Sociology of Emotions midterm 1

Why is there low interest in the sociology of emotions?

1. **Reason over Emotions**: Since the Enlightenment, intellectuals have emphasized the importance of reason, not emotions
* Enlightenment; reason is important, makes us humans
* Sociologists seek enlightened understandings through reason and focus on how reason affects how people act and interact
* See emotions as irrational, preventing reasoned action
2. **Egotism**: Humans are obsessed with how smart we are and believe that we act according to our own free will
* We are not driven by instincts
* Creates focus on reason, not emotions
* Emotions cloud reason; need to focus on reason and not on emotions
3. **Values Causing Biases**: Emotions are commonly ridiculed, viewed as undesirable and unworthy of our attention
* Those who express them are labeled “babies” or “disturbed”
4. **Triviality**: Believe that emotions are unimportant, and sociologists focus on more “worthy” topics
5. **Social Relations**: Sociology focuses on social relations, not how the human brain works
* Common idea is that that emotions are simply mental processes not linked to relations
6. **Biology**: Emotions viewed as biologically based, and sociologists avoid biology like the plague
* Bias against it
* Recognition that earlier attempts to bring biology into sociology were racist

BARBALET AND HARRIS READING

Scott Harris and Jack Barbalet note biases against emotions in sociology and suggest that they are wrong and harmful. They suggest that the reason for excluding emotions is erroneous.

* **Reason**: Human reason is actually very dependent on emotions— can’t separate the two
* **Egotism**: Emotions are complex and define us as humans
* **Triviality**: Emotions are extremely influential and shape our understandings, identities, values, decision-making ability, etc.
* **Social Relations**: Emotions shape our actions and interactions in a great variety of ways
* **Biology**: Emotions are very social, as they are shaped by social relations
* At the same time, they are possibly the main factor making us sociable

Society

“A group of people whose members interact, reside in a definable area, and share culture”

* usually used to designate country-level groups (Canada, USA, France, etc.)
* Also regional

Why is the definition of society a contested/problematic concept?

This definition suggest a concrete thing but are generally not so concrete since it limits groupness and cultural diversity.

The boundaries between societies are very blurry. This means that it is too abstract and unhelpful.

SOCIAL RELATIONS

Sociologists focus on points of interactions between people and the patterns of relations resulting from interactions, not the individual themselves.

Different from other social sciences because of **breadth and focus.**

_____ _______ embed us in and create structures.

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SCIENCE

**Science**: system of acquiring knowledge through empirical observation and experimentation

Science is not based on a discipline; it is a method.

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Scientific method

Some claim around 7 main components to make a study scientific:


1. Question: why is X the way it is
2. Review existing findings
3. Make hypotheses
4. Observation: collect information using senses
5. Analysis: use intellect and methods to interpret data
6. Report results
7. Testing: apply initial findings to additional situations to see if it holds

What is the goal of most sociologists?

Provide better understandings of the world.

* rejecting hard-core positivism, but still accept the scientific method and believe we can get insight into how the social world work through empirical investigation
* **reflexibility:** consider potential biases affecting research

SCIENTIFIC ASSUMPTIONS

Science is based on 3 main assumptions that we cannot prove:


1. We live in an external, objective world


1. We do not live in a dream state or matrix but what we are observing is real; shared reality


2. It is possible to gather accurate information about the world


1. Our senses allow us to gather this information


3. There is order and regularity in the world


1. Everything isn't random, there are causes

Positivism

View that we can apply science to the study social relations to better understand them.

Now, it has become a dirty word in sociology that is commonly used to insult people.

Postmodern Sociologists

Believe at least one of the scientific assumptions is faulty

* We lack the capacity to gather accurate information about the social world

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Discourse

*Iara Lessa* “systems of thoughts composed of ideas, attitudes, courses of action, beliefs and practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak”

* promote systematic ways to perceive aspects of the social world

Therefore, discourse bias perceptions & interpretations, so we cannot possibly interpret data accurately.

What is the origin of Sociology?

It was the first discipline within the social sciences. August Comte was credited with coining the term.

Emile Durkheim founded its first department at the University of Bordeaux.

Sociology

The scientific/systematic study of social relations, focusing on diverse types of social relations and the link between individuals and social structures.

It analyzes social patterns; the more finding patterns, the more sociology tries to explain them

Defining Emotions: ARLIE HOCHSCHILD

Founding figure of the sociology of emotion

Definition: **A biological sense like sight, hearing, that prepares us for action**

* Ex. fear provides evidence of danger and prepares us to flee

Definition isn't that influential.

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The information provided by emotions go through a filter, depending on our perspective, experiences, culture (Suggest that people don't experience the same emotion)

**Strengths**: recognizes emotion as reactions that prepare us to act in particular ways

**Critique**: emotions are very different from our senses

* Emotions deal with how we react to the information that our senses give us

Defining Emotions: PEGGY THOITS

Provides well known definition seeing emotions as having 4 components:


1. **Physical Changes:** when we experience an emotion, we __react physically__

* ex . our heart rate picks up, we sweat -Action (we jump back), hormonal (hormones released), neural (certain regions of the brain are activated)


2. **Expressive Gestures and Communication**: Physical reactions that express emotion

* Allow others to see and interpret your emotions (ex. Facial expressions)
* Makes emotions part of social relations
* Many of these expressions are culturally based and not just innate like Darwin thought


3. **Situational Cues:** deals with what sparks emotions. Certain situations provoke emotional responses.

