Dogmatism and Competitive Relationships Between Soccer Teams

In the framework of intergroup relationships, Social Identity Theory (SIT) and Real Conflict Theory (RCT) both hypothesize a positive relationship between social identification and ethnocentrism in threatening en-vironments. The RCT proposes that conflict for scarce resources between groups determines ingroup identification while the SIT predicts that intensity of social identification leads to outgroup hostility in threatening contexts. An examination of these relationships is undertaken in a competitive sports context with the help of the dogmatism scale. Relationships between Belief and Activism Toward One Cause, as a social identification measure, and Out-group Authoritarian Intolerance, as an ethnocentrism measure were studied across two experimental conditions (neutral vs. competitive). The results describe a positive effect of Out-group Authoritarian Intolerance, measured in the neutral condition, on Belief and Activism Toward One Cause, measured in the competitive condition, validating RCT. The results are discussed based on complementary individual and collective analyses (i.e., dogmatism and intergroup relationship theories) of ethnocentrism.     

A Test of Symbolic Interactionist Predictions About Emotions in Imagined Situations

From the perspective of symbolic interactionism, inner experiences—including emotions—are shaped culturally as individuals formulate events in words, and individual experiences are shaped socially as others contribute to the verbal formulation of one's experiences. Understanding cultural shaping and social negotiation of emotions requires understanding how emotion attributions arise from linguistic framings of events, and Affect Control Theory (ACT) offers a model of emotions that addresses this issue. We report tests of ACT predictions of emotions in 128 events against self-reported emotions of respondents imagining themselves in such situations. ACT predictions are found to correlate with self-reported emotions. Thus, empirical results validate ACT's postulate that emotions emerge from the personal impression that is generated in an event, along with the difference between that impression and the person's identity. In the conclusion, we discuss how the ACT formulation can enlighten interpretations of social negotiations regarding emotions.     

The Contribution of Older Siblings' Reactions to Emotions to Preschoolers' Emotional and Social Competence

SUMMARY

According to Tompkins' (1991) theory on the socialization of emotion, young children's emotional and social competence are influenced by others' reactions to the children's emotions. Patterns of parental reactions to emotions have been shown to account for significant variance in preschoolers' emotion and social competence. However, the impact of others significant in the preschooler's life has been largely ignored. To help fill this gap, associations were examined between older siblings' reactions to 41 preschoolers' emotions and the preschoolers' social-emotional competence (i.e., affective balance, emotion knowledge, positive, prosocial, and provocative responding to peers' emotions, sociometric likability, and teacher-rated social competence). Using a multiple regression strategy, the contributions of sibling reactions and moderating demographic variables to preschooler emotional and social competence were evaluated. Certain sibling reactions, especially positive emotional responsiveness, were shown to play important roles. Many predictions were moderated by age of child, sex of one dyad member     

Personal identity and social identity: two different processes or a single one? / Identidad personal e identidad social. ¿Dos procesos diferentes o uno solo?

Abstract

Personal identity, or the definition of oneself in terms of personal idiosyncratic attributes, and social identity, or the definition of oneself in terms of affiliations with different categories or groups, have often been examined as two separate phenomena in the psychosocial literature. However, there are at least two theories which have deliberately researched the relationship between the two. One of these theories has done so for almost five decades (Social Identity Theory), while the alternative approach (Identity Fusion, or the visceral sense of oneness with the group) began to be developed less than one decade ago. The purpose of this special issue is to survey how approaches grounded upon both theories have attempted to explain some individuals’ extreme behaviours for their group. It also includes studies that examine the origins of identity fusion, the processes that relate it with extreme behaviour (such as the extension of familial ties to groups or the acceptance of violence), as well as a subtle demonstration of how group identity can affect interpersonal relationships.     

