Understanding Events: Affect and the Construction of Social Action (American Sociological Association Rose Monographs) - Softcover

Heise, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521295440 ISBN 13: 9780521295444

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2009

Synopsis

It is Professor Heise's premise that the psychology of affect theoretically governs common social actions, such as those of a patient toward a doctor or a mother toward a child. Human behaviour, he argues, normally promotes the maintenance of a steady emotional state. Should events produce undue strain, the individual attempts to anticipate subsequent developments, formulate a course of action and create new events designed to confirm his established sentiments. This book lays the foundation for this approach to interpreting events: it offers a mathematical model grounded in empirical procedures for analysing what happens in social relationships. Topics covered in the book include how situations are defined and events constructed, past research on processes of impression formation, the mathematical derivation for predicting behaviour and the application of this approach to the study of roles. Throughout the book, the theory is shown to be relevant not only for the construction of social action, but also for the reconstruction of events and, in particular, for the identification of social deviants.

About this title

Book Description

Human behaviour, Heise argues, normally promotes the maintenance of a steady emotional state. Should events produce undue strain, the individual attempts to anticipate subsequent developments, formulate a course of action and create new events designed to confirm his established sentiments. This book lays the foundation for this approach to interpreting events

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521295440
• ISBN 13: 9780521295444
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208