Emotion - Lecture notes Global Sociology PDF

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Emotion: Latin etymology (to move outwards). Qualitative experience, at first subjective experience that translates a moment in our life. Social sharing of the emotion: To live a strong emotion questions the social norms because because it pushes the individual to look for his approval in his fellow men. - It creates social links, but can also create divisions. - They reflect the positioning of social groups in front of the world. - Is studied by biology, psychology and social/historical sciences. - They touch the body, the mind and the cultures. - They are the object of a categorization which helps to judge the individuals. - For Durkheim the object of sociology is the social fact. Origin of the emotion Centralist theory: The bodily reaction is triggered in response to mechanisms of the central nervous system which, them, would be essential to the specificity of such or such emotion. The emotions are judgments of the mind, the beliefs can thus exert influence on it (example of the fear of the hell in the Middle Ages). Peripheral theory: It is the very perception of this specific peripheral reaction which is the emotion. "The bodily changes immediately follow the perception of the exciting fact, and the exciting fact, and the feeling we have of these changes as they occur, is emotion. " William James. Short circuit: Feeling (touch/see) that provokes a reaction of the reptilian brain (we show our teeth or put our arms in front of our face). (we show our teeth or put our arms in front of our face). Ex: A dog appears, I stop and I stop and decide not to move or to run away. Long Circuit: Same thing, except that there is a passage through the thinking brain, which increases the reaction time. Ex: I look at the dog in detail, look at the the distance between the dog and me, and if he is rabid or not. Jack Panskeep isolates 7 circuits that would activate specific desires and emotions: Pleasure seeking; anger/rage; fear/anxiety; passion/sexuality; devotion to others; panic; fight game (which reduces the desire for violence through the game). Darwin's evolutionary theory: Emotions are universal and fulfill specific functions.

specific functions. They are used to adapt to the environment and to sign to the others what we what we feel. Criticism against Darwin's thesis (which is functionalist): There is a gap between the feeling and to show it (one can simulate emotions). There is also a social framework which manages what one must express (one does not show his love in the same way according to the country)....