Tweeting India’s Nirbhaya protest: a study of emotional dynamics in an online social movement

Abstract

Previous research has recognized the role of emotions in protests and social movements in the offline world. Despite the current scenario of ubiquitous social media and ‘Twitter revolutions,’ our knowledge about the connections between emotions and online protests still remains limited. In this study, we examine whether online protest actions follow the same emotional groundwork for supporting and nurturing a social movement as in the offline world, and how these emotions vary across various stages of the social movement. Through a computer-assisted emotion analysis of 65,613 Twitter posts (tweets), posted during the Nirbhaya social movement (movement against the Delhi gang-rape incident) in India, we identified a strong resemblance between online emotional patterns and offline protest emotions as discussed in literature. Formal statistical testing of a range of emotions (negativity, positivity, anger, sadness, anxiety, certainty, individualism, collectivism, and achievement) demonstrates that they significantly differed across stages of the social movement; as such, they influenced the course of the online protest, resonating parallels with offline events. The findings highlight the importance of anger and anxiety in stirring the collective conscience, and identify that positive emotion was pervasive during the protest event. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Gender,race, and the use of prayer to manage anger

ABSTRACT

Women and blacks are more likely than men and whites to use prayer to manage negative emotions such as anger. However, the pathways explaining these associations are not fully understood. Using data from the 1996 General Social Survey’s emotion module, we evaluate four potential mechanisms that might account for these associations: women’s and blacks’ relatively high levels of religious participation, relatively low socioeconomic status, extended duration of their negative emotional experiences, and relatively lower perceived control. Women’s and blacks’ higher likelihood of using prayer to manage anger is partially accounted for by their higher levels of religious participation, lower socioeconomic status, and duration of anger. Lower levels of perceived control contribute only to blacks’ use of prayer to manage anger. Our findings highlight the importance of identifying pathways that explain why particular social groups use particular emotion management strategies.     

Interactive association between negative emotion regulation and savoring is linked to anxiety symptoms among college students

Abstract

Objective: This study tested the interactive relationships between college students’ perceived capability of regulating negative emotions and savoring positive emotions on mental health outcomes, including anxiety and depressive symptoms. Participants: Participants were healthy undergraduates (n?=?167) recruited from two universities in Hong Kong. Methods: Students completed four scales assessing their perceived capability of using strategies to regulate negative and positive emotions and their anxiety and depressive symptoms. Results: Findings revealed that both anxiety and depressive symptoms were negatively linked to perceived capabilities of regulating negative emotions and savoring positive emotions. Furthermore, regulating negative emotions interacted with savoring positive emotions to predict anxiety symptoms. Conclusions: The need to simultaneously perform negative and positive emotion regulation is highlighted. The results suggest the priority of regulating negative emotions over savoring positive emotions in alleviating anxiety symptoms. Nevertheless, enhancing positive emotion shows greater benefits for those who are less adept at regulating negative emotions.     

The role of emotion dysregulation in the association between subjective social status and eating expectancies among college students

Abstract

Objective: Research suggests that college is a risky period for changes in eating behavior and beliefs. Although social health determinants relate to health behavior changes, research has not explored subjective social status, one’s societal standing, in terms of eating expectancies among college students. The present study examined the emotion dysregulation in association between subjective social status and eating expectancies among college students. Participants: Participants were a diverse sample of 1,589 college students (80.4% females; M_age?=?22.2?years, SD?=?5.27) from an urban university. Results: Results showed a significant indirect association of subjective social status via emotion dysregulation in relation to expectancies of eating to help manage negative affect, to alleviate boredom, and to lead to feeling out of control. Conclusion: These findings provide evidence that college students with lower subjective social status may have a higher risk for dysregulated emotions, and consequently, expressing maladaptive eating expectancies.     

Exploring emotional aspects of care and control in social work with children and families - a single case analysis of conversation

ABSTRACT

In this article, I explore how emotions are displayed and dealt with on a communicative level in face-to-face encounters between social workers and parents in a child welfare setting. The analysis draws upon detailed analysis of a whole encounter between a social worker and a parental couple who have recently had their new-born daughter placed in foster care. By examining the way emotional stances are expressed and responded to I discuss how orientations toward institutional tasks and goals create constraints for the display, recognition and validation of clients’ emotion displays. I consider the communicative challenges this poses for the parents and the social worker and the implications these may have for the client–worker relationship.     

