychiatric, individualistic concern for shame has been given a
> >sociological twist by Tom Scheff (Sociology, UCSB) who sees shame and
> >pride (as construed through definitions that distinguish "false pride"--a
> >form of shame--from actual pride) as the two central emotions and as arising
> >from the state of the social bond. In essence he treats positive
> >orientations towards others felt as pride, and aversive orientations as
> >shame (and consequent emotrions such as anger).
> >The quickest orientation to his and related work is in a special issue of
> >the American Behavioral Scientist 38:8 August 1995.
> >Recent books of his on this theme are MICROSOCIOLOGY and BLOODY REVENGE.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> Judy Diamondstone
> Graduate School of Education
> Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
> 10 Seminary Place
> New Brunswick, NJ 08903
>
> diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
> .................................................
>
>