Building on contributions from sociology, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, literature, and neuroscience, Henricks develops a more general account of how people discover and reproduce the "meanings" of their involvements with others. Among its many themes are treatments of selves as "projections of personhood," of the ways in which self-expression has changed historically and is now experienced in our electronically mediated era, of emotions as "framing judgments," and of ritual, play, communitas, and work as four distinctive "pathways of experience."

`This addition to a growing number of texts which approach emotions and emotionality from a social constructionist perspective is well written, scholarly, accessible and interesting.... There is both breadth and depth to this work.' - Feminism and Psychology This broad-ranging and accessible book brings together social and cultural theory with original empirical research into the nature of the emotional self in contemporary western societies. The emphasis of the analysis is on the emotional self as a dynamic project that is continually shaped and reshaped via discourse, embodied sensations, memory, personal biography and interactions with others and objects. Using an interdisciplinary approa

Engaging with the wide sociological literature on emotions, this book explores the social representation of emotions, their management and their effects by making reference to creative sources. With a specific focus on literary narrative, including the works of figures such as Dante, Austen, Manzoni, Tolstoy and Kundera, the author draws out the capacity of literary works to describe and represent both the external aspects of social relations and the inner motivations of the involved actors. An interdisciplinary study that combines sociology, narratology, philosophy, historical analysis and literary criticism, Emotions through Literature invites us to re-think the role of emotions in sociological analysis, employing literary narratives to give plausible intellectual responses to the double nature of emotions, their being both individual and social.

The blush is a ubiquitous, but little understood, phenomenon. It involves an involuntary change in the face that can express feelings, reveal character and cause intense anxiety. Crozier provides a scholarly, yet accessible, synthesis of new research, locating blushing within the context of the 'social emotions' of embarrassment, shame and shyness.

Timely and authoritative, this volume reviews the breadth of current knowledge on the self-conscious emotions and their role in psychological and social functioning. Leading investigators approach the subject from multiple levels of analysis, ranging from basic brain mechanisms to complex social processes. Chapters present compelling advances in research on the most fundamental self-conscious emotions: embarrassment, guilt, humiliation, pride, and shame. Addressed are neural and evolutionary mechanisms, developmental processes, cultural differences and similarities, and influences on a wide array of social behaviors and personality processes. A unique chapter on assessment describes and evaluates the full range of available measures.

Offers intriguing accounts of how thought, emotion and action are embedded in social context and are central to the dynamic between self and society.

"Margolis illuminates our path through a cluttered conceptual territory. I think this is a straining, important contribution to our understanding of emotion and the self". -- Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work"Margolis's grasp of the complexities of selfhood in contemporary life is a key contribution of her work. She takes us on a fascinating and readable excursion in social theory". -- John P. Hewitt, author of Dilemmas of the American SelfWays of viewing the self change when social environments change, argues Diane Rothbard Margolis in this powerful work of social theory. She analyzes six views of the self found in contemporary Western cultures and shows how each plays a critical role in society and in our everyday lives. Each image of the self is a moral construct expressing what is forbidden, allowed, and expected. Each was created at a historical moment that demanded a new assessment of fight and wrong. No moral orientation is, in absolute terms, better or worse than any other, Margolis contends; each continues to exist because it permits or demands some form of action required by contemporary society.Although the idea of the self as an individualistic "exchanger" -- rational, self-interested, competitive -- may dominate current discourse, especially in market economies, Margolis describes other constructs: the obligated self, the cosmic self, the reciprocating self, the called person, and the civic self. She delineates the moral ideas from which these images arise and develops a theory of emotions to explain how we live by several moral orientations simultaneously. Her perspective on moral orientations andemotions illuminates such contemporary dilemmas as why women and men may play the same social role quite differently, why women encounter the glass ceiling, and why nationalism persists despite the growth of world markets.

Self and Society explores the ways in which society, culture, and history affect how we define our experiences and ourselves. This reader contains 24 essays divided into four topical sections: the social construction of reality, sociology of thought and emotions, the self in social context, and interaction and inequality.

`There is much that is fascinating here. Long-established experiments and conclusions are rubbished and reinterpreted, long-established assumptions and beliefs about emotions are soundly trounced, and generally a good going-over is delivered to the whole field... it is such a blockbuster that one can only reel backwards and tell anyone studying the subject that they would be crazy not to get it′ - Self & Society This fascinating book overviews the psychology of the emotions in its broadest sense, tracing historical, social, cultural and biological themes and analyses. The contributors - some of the leading figures in the field - produce a new theoretical synthesis by drawing together these strands. From the standpoint of the function of the emotions in everyday life, the authors focus on: the discursive role played by the emotions in expressing judgements about, attitudes to and contrition for actions done by the self and others, and how certain emotions - such as guilt, shame, embarrassment, chagrin and regret - seem to play a role in social control; the variation and diversity in emotion, which provides scope for exploring how patterns of emotion contrast in different societies, across gender lines, at different historical times, and between children and adults; and the way in which the body is shaped and its functions influenced by culturally maintained patterns of emotion displays.

Interpersonal relations between real people are the essential heart of society but it is a 'heart' that has for too long been overlooked in social and psychological analysis. The book outlines a new way of thinking about control and power in everyday life.