scholarly journals Do You See What I See? Testing for Individual Differences in Impressions of Events

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly B. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Impression Formation ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Affect Control Theory ◽  
Affect Control ◽  
Social Events ◽  
And Behavior

Affect control theory shows how cultural meanings for identities and behavior are used to form impressions of events and guide social action. In this research, I examine whether members of the same culture tend to process social events in the same way, with a focus on U.S. English speakers. I find widespread consensus in the mechanisms of impression formation, particularly for judgments of evaluation (goodness, esteem), but also find sufficient individual differences to warrant further study for models of potency (power, dominance) and object impressions (feelings about the target of a behavior). Findings support long-standing claims that members of U.S. English language culture, especially cultural experts, tend to process social events in the same way. However, I find no significant gender differences in event processing. I close the paper by estimating and interpreting new impression change equations using methodological techniques appropriate to the degree of consensus found for each model.

Event Likelihood Judgments Revisited

2021 ◽  
pp. 019027252199706
Author(s):  
Kimberly B. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Impression Formation ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Cognitive Responses ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Affect Control Theory ◽  
Affect Control ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
The Relationship

Affect control theory shows how cultural meanings for identities and behaviors are used to form impressions of events and guide social action. The theory’s impression formation equations are the engine of its predictions about events and the deflection they generate (i.e., how much they violate, versus conform to, cultural prescriptions). In this research, I examine the relationship between affective (deflection) and cognitive responses to events, with a focus on judgments of event likelihood. I present a series of analyses that show that event likelihood judgments are impacted by events’ perceived normativity, commonality in social life, and our personal experience with events like them and by the appearance likelihood of the actors, combinations of actors, and behaviors they involve and that likelihood ratings and deflection most often diverge for institutionally vague events. I additionally show that deflection computed using Heise’s 2014 impression-change equations strongly predicts event likelihood.

Identity Meanings and Categorical Inequality

2019 ◽  
pp. 267-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly B. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Affect Control Theory ◽  
Affect Control ◽  
The People ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
The Rich

I use affect control theory (ACT) to show how we apply cultural knowledge to classify and form impressions of the people we encounter, producing inequality as widely shared cultural beliefs are translated into predictable patterns of social action. I apply ACT measurement dimensions (evaluation, potency, and activity) to show that cultural beliefs about social groups, known as “social identity meanings,” convey groups’ relative positions within systems of inequality such as race/ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexuality, religion, and social class. I find that privileged groups (e.g., whites, the rich, heterosexuals, Americans, and Christians) are higher in power (potency) but lower in status (evaluation) than other groups across dimensions of inequality. This meaning profile is shared by roles, traits, and behaviors that signify authority across diverse social domains. I consider the implications of these findings and of ACT more broadly for understanding how inequalities reflected in cultural meanings are often reproduced through interactions.

Affect Control Theory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Hitlin ◽  
Sarah K. Harkness
Keyword(s):  
Control Theory ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Affect Control Theory ◽  
Affect Control ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Societal Inequality ◽  
The Empirical Analysis ◽  
Broad Overview

This chapter draws on the theoretical and methodological insights from Affect Control theory (ACT), a theory with decades of research and empirical support, to set up our cross-cultural analyses examing our theory of societal inequality. ACT is a formal mathematical theory used to examine how the various facets of social events (such as the identities and emotions) shape ongoing social action. ACT distills the representation of these various facets to their simplest, most universally recognized dimensions of meaning: evaluation (good vs. bad), potency (powerful vs. weak), and activity (fast vs. slow). ACT then provides a way of understanding and modeling social interactions so that it is possible to empirically compare the likely emotions resulting from the same types of interactions in various cultures. The chapter gives a broad overview of the theory so that the reader understands why it is useful and provides justification for the empirical analysis used in the book.

Supervisor behavior and character: A simulation study of employee helpfulness

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Clare Francis ◽  
David Hollingworth ◽  
Sean Valentine
Keyword(s):  
Helping Behavior ◽  
Simulation Software ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Affect Control Theory ◽  
Affect Control ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Supervisor Behavior

AbstractSupervisor character and behavior are key components of an organization's ethical fabric that should play a role in employee helping behavior. However, research has not fully distinguished how these factors are interrelated. The current study explores these relationships by developing a deeper understanding of ethical language in organizations via thick ethical concepts found in simulation software, supported by affect control theory. Software formulae in these simulations were developed via empirical research conducted over several decades. Simulations provided predictions of employee helpfulness in response to encounters with supervisors of varying ethical characters, enacting a variety of behaviors. The likely impact of supervisor character on employee helpfulness is more substantial than the impact of supervisor behavior. New insights emerged related to underlying complexities of ethical languages, such as the role of cultural meanings of language terms. These outcomes, as well as the associated implications, research limitations, and suggestions for future research, are discussed.

The socio-emotional basis of human interaction and communication: How we construct our social world

2013 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Scholl
Keyword(s):  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Affect Control Theory ◽  
Affect Control ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
The Social ◽  
Interdependence Theory ◽  
Third Dimension

A review of dimensional research about (the perception of) feelings, non-verbal and verbal communication, behavior and personality reveals in each domain three very similar dimensions. They originated from diverