emotion norms in the workplace

Directions
Before starting this assignment, you are expected to have reviewed the lecture materials and
watched the supplementary videos. The purpose of this activity is to give you exposure to skills
and information that will enhance your understanding of concepts related to the social
psychology of affect and emotion.
For this activity, you will first read the brief overview of concepts from this section. After
completing the reviewing lecture materials, watching the supplementary materials, and reading
the below overview, please answer the five questions below.
Once you have completed this assignment, please submit it by 11:59 PM on Friday, July 2nd.
Specifications
● Response length is up to your discretion
● Only included responses in your document
● Number responses
● Double-spaced
● 12 pt. Times New Roman
● MS Word document
● Submit to Canvas dropbox for Activity 4
I. Background
Sociological social psychology research demonstrates that nearly every aspect of emotions –
from its constitution to its consequences – is influenced by and, in turn, influences the social
contexts in which emotions are embedded. Social processes and social forces affect and are
affected by our experience and expression of emotion. Emotions occur within the course of
social interactions and within social settings. Whether more closely identified with the
interactionist perspective – which holds that emotions are socially constructed – or the
structuralist perspective – which assumes that emotion is less malleable in nature – most
sociologists agree that emotional experience generally results from the meaning that individuals
make of social interactions. Indeed, several formal sociological theories of emotion assume that
emotions arise to the degree that our expectations are or are not met.
These expectations may deal with how we anticipate to be identified or treated by others, how
much power or deference we expect to enact or receive during face-to-face interaction, how
much of a given resource we expect to get or to give in a particular exchange, how decisions
regarding the allocation of scarce resources are determined, and how we expect to be dealt with
in the context of a long-term relationship.
Our social arrangements and our cultural understandings give rise to particular emotions and to
expectations about which emotions are appropriate. They also shape the degrees to which social
actors are required to manage their emotions for the benefits of others, or are allowed to express
their emotions freely. Although most sociological analyses focus on how social roles, social
structure, organizations, and institutions affect emotional experience and its expression, it is
important to remember that emotions also serve to reify these same social arrangements and have
the potential to provide pathways for social change.
II. Assignment
Hierarchically ordered settings, such as the workplace, individuals who are at the top (e.g.,
doctors, owners, customers) tend to have their expectations met more often than those at the
bottom (e.g., nurses, secretaries, face-to-face services workers, customer service). Thus,
individuals occupying higher status positions are more likely to experience positive emotions
than their lower status counterparts. This is because of the norms and expectations that tend to
protect higher status individuals from the displaced negative emotions of others. Moreover,
higher status individuals are often sheltered from the expectations and demands of engaging in
emotional labor. For example, franchise owners have stronger status shields than sales
employees; thus, they have more freedom to express negative emotions. Franchise owners also
have the ability to demand emotional labor – often in the form of groveling, flattery,
cheerleading, and even caretaking, with little or no expectation to reciprocate. Although
franchise owners are expected to act in a professional manner in their interactions with clients,
they are seldom called upon to do the more strenuous type of emotional labor, such as stifling
anger or irritation, that is routinely demanded from managers and sales employees.
1. Consider a situation in which you were in a lower status position than others in a group
(e.g., in the workplace, on a sports team, in a social club, in a volunteer organization,
etc.). Describe the situation, your position, how those of higher status than you had more
freedom to freely express their emotions, as well as the type and extent of emotional
labor you had to exert compared to those of a higher status. Additionally, were there
situations when you had to stifle negative emotions as a result of your status in the group.
Social roles (including occupational roles) are associated with particular “characteristic
emotions.” Drawing on insights from affect control theory, characteristic emotions may be
viewed as normatively regulated affective states that individuals try to attain during interactions
involving specific social roles. These normative states (e.g., that nurses should feel compassion,
counselors should feel empathy, soldiers should feel pride, service workers should feel humility)
are determined by culturally shared affective sentiments that reflect societally held
understandings of how good, active, and powerful these social roles are. Notably, norms about
which emotions one should experience depending on one’s position in the workplace are very
similar to the well-known norms that regulate more transient social roles like being a mourner at
a funeral or being a wedding participant.
2. Consider the many social roles you occupy (e.g., occupation, status as a student,
son/daughter, sibling, parent, mentor, etc.) and the particular “characteristic emotions”
associated with each. Describe an example of a time when you regulated your emotions
during an interaction involving a specific social role. In what ways do the associated
“characteristic emotions” reflect societally held understandings of how good, active, and
powerful these social roles are.