A General Theory of Emotions and Social Life

Warren D. TenHouten, UCLA Professor of Sociology, has pioneered the interdisciplinary perspective of neurocognitive sociology. In Time and Society (2005), he presented a general theory of culture and time consciousness. Here, affect-spectrum theory classifies the primary, secondary and tertiary emotions and links each to specific, elementary social relationships.

The scope of coverage of this key work is highly topical and comprehensive, and includes the development of emotions in childhood, symbolic elaboration of complex emotions, emotions management, violence, and cultural and gender differences.

1. Introduction 2. From Darwin to Psychoevolutionary Theories of Primary and Secondary Emotions 3. The Two Pairs of Opposite Primary Emotions: Acceptance and Disgust, Joy and Sadness, Anger and Fear, Anticipation and Surprise 4. Secondary Emotions: The Four Pairs of Opposite Primary Dyads: Love and Misery, Pride and Embarrassment, Aggressiveness and Alarm, Curiosity and Cynicism 5. Secondary Emotions, Continued: The Four Pairs of Half-Opposite Secondary Dyads: Dominance and Submissiveness, Optimism and Pessimism, Delight and Disappointment, Repugnance and Contempt 6. Secondary Emotions, Continued: The Eight Tertiary Dyads: Resourcefulness and Shock, Morbidness and Resignation, Sullenness and Guilt, Anxiety and Outrage 7. Secondary Emotions, Continued: The Four Antithetical, Quaternary Dyads: Ambivalence, Catharsis, Frozenness, Confusion 8. The Sociorelational Approach to the Emotions: Four Elementary Forms of Sociality 9. Affect-Spectrum Theory: The Emotions of Rationality and of Intimacy 10. Affect-Spectrum Theory, Continued: The Emotions Linking Informal Community and Formal Society: A Typology of Four Character Structures 11. Social Identity and Social Control: Pride and Embarrassment, Pridefulness and Shame 12. Socialization and the Emotions: From Alexithymia to Symbolic Elaboration and Creativity 13. The Development of Tertiary Emotions: Jealousy, Envy, Ambition, Confidence, and Hope 14. Emotions, Violence, and the Self 15. A Partial Empirical Test of Affect-Spectrum Theory 16. Discussion