* Ex. seeing a figure in a dark alley moving toward you sparks fear


4. **Emotional Labels**: we label our emotions in ways that give them meaning

* Label "fear" as an emotion caused by some danger
* How we label emotions affect how we experience them
* once we understand what these emotions are, we label and give meaning to them

Thoits claims that all four shape one another and are interrelated

The Sociology and Biology of Peggy Thoits

**Emotions are biological and social. They cannot be separated.**

**Physiological response**: clear biological element of emotions

* Suggests emotions are part of our biology

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**Sociological**: social relations affect emotions; focuses largely on the social side of emotinos

* **Labeling**: affect how we experience emotions (We are socialized to recognize certain emotions and give them certain meanings)
* **Expressive gestures**: are a means of communication affecting social relations and are affected by socialization
* **Situational cues**: our social relations/context shapes emotional reactions

Defining Emotions: TURNER AND STETS

They avoid the question of what an emotion actually is by saying there is disagreement but tat we all knwo what an emotion is

They lay out three main components


1. Social construction: sociology
2. BiologIcal: neuroscience
3. Cognition: psychology

Biology: The Neurological View (TURNER & STETS)

Recognizes that emotions always involve a physiological response that is rooted in neuro processes

* Argues that these processes precede social influences on emotions
* Therefore pay little attention to the social side

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Emotions involve __4 types of physiological responses to outside stimuli__:


1. **Automatic nervous system**: unconscious regulation of heart rate, breaking, digestion
2. **Neurotransmitter and neuroactive peptide system**: nervous system messengers that allows some stimulus to reach the brain
3. **Hormonal system**: emotions cause body to produce certain hormones
4. **Musculoskeletal system**: scared of a snake and jump back as a reaction

These physiological elements are vital to emotions

Neurology of Emotions (TURNER & STETS)

Recognizes that the brain has __two main regions__


1. **Subcortical**: evolutionarily, this is the earliest part of the brain, referred to sometimes as the reptilian brain

* All sensory inputs first enter this part of the brain (specifically the thalamus)
* This is the __region where emotions are generated__ (Ex. amygdala activates fear (and pleasure), but most emotions involve several different regions of the subcortical region)
* Usually __promotes more unconscious, rapid actions__ (jumping at the sight of snake)


2. **Neocortex**: developed later, on top of and envelops subcortical region

* Region of the brain __associated with consciousness and human adaptability__
* For __emotions to become conscious, the neocortex must be stimulated by neural pathways__ emanating from the subcortical areas
* Part of the brain that is conscious of emotions, labels them, makes sense of them.

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Differences: subcortical region promotes rapid responses, the neocortex promotes slower responses that we are conscious of

* Through connections, both affect one another and work together

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Emotions and Rationality

Reason separates humans from animals, emotions are primitive

* emotions are irrational and do not support critical thinking

Neurological view: People with brain damage in __precortical regions central to emotionality are horrible decision-makers.__

We make decisions based on the strength of positive and negative emotions that we attach to each possible decision.

reason and emotions cannot and should not be separated.

Cognitive View: Psychology (TURNER & STETS)

Focuses on the role of cognition in emotions

* **Cognition**: cognizant mental process involved in acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and then senses (conscious thinking)

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Emphasizes the role of judgements in influencing emotions

* Central idea is that __emotions do not emerge until we are cognizant of them and appraise them/make sense of them__

__Authors disagree that cognition precedes physiological responses__ but not that cognition affects emotions in many ways

* Psychological views offer insight when not taken to the extreme by changing the areas of the brain that are active
* Helps link sociological and biological views

Social Construction: The Sociological View

Emotions are greatly shaped by culture and culture affects emotions through cognitive processes

**social side:** emotions are conditioned by how we are socialized

* cultures construct emotions - gives labels for emotions, tells us what they mean and tell us when it’s legitimate to express these emotions
* vocabulary of emotions allows us to make sense of and to control our emotional reactions

Implicit Model of Human Emotions (TURNER AND STETS)

Based on biology but linked to the social side through cognition.

Believe that emotions are "soft wired" in the human brain

* Innate elements, but the neocortex shapes our emotions in ways that allow sociological to influence, potentially transforming biological responses

Neocortex is vital for making people aware of emotions

* Allows us to label and make sense of emotions, which has a large effect on how we experience emotions and act according to them
* Allows people to follow emotional norms and manage their emotions
* Social Environment: Influences/teaches the neocortex by imparting norms, labels, understandings, meanings that affect how the neocortex mediates signals from the subcortical region
* Can also affect our unconscious neocortical reactions through experience

Types of human emotions

1. **Positive or Negative emotions**: based on desirability

* We appear to have more negative emotions that positive, suggests our behaviour is more influence by the negative (not all agree)

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2. **Primary emotions**: universal emotions experienced by people in all cultures

* Have clear physical markers that many believe are universal
* there are disagreements as to which emotions are primary/universal. all reactions address certain situations in ways that promoted survival