Emotional Experience as a Function of Social Context: The Role of the Other

Inconsistencies in previous findings concerning the relationship between emotion and social context are likely to reflect the multi-dimensionality of the sociality construct. In the present study we focused on the role of the other person by manipulating two aspects of this role: co-experience of the event and expression of emotion. We predicted that another's co-experience and expression would affect emotional responses and that the direction of these effects would depend upon the manipulated emotion and how the role of the other person is appraised. Participants read vignettes eliciting four different emotions: happiness, sadness, anxiety, and anger. As well as an alone condition, there were four conditions in which a friend was present, either co-experiencing the event or merely observing it, and either expressing emotions consistent with the event or not showing any emotion. There were significant effects of co-experience in the case of anger situations, and of expression in the case of happiness and sadness situations. Social appraisal also appeared to influence emotional response. We discuss different processes that might be responsible for these results.     

‘A more colorful picture of my own vision’: expansive learning in Puerto Rico’s student anti-austerity movement

ABSTRACT

Social movement scholars have long been aware of leadership competition or ‘factionalism’ as one of the mechanisms within the longer process of polarization. As such, competition is often discussed as a harbinger of demobilization, and rarely in the context of movement emergence or growth. In turn, education scholars have examined social movement learning primarily as a cognitive process of identity formation, with rare and oblique references to the literature on movement dynamics. The first phase of the 2010–2011 student strike at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) is a useful counterintuitive case for re-examining these conventional wisdoms, as existing studies and first-hand accounts suggest a pattern of intimate connections between factional competition and movement learning. In this article, I propose Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as an alternative framework for analyzing that sequence. By recasting competition and other movement dynamics as aspects of the internal contradictions of nested activity systems, themselves crucial to the emergent process of expansive learning, CHAT may help bridge the gap between fields and approaches.     

Sociological Theories of Poverty in Urban America

ABSTRACT

Since the 1950s, American sociologists have developed a substantial literature on poverty in urban American communities. This literature review examines some of these sociological theories of poverty and identifies four major explanations of urban poverty: social stratification, (including segregation and racism); lack of access to social capital; cultural and value norms; and social policies. The literature review concludes with a conceptual framework that focuses on multiple relationships that link theory to practice related to the reduction of poverty in inner-city communities.     

La calidad de vida. Juicios de satisfacción y felicidad como indicadores actitudinales de bienestar

Abstract

This article argues that institutional apologies are rituals that can be conceived from a neo-Durkheimian viewpoint as external social tools of collective emotion, which allow people to assume collective guilt and shame, increase agreement with reparatory behaviors, and reinforce social cohesion. The review of studies presented in this monograph shows that an apology reactivates and intensifies collective emotions, mainly of shame and guilt, above and beyond merely reminding people of past misdeeds, and increases support for reparation. Shame and sorrow fuel and support reparative tendencies. Finally, salience of past collective violence together with an apology improves social climate to some extent, enhances intergroup reconciliation by decreasing prejudice and improving intergroup contact, and helps to reconstruct in-group collective memory in a more critical way. Changes in collective emotions and representations of the past mediate the positive effects of apologies on reparation and social cohesion.     

Are Theories for Practice Necessary? Yes!

Abstract

Point/Counterpoint is a regular feature of the Journal of Social Work Education. Its purpose is to provide a vehicle for the expression of contrasting views on controversial topics in social work education. Our goal is to illuminate important debates and explore the diverse perspectives that are shaping social work education.

In each issue of the Journal two social work educators are invited to comment on a topic about which they have differing viewpoints. Each commentator is given an opportunity to make a brief rebuttal. In this issue, Barbara Simon (Associate Professor, Columbia University) and Bruce Thyer (Professor, University of Georgia, Athens) address the question: Are theories for practice necessary?     

