AFFECT CONTROL THEORY AND IMPRESSION FORMATIONstate a person has reached as a result of events and
also how that state compares to the ideal experi-
ence of a person with a particular social identity.
For example, if events make a person seem neutral
on goodness, potency, and activity, then the tend-
ency is to feel emotionally neutral, but someone in
the sweetheart role ends up feeling blue because
he or she is experiencing so much less than one
expects in a romantic relationship.
Because emotions reflect the impressions that
events have generated, they are a way of directly
sensing the consequences of social interaction.
Because emotions simultaneously reflect what kinds
of identities people are taking, emotions also are a
way of sensing the operative social structure in a
situation. Moreover, because displays of emotion
broadcast a person’s subjective appraisals to oth-
ers, emotions contribute to intersubjective sharing
of views about social matters.
People sometimes mask their emotions or
display emotions other than those that they feel
spontaneously in order to hide their appraisal of
events from others or to conceal personal defini-
tions of a situation. For example, an actor caught
in misconduct might display guilt and remorse
beyond what is felt in order to convince others that
he believes his behavior is wrong and that he is not
the type who engages in such activity. Such a
display of negative emotion after a deviant act
makes the actor less vulnerable to a deviant label—
an hypothesis derived from the mathematics of
affect control theory (Heise 1989).
APPLICATIONSAffect control theory provides a comprehensive
social-psychological framework relating to roles,
impression formation, behavior, emotion, attribu-
tion, labeling, and other issues (Stryker and Statham
1985). Consequently it is applicable to a variety of
social-psychological problems. For example:
- Smith-Lovin and Douglass (1992) showed
that sentiments about relevant identities
and behaviors are positive in a devi-
ant subculture, and therefore subcultural
interactions are happier than outsiders
believe. - MacKinnon and Langford (1994) found
that moral evaluations determine the pres-
tige of occupations with low and middle
but not high levels of education and
income; and they found that income
affects occupational prestige partly by
adjusting feelings about the potency of the
occupation.- Robinson and Smith-Lovin (1992) found
that people with low self-esteem prefer to
associate with their critics rather than their
flatterers. Robinson (1996) showed that
networks can emerge from self-identities,
with cliques reflecting differing levels of
self-esteem, and dominance structures re-
flecting differing levels of self-potency. - Francis (1997a, 1997b) showed that thera-
pists often promote emotional healing by
embedding clients in a social structure
where key identities have particular EPA
profiles; the identities are associated with
different functions in different therapeutic
ideologies. - Studies of courtroom scenarios (Robinson,
Smith-Lovin, and Tsoudis 1994; Tsoudis
and Smith-Lovin 1998) showed that people
(such as jurors) deal more leniently with
convicted criminals who show remorse
and guilt over their crimes, as predicted
by affect control theory. In a related study,
Scher and Heise (1993) suggested that
perceptions of injustice follow justice-
related emotions of anger or guilt, so
social interactional structures that keep
people happy can prevent mobilization
regarding unjust reward structures. - Heise (1998) suggested that solidarity
comes easier when a group identity is
good, potent, and lively so that group
members engage in helpful actions with
each other and experience emotions in
parallel. Britt and Heise (forthcoming)
showed that successful social movements
instigate a sequence of member emotions,
culminating in pride, which reflect a good,
potent, and lively group identity.
Affect control theory’s mathematical model is
implemented in a computer program that simu-
lates social interactions and predicts the emotions
and interpretations of interactants during expect-
ed or unexpected interpersonal events. Simula-
tions can be conducted with EPA measurements