2. **Secondary Emotions:** authors describe as combinations of primary emotions; more complex and less universal

* Less universal physical markets, not all cultures recognize them, much more influenced by socialization
* Pultchik: Result from the combination of different primary emotions
* the brain combines different emotions in different ways, creating an infinite amount of different emotions that are possible

Hochschild and Types of Emotions

Suggests that emotions are socially determined

* claims social relations/context have great influence on secondary emotions

The labelling or naming of emotions is very important on creating varieties of emotions and is influenced by the social side

We can experience a primary emotions but our cognitive focus and pre existing opinion/understanding shape how we hape and experience emotions

* Suggest that how we think about and consider the situation causing emotions affects which emotions we have (that is, which parts of the brain are stimulated)
* Very situational

Because out social relations affect our cognition, option and understandings Hochschild places more importance on the social influences of emotions

Hochschild: Types of Sadness

Our focus, opinions and views affect the particular type of sadness that we feel. Prior opinions and assumptions also affect emotions

Emotions depend on the situation and our views.

Nature vs. Nurture Debate

Coined by Sir Francis Galton

* Took an extreme nature perspective based on eugenics (some races are superior than others, influenced Nazis)

Biology and sociology are commonly portrayed as opposing disciplines (Nature vs nurture)

* But humans are BOTH biological creatures and social animals
* Our biology makes us sociable and allows our social relations shape us
* Although commonly disregard by sociology, biology is inherently part of what sociologists study and must inform sociology


1. **unifying nature:** human biology unites us. sociologists should use biological arguments to explain commonalities instead of differences.
2. **interaction:** nature and nurture affect one another, and neither has the upper hand

Biology of Sociology

Humans are biological creatures, and our biology shapes us. Biology does not have to be divisive.

**Biology**: natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their physical structure, chemina; processes, etc...

**Neurobiology**: focusing on the nervous system, with the brain ebing the focus

* Main goals are nothing less than an understanding of the biological basis of learning, memory, behaviour, perception, and consciousness

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Social Rules for Social Animals

Social animals require some way of coordinating actions to allow everyone to live together peacefully.

* If not it hurts the chances of individual survival. Without constant interaction, we experience mental trauma.

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Instinct

Action that is

* Relatively complex
* Unlearned
* Species-wide
* Manifest when maturity is reached
* Triggered by a stimulus
* Ex. bees hae extremely complex behaviour such as a waggle dance (they just know how to do it, dont have to learn)

Many argue that humans don't have instincts

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**Drive**: genes that push human actions through urges for food, companionship, shelter, sex

* Not as complex or controlling as instincts but also allow us to survive and push us to pursue certain needs

Suggest our genes do not control us as much as other animals

* We have considerable control because we can pressure these drives in different ways by using our creative intelligence

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Creative Intelligence

Humans view themselves as uniquely intelligent and we act __based on reasoned calculation, not instincts.__

**Creative intelligence is based on biology**

Humans are problem solvers with the capacity to create technology and communicate complex ideas

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* Creative intelligence allows us to __adapt to diverse environments and survive by gaining the necessities for survive through our actions__


* Manipulate objects and our environment
* communicate complex thoughts and transmit knowledge from generation to generation.

Our biology allows us to be influenced by our environment because we don't have these instincts and have creative intelligence

**we create our own social rules through creative intelligence, which is biologically based.**

Nurture reinforcing nature

Some sociologists think that __our genres can affect our actions and interactions in additional ways__

* Nature promotes predispositions and nurture commonly reinforces their predispositions
* Makes them stronger than they would be alone

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Effect of Nature in Nurture in the Prefrontal Cortex

* part of the neocortex
* centrally involved in planning complex cognitive behavior, decision-making, personality expression, and regulating social behavior
* PFC does not fully mature until 25 years old
* social environment affects the development of the PVC until 25; physical change because of the amount of synapses.

**Tuner and the Evolution of Human Emotions**

Engages with biology and neurology and presents and evolutionary view of emotionality

* Shares Darwin's view that __human emotionality is based largely in our genes__ (many sociologists disagrees)

He still thinks __social relations affect the brain and emotionality__, as the model we went over previously shows

__Emotions: commonly viewed as both primitive and advanced__

* **Primitive**: reason is viewed as most advanced and emotions behaviour is disregarded as a lack of control
* **Advanced**: many separate humans from animals believing that most other animals dont experience emotions

Turner disagrees with both of these views

* **Human emotionality is very advanced and makes us who we are**
* Also notes that many other animals experience emotions

Humans, unlike other animals that feel emotions, experience more and more powerful emotions

* Notes that the regions in the human brain that are involved emotional productions are twice as large as in other apes
* We also experience many more emotions than apes
* We are "the" emotional animal

Turners major __research question is where this exceptional emotionality comes from__

* Believes it __emerged to allow humans to survive once they left the trees__ (in the last 10 million years - recent)
* Roughly 10 million years ago, climatic changes caused vast regions of Africa to transform from forest to savannahs.
* Human ancestors lived in the trees and descended and successfully adapted to life on the savannah
* This required considerable adaptation because out human ancestors were not prepared for this life