Facial emotion identification and sexual assault risk detection among college student sexual assault victims and nonvictims

Objective: High rates of sexual victimization among college students necessitate further study of factors associated with sexual assault risk detection. The present study examined how social information processing relates to sexual assault risk detection as a function of sexual assault victimization history. Participants: 225 undergraduates (M_age = 19.12, SD = 1.44; 66% women). Methods: Participants completed an online questionnaire assessing victimization history, an emotion identification task, and a sexual assault risk detection task between June 2013 and May 2014. Results: Emotion identification moderated the association between victimization history and risk detection such that sexual assault survivors with lower emotion identification accuracy also reported the least risk in a sexual assault vignette. Conclusions: Findings suggest that differences in social information processing, specifically recognition of others' emotions, are associated with sexual assault risk detection. College prevention programs could incorporate emotional awareness strategies, particularly for men and women who are sexual assault survivors.     

Controlling others and controlling oneself: Social power and emotion suppression

Abstract

Power is associated with living in reward-rich environments and causes behavioural disinhibition (Keltner, Grumfeld & Anderson, 2003). Powerful people also have greater freedom of emotional expression (Hecht & La France, 1998). Two studies were conducted with the aim of: a) analyzing the effect of dispositional power on emotion suppression, and b) exploring the simple and interaction effects of dispositional and situational power on emotion suppression. In a first correlational study, the power of individuals was found to be negatively correlated with emotion suppression. In a second experimental study, participants were assigned to a powerful or powerless position and negative emotions were induced with pictures. Participants were asked to suppress their emotions during the presentation of the pictures. Participants' emotion suppression was measured using the suppression subscale of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross & John, 2003). Results showed that dispositionally powerless participants suppressed their emotions more than dispositionally powerful participants only when they were assigned to a low power position. These results are discussed.     

The status of race in public sector work: Implications for emotion management and job satisfaction

ABSTRACT

African Americans consistently report lower levels of job satisfaction relative to whites. Using survey data from 1,456 public service employees, we examine whether racial disparities in job satisfaction are related to how African Americans and whites manage their emotions while at work. We contend that race acts as a master status within the workplace that locates African Americans in a subordinate social position to whites and may contribute to greater emotion management effort and greater work-related consequences. The results indicate that, together with traditional indicators of job satisfaction, extensive emotion management efforts of African Americans explain their lower levels of job satisfaction relative to whites.     

Responses to bullying among high-school students through the lens of general strain theory

Abstract

In General Strain Theory (GST), Agnew asserts that negative emotions in response to strains are associated with antisocial behavior. Researchers found GST to explain criminal and self-harm responses to bullying. However, not all youth respond antisocially, such as by harming the self or others. Thus, the question remains, when do youth respond to bullying antisocially versus asocially or prosocially? This study examined situation-based negative emotions, the availability of alternative relationships, and behavioral responses to physical, verbal, relational, and cyber bullying to answer this question. This study integrates research from sociology, criminology, health, and social psychology to address this question among a sample of high-school bully victims. This study found variation in the emotional and behavioral responses based on the type of bullying. However, across bullying types, the availability of alternative relationships was associated with increased prosocial responding.     

The identity curation game: digital inequality,identity work,and emotion management

ABSTRACT

The research examines an understudied facet of digital inequality: how digital inequality impacts identity work and emotion management. The analysis reveals how unequal access to digital resources shapes how well youths are able to play what I call the identity curation game. Digital resources determine youths’ ability to succeed in this game that is governed by three implicit rules: (1) constantly update or be sidelined, (2) engage in constant reciprocated identity-affirming interactions, and (3) maintain a strategy of vigilance to remove traces of failed identity performances. This article draws on Symbolic Interactionism and pays particular attention to Hochschild’s theory of emotion management. Drawing on these frameworks, the findings reveal how under-resourced youths experience connectivity gaps that disrupt their ability to play the identity curation game, as well as the resulting emotional consequences. Under-resourced youths manage distinctive negative emotions arising from connectivity gaps that hinder their digital identity work, as well as engaging in distinct kinds of suppressive work to police their own emotions including longing, envy, shame, frustration, and stigmatization. In making these linkages, the research reveals the cascading effects of digital inequality among youths where constant connectivity is the sine qua non of social inclusion.