TURNER: Troubles adapting to life in the Savannah

All evidence suggests that our ancestors were mostly solitary loners when they descended from the trees

Life on the savannah for loner aos was not easy
- We were slow and could not outrun the many predators
- Weapons: our ancestors didn't have weapons to defend themselves and couldn't easily use them because they did not walk upright
- Solitary animals cannot work as a group to defend themselves
- Why social monkeys like baboons thrive on the savannah (even though they were slow and had no weapons)

Our human ancestors could not possibly become fast like antelopes given out basic anatomy, and it took million of years to develop upright walking and weapons
- Our ancestors therefore needed to become sociable and emotions were key to this

TURNER: Danger of Being a Loner

* **Loners:** all evidence suggest that our ancestors were mostly solitary animals when they left the trees
* **Cooperation**: solitary animals cannot cooperate to defend themselves
* Cooperation explains why baboons thrive on the savannah
* Turner says humans couldn't evolve to be fast or strong quickly
* **Flight:** our human ancestors could not possibly become fast like antelopes
* **Fight:** it took millions of years for hominids to invent weapons
* __**Turner argues that they therefore needed to become sociable to survive, and emotions were the key to this**__

TURNER: Developing emotions and becoming sociable

Two pre-existing aspects of the human brain allowed us to develop out emotionality:


1. **Subcortical**: we already had __relatively large subcortical regions of the brain that dealt directly and indirectly with emotionality__

* Able to simply expand and increase ties between them


2. **Neocortex**: we already had a large neocortical regions of the brain

* Dense ties between the subcortical and neocortical regions __allowed for new and powerful emotions that play a central roles in social control and our social ability__
* Ex. shame and guilt depend on neocortex because they depend on norms of behaviour
* __Without these, you have a lot of psychopaths, and this is bad for social relations__

TURNER: How emotions make us sociable

How emotions promote Sociability:


1. **Sociable Drive:** Emotions underlie our need for social relations -Negative emotions are key to having social relations (push us to be sociable)

* Anxiety, sadness, depression when not interacting with others
* We experience positive emotions when interacting with others in various ways
* Those __individual ancestors with mutations that promoted negative emotional responses to isolation and positive emotional responses to social interaction were more likely to be sociable and to survive__


2. **Group Behavior**: Emotions also helped humans live together as a group, supporting one another and coordinating their actions to promote individual and group survival on the savannah (needed emotions linked to certain norms - developed through neocortex):

**Equality and reciprocity**: Already present in apes, and developed further in humans as mechanism to promote sharing resources and, thereby, survival

* When these norms are broken there are negative consequences
* People treated each other equally

**Shame and Guilt**: Promote __behavior benefiting the collective without the use of extreme coercion__ (which limits social relations)

* Coercion also makes people help group but increases antisocial behaviour

These emotions were much more powerful and intense than any other force driving sociability

TURNER: EMOTIONS AND THE COLLECTIVE

There is also evidence that emotions underlie collective self identification: allowing us to see ourselves as part of a larger collective
- This increased our sociability and improved chances of survival

Our human ancestors appear to have gotten together in ritual like activities to express collective emotions that promote collective feelings of oneness
- Ex. Chimps do this, and appears important in getting them to cooperate to defend and expand their territory against rivals—called carnival
- This is necessary for chimps because they are less sociable and allows them to work together to defend their territory against other chimps
- They are increasing their emotionality together, which increases their groupness

These aspects of the human brain were strengthened over time through evolutionary processes
- We developed carnival like rituals for more common interactions

With the further development of the neocortex, able to use symbols to represent community in ritual
- Example: national anthem, flag
- Spark emotions that support collective self-identification with ease and regularity

Turner’s most significant claims

Turner agrees that socialization is important for some emotions, less so primary emotions but argues that emotionality is still in our genes and that its neurological traits that make emotional socialization and construction possible.

* argues that humans are so emotional because it allowed us to become highly sociable
* emotions are geared toward social behavior, which suggest that emotions shape how we interact with others
* **we cannot understand human relations much if we ignore the emotions that makes us sociable**

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The Enlightenment

* The Enlightenment to the Scientific Revolution promoted sociology
* Emphasized power of reason, humankind's dominance over nature
* Romanticism was a reaction to the Enlightenment
* Downplayed reason  and emphasized emotionality and the splendor and power of nature
* Early sociologists were influenced by both the Enlightenment and Romanticism
* Considered rationality as well as emotions, even if rationality is the focus


* Considered rationality as well as emotions, even if rationality was most emphasized

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**Barbalet**

Discusses the dominating influence of the Enlightenment and the struggle to bring emotions back in

* By the second generation sociologists, Romanticism had lost its influence and was rejected
* As part of this rejection, emotions disappeared from sociological analysis
* Cause of anti-emotionalism: similar processes in history, psychology, anthropology, nd other disciplines, so causes seem to be bigger than sociology
* Some type of anti-emotional zeitgeist
* Yet Max Weber and Talcott Parsons played important roles (most influential sociologist of the 2nd gen)

Weber & Rationality Focus

Much of Weber's work focused on __how social relations had become increasingly rational over the past century or two__

* Superstition was declining, science strengthening (Ideas from science were increasing that needed to be believed)
* __People acted increasingly based on rational calculation instead of beliefs,__ urges and habit (We think rationality before we did something)
* Bureaucracy was a rational form of organization that rose to dominance
(Came from capitalism, which was also very rational)
* Rule of Law was the rationalization of rules

Ultimately, Weber saw __**modernity as the rationalization of social relations**__

WEBERS MODERNITY AND RATIONALIZATION

Focus of American sociology was on industrialized society:
- Saw as increasingly rationally organized
- Saw science as the new religion
- Viewed human behavior as dominated by rational action

Rational-Actor Model: Believed human behavior was influenced overwhelmingly by rational calculation of costs and benefits
- We choose to act in a certain way because the overall benefits are greater and the overall costs are lower than other alternatives

Similarly, psychology, history, and philosophy largely disregarded emotions at this time

Talcott Parsons

Talcott Parsons: Very influential American sociologist from the 1930s to the 1970s and popularized a version of Weberian sociology that emphasized a meta-theory: **Rationalization**

* Functionalist: Parson's viewed "societies" as a social body - pseudo living entities
* Like a body, various functions need to be performed for the social body to survive
* Political, economic, reproductive, educational, etc.

 

* Parson's accepted the "modern" society was based on rationality
* All major social institutions were rationally organized, allowed them to function collectively to allow social survival
* Emotions: Parson's saw emotions as non-rational and therefore as disruptive to the functioning of social bodies
* __Bias: Modern institutions therefore suppresses emotions so society can function properly__

Weberian Rationality

**Rationalization**: Process in which *individual behavior* and *social relations* become increasingly rational

4 types of social action:

* **instrumental-rational**: maximize benefits, limits cost
* **value-rational**: act rational to support values; rationally calculated to support values
* **traditional/habitual**: people act because it is how things have always been done; by habit
* **Affective**: emotional actions; pushing emotions to act;
* __Weber focused most on rational, the least on affective__

Affective is purely emotional, and value rational is guided by emotions informed by values (ex. If should share my cookie with anne because she shared with me and if i don't I will feel bad)

* Weber does not pay attention to this but mention it exists

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Weber’s *Protestant Ethnic and the Spirit of Capitalism*

Calvinism, Emotions, and Action: The Protestant Ethnic and The Spirit of Capitalism is Weber's best know book

* Argues that certain aspects of the Calvinist creed promoted certain actions that contributed to the rise of capitalism

Weber emphasizes that these aspects of the creed that promoted work hard, save, and reinvest profits for the sake of getting more and more money

* All of these are irrational (money for moneys sake)

Theorizes of why this is done:


1. Because __Calvinism believes that when you are born you already destined to go to heaven or hell (nothing you do on earth has an impact)__

* A way to distract themselves was hard work and to bring glory to God through this hard work


2. __Idea that if they excelled in their jobs and worked hard, it would show that they are blessed and would go to heaven__
3. Aesthetics: did not believe people should live lives of ease but should instead live __simple lives__

* If they made a lot of money they could not spend that money to make their lives easier but instead had to work

Emotions also played a central role in this

* Ex. __Anxiety and fear of going to hell pushed people to work hard__, be successful, and reinvest their profits (predestination, calling, aestheticism)
* pride/shame: promoted successful calling
* Calvinists also had strict norms or else they would be excommunicated from their group (lead to shame)
* If they successed in their jobs they would feel pride, pushing them to work even harder

**Bringing emotions back in**

By 1970s, scholars in a variety of disciplines— became increasingly interested in emotions

Barbalet suggests that __major historical events weakened rational-actor model and created more interest in emotions__

* Most influential include: Hippie/counter-cultural movement, anti-Vietnam movement, student movements, all of which criticized modernity and rationalization and emphasized emotions, which was vital to bring emotions back
* all criticized modernity and raitonalization
* Ironically, Weber feared this, referring to bureaucratization and hyper rational capitalism as "iron cages”

Weakening of the rational-actor model (and the historical events of the time) created a larger opening for studying emotions


1. **Social systemic**: social environment shaped our emotions in addition to our interests, opportunities, and outlooks


2. Social actor: focuses on how emotions shape human behavior and social interactions


1. Both reason and emotions shape how we act

Emotional Social Constructionism

Suggest that culture greatly shapes/determines emotions. It affects how we label, perceive, understand, and manage emotions.

Thus, there is great diversity by culture.

Barbalet does not like this when it is taken to an extreme because it reduces emotions to culture, and ignores the biological base, thus not considering how emotions shape social relations.

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Barbalet suggests an alternative systematic approach that focuses on how certain social contexts provoke certain emotions. This view suggests that human emotionality is more universal and biologically based. Combined with the social actor perspective; emotions shape how we act.

RANDALL COLLIN’S *Conflict Sociology*

Argues that emotions play vital roles promoting the two things that sociologists focus on most:


1. **Conflict**: Since Marx, sociologists have focused on how conflict is a major determinant of social change

* Results in us to focus on racial, gender, class, sexual and other inequalities which drive social changes
* __Collins argues that emotions play a major role pushing people to act on grievances__
* Ex. emotions drive Marx's class conflict because the workers are alienated, leading to fear, anger, anxiety, which leads them to want change and the owners are fearful that their workers will rise up
* Yet also sees that __social structures shape these emotions and promote them among many people__


2. **Consensus**: Since Durkheim, sociologists have focused on the importance of __consensus—the glue that holds society together, promotes peaceful relations__

* Collins notes that it is __shared emotions focused on the collective that helps promote collective unity and that emotions help to enforce social rules that maintain consensus and limit conflict__
* Ex. Durkheim's collective consciousness
* Pride of ingroup, fear of threat to ingroup vital for collective self-identification
* Guilt/shame push people to follow social rules, anger if people break them
* Observing deviant acts and punishing perpetrators promotes collective consciousness through emotions (so outrageous because they are acting against the collective and singling out the single person against the group)

Randall Collin’s Claims

* conflict and consensus are dominant influences on social relations
* we cannot understand conflict or consensus without considering emotions because emotionality underlies in both social conflict and consensus;
* thus; emotions underlie our sociability

MARX: Dialectical (Historical Materialism)

At most basic, Marxist theory combines dialectic (historical) with materialism


1. **Dialectic**: a perspective used in philosophy to __make sense of the world, focuses on__ __*contradictions*__ __and oppositions and how the world is full of them__

* Suggests there are opposing, contradictory forces, that these forces interact, and that this interaction creates a new force
* Initial force (Thesis), opposing force (antithesis), and new force (synthesis) = cycle’’ continuing dialectic

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**Conflict Perspective**: Belief that __society is constantly changing due to conflict between forces and their antithetical counterparts__

* Underlying Assumption: humans are competitive and conflictual and these __conflicts are the basis of society__


2. **Materialism**: The economic system and its production is the basis of society Superstructure Base; fo all social relations

* Economy determines all other social relations (politics, family, religion, education, etc.)
* If you want to understand a society and social interaction, look at its economy

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Individual: Suggests that material aspects of our lives affect our norms, interests, how we perceive the world

* If you want to __understand someone, look at the economy they participate in and their position in it__

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**Forces (means) of Production**: material technologies used to exploit the environment to make possible societies

**Relations of Production**: relations that govern the forces of production

* How people interact to produce things using forces of production

**Mode of Production**: Combination of __material technologies and the relations__ that governs the social relations in these forces of production

__**Claim: Dialectical conflict results from contradiction in the forces and relations of production and eventually promotes new mode and forces of production**__

MARX stages of social development

Marx claimed that conflict within the relations of production results in different economic stages/modes of production:


1. **Hunter-Forager Society**: we gathered and hunt to get the necessities of life using rudimentary technology

* Don’t have different classes and thus not very much class conflict


2. **Slave/Agrarian Society**: new technologies and social relations that have the class of slave owners and class of slaves

* Can control the labours of others to get them to do work
* Very alienating and exploitative
* Contradictions in the unequal work and continuing technology that weakened slavery


3. **Feudal Society**: lords and serfs

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4. **Capitalist society:** exploitative that slave society but thought there were also contradiction and conflicts that would promote communism

* Marx thought that this was an efficient way of production, but there was extreme inequalities


3. **Communist Society**: instead of having two classes with one dominant and one submissive, people in communism are all equal and can reap the benefits of their labour.

MARX: Class conflict

When talking about relations of production, Marx is referring to classes

* Slave Owner/Slave
* Lord/Serf
* Bourgeoisie/Proletariat

These class divisions are based on who controls forces of production, which allows one class to dominate the other, usurp their labour

* Owners of production dominate relations of production
* This inequality is embedded in these modes of production that leads to the conflict that leads to a new mode of production

Historical Transformation: __For Marx, history of social change is all about how productive technologies and class conflict interact to drive change__

* Views __alienation__ and __exploitation__ as cause of conflict

MARX: Human Nature and Alienation

Marx: Sees two elements of our nature:


1. We are sociable creatures shaped by our social environments


2. Humans are different because we knowingly control our labour and have a drive to control it (Marx’s focus)

* Other Animals have instincts causing them to act in ways to get the necessities of life
* We recognize that we can work to get what we need and want to retain this freedom and reap the benefits of our labor
* If others control our labor instead of us, we are going to feel anxiety; negative emotions' recognizing we work for ourselves
* Freedom to labor to get the benefits that we want
* When we don’t control labor - we experience a neurological reaction
* Other animals are different because they aren't conscious of what  they are doing.

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MARX: Labour and Alienation

Alienation occurs when humans lose control of their labor. Under capitalism, workers lose control of their labor.

* Labour is commodified (monetary value) and bought and sold
* Bourgeoisie buy and control the labour of workers
* Workers are forced to do what the bourgeoisie tell them to because they own their work
* Promotes strong grievances caused by alienation

Promotes Alienation in 4 ways:


1. Alienated from __productive activity__: don't get to choose what to produce and are just told
2. Alienated from __product__: working to produce a product but its not their product but the owners (bourgeoisie), don't control output/how it's sold
3. Alienated from __workers__: technologies isolate workers from one another
4. Alienated from __human potential__: "Instead of work being the transformation and fulfillment of our human nature, work is where we feel least human, least ourselves."

* Because we have lost all control of it

MARX & Exploitation

Exploitation combine with alienation to promote class conflict

* Marx's idea of capitalist exploitation is based on his labour-theory of value: argues that capitalism exploited because the value of the good is based on the amount of labour going into production; based on the *labor-theory of value*

**Capitalism**: Profits are made by paying workers for only part of the labour

* Ex. the value of the produced item its 10$ but the worker only makes 3$
* This is exploitation according to Marx: only paid partially of what their goods are worth
* Necessary element of capitalism which causes grievances

**Competition**: Capitalists compete with one another to sell their goods, forces them to limit wages so that they have an edge over the competition

Workers become increasingly exploited, they get paid less and less the true value of their labour;  extra money going to the bourgeoisie

* Sees as contradiction of capitalism promoting eventual crisis

Not being paid the full value of labor: Exploitation

Marxism and Revolution

Marx thought capitalism was doomed because of the conflict resulting form alienation and exploitation

* A revolution would eventually destroy it with Communism

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**Class Consciousness**: Workers would realize that they are all being taken advantage of, being exploited, making very little and due to closer interactions of workers through urbanization and political organization, there would be a revolution.

MARXIST explanation for no revolution

1. **False Consciousness**: Capitalists create powerful ideology insisting that workers are free to choose what they want and that capitalism is the best

* Promotes false consciousness whereby the objective (real interest of workers) and subjective interests (what they think their interests actually are) of workers don't align
* capitalism created a hegemony that caused people to think that capitalists and workers are being alienated
* Limits the realization that capitalism is alienating and exploitative


2. **Nationalism**: Although Marx ignored, but other Marxists note that it has trumped class consciousness and hid objective interests
3. **Colonialism and Globalization:** Lenin noted that colonialism helped to stave off the crisis because through colonialism the capitalist powers could get more profits/resources
4. **Non-Marxists**: simply claim that Marxist social theory is wrong.

* Others note that globalization has similar effects

MARX and emotions

1. **Grievances**: heart of marxist theory and are based on emotional reactions to particular social situations
* Pushing people to act due to their emotions and need to control labor


2. **Alienation:** Promotes angst, anger, for being unable to control labor & losing economic freedom.
* linked to view of human nature which has a drive to maintain control of our labor; drive for freedom


3. **Exploitation**: promotes anger and resentment among workers for not getting their fair share
* these emotions drive conflict behind social change

__emotions determine class conflict.__

__emotional response is the most important.__

Broad View (Breadth)

Other social sciences disciplines wear blinders limiting what they analyze, but sociology analyzes all types and aspects of social relations.

For instance, economics, political science and anthropology are subsumed by sociology.

Sociology Focus

Sociology _____ more on the relationship between individuals and social structures.

Sociologists see the individual and social structures as inseparable

* Can’t have a dance without dancers, can’t have dancers without a dance

Benefit of Sociology

Gives a different perspective, able to see how all types of social relations are interrelated and influential. The ability to better consider the full picture.

Disadvantage of sociology

Sociology is more eclectic and divided than other social science. It is difficult to analyze everything at once.

Social Structure

Enduring patterns of social relations.

Linking individuals to a broader structure that cannot be separated.

**We cannot understand individuals or social structures without looking both through social relations**

Socialization

Affects how we perceive the social world

* see the world based on how we socialize
* biased'; see different things
* senses can cause them to see things differently
* no objective way to see the world

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Why is sociology a problematic science?

1. Lack of controlled experiments: impossible; immoral


1. the change of focus is going to be the result of the manipulation of one characteristic
2. Extreme complexity: Multicausality, interpretation
3. researcher bias

Scientific Revolution

Event that pushed people to try to understand the world around them. Linked to the Enlightenment, which expanded interest in reason and knowledge.

**Limit**: This event promoted science but also needed something to apply science to social relations.

Industrial Revolution & French Revolution

Transformed several aspects of social relations and the creation of more ideological effects.

These social transformations caused people to pay attention to social relations, to be concerned about them, to want to try to control and change them to engineer better societies.

Humans

Most emotional animal, rooted in their brains. Focus is on the size of the cortex.

**The Forms of Anti-Emotional Sociology**

* Barbalet described two general perspectives that dominates sociological analysis and notes how they ignored emotions
* **Social systemic:** focuses on how the social environment shapes us, makes us who we are, determines our actions
* Shape our expectations, opportunities, interests
* Ignored how social environement shaped our emotionality
* **Social actor:** sees human interactions as based on self-conscious, reflective decision-making-rational action
* Focuses on calculation and ignores emotionality
* Focuses on why individuals act the way that they do
* And works that link the two didn't bring in emotions

Karl Marx

Influential founding figure of Sociology. Believed that we could analyze social relations to gain and understanding.

* thought that we could manipulate laws and use sociology to make a better world
* **Marxist social theory**: tries to explain nothing less than all major historical societal transformations
* Evolutionary view of societies from simple to more complex
* Combined the dialectic and materialism to come up with an elegant theory that lies at the heart of Marxist theory
* Claims that the *economy* is the source *&* produces dialectical conflict (class conflict) that drives the *evolution* of *human societies* and social relations
* Marxism focuses on conflict
* __For Marx, history of social change is all about how productive technologies and class conflict interact to drive change__

Theory vs. Ideology

**Social theory**: Postulates about how the social world is; hypotheses

* Theory should __guide analysis so we can improve understandings__
* Goal: to help us better understand the social world

**Ideology**: claim about how things *should* be

* Informed by morals and values, not empirical evidence
* Goal: to inspire us to pursue ideology

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Durkheim’s claims

* To study Sociology, we must analyze the *social facts* and the *patterned social relations* they create
* “the social structures and cultural norms and values that are external to, and coercive of, actors”
* believes that societies are real; is something in of itself, runs through all of us and shapes us; focusing on the functional needs of societies
* thinks that social facts are necessary for holding societies together

Durkheim and Functionalism

Durkheim first introduced the __functionalist theory__. This means that societies are viewed as real entities. Therefore, it focuses on the functional needs of societies.

Sources of Consensus

Social density and Moral Density makes societies different from one another because they promote facts, and this is what sociologists study.

* Suicide is grealty shaped by social and moral density

Social Density

Physical Pattern of who is the presence of whom, for how long, and with how much space between them.

* suggests the physicality of our relations is important
* without it, we can’t have high levels of consensus

Moral Density

* Results from Social Density.
* involves shared norms, laws, values, ideas, understandings, beliefs, perspectives

**collective conscience:** a sense of belonging to a community, a feeling of obligation toward the collective

**rituals:** important source of collective Conscience.

Types of Suicide According to Durkheim

1. Egotistic
2. Altruistic
3. Anomic
4. Fatalistic

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Egotistic Suicide

Results from individual not being integrated into society

* lacks what social relations endow such as morality, values and sense of purposes.
* only focuses on the individual interest, desires, and lack social ties
* promotes emotions of: social Isolation=Loneliness

Altruistic Suicide

Occurs when social integration is too strong.


1. All powerful social facts cause people to sacrifice individual for well-being of collective (heroic act or shame and redemption)
2. So influential on you, individuals are willing to sacrifice themselves for the well-being of the community
3. One acts in a way that will shame or embarrass the collective; by suicide you make up for the damage done to the society
* promotes emotions of:
* Extreme Social Integration=Shame/honour

Anomic Suicide

occurs when regulative powers of society are disrupted, results in restlessness and normlessness and the insatiable race for gratification.

* most influential
* promotes emotions of:
* Break down of social relations=Angst

Fatalistic Suicide

Occurs when negative regulative powers are too strong and oppressive

* promotes lack of freedom and desperation
* suicide as last option of escape
* promotes emotions of:
* Domination=Exhaustion, lack of hope

Division of Labor (DURKHEIM)

* focuses on consensus
* claims that it promoted a new and superior morality (moral density)
* DIVISION OF LABOR IS BAD

Mechanical Solidarity

Traditional society + Mechanical Solidarity

Everyone is socialized to be exactly the same as everyone else - *conformity is the basis of solidarity*

* Social rules: severe punishment for breaking particular social rules (retribution for not conforming)
* Identity: one's personal identity is completely subsumed by the collective - little individualism
* Religion: totem representing the community is worshipped

Organic Solidarity

Modern Society + Organic Society.

Interdependence is the basis of consensus.

* you feel unity with people because you are interdependent
* Punishment - little for failure to conform, much less severe for breaking social rules
* Identity - individualism, collective based on respect for individual
* Religion- universal instead of community specific

Durkheim thought the European society was moving from mechanical to organic solidarity.

* favors organic solidarity
* believes organic solidarity would limit the pressure for conformity and allow a place for difference *as long as everyone held common general norm/values*
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Homo Duplex

* Durkheim's work on social solidarity is based on particular theory of the brain, in which ritual plays important role
* He believed that the brain had different levels of consciousness and switched from one to the other depending on the social context
* Level 1: Individual level - concerned about individual gratification
* Level 2: Group Level - perceive the world in terms of group, strong sentiments toward group
* Helps curb insatiable drive for gratification, promotes morality
* Rituals: saw rituals and symbols __as means of switching to group consciousness from individual__ (from level 1 to level 2; frame of the collective)
* Rituals promote “emotional effervescence” that promotes a strong collective consciousness
* Religion very important, most present, as he noted in his last book

Totemism

Primitive religion hold animals and plants as sacred and use them to symbolize the community.

* In effect, religion worships the community
* Rituals core to this process
* Totemistic religions; community accepted an object as a representative for the community; worship the community
* Being used to create a strong collective consciousness


* Largely supported by evolutionary psychologists today who see religion as a means of promoting a collective consciousness
* Collective consciousness improves chances of survival, so all humans predisposed to religiosity because religion promotes a collective consciousness

Adam Smith

Argues that humans have a nature that has two opposing sides: *Individual* and *social.*

* *Wealth of Nations:* focuses on the individual
* *The Theory of Moral Sentiments* : focuses on social nature
* argues that sympathy is a natural sentiment that underlies our social nature; now commonly refer to as empathy
* argues that empathy forms the base of morality, or agreed upon norms of social behavior
* morality allows social interactions
* argues that humans are by nature emotional and that emotions make us moral, thereby sociable
* empathy is key because it promotes morality
* emphasizes emotions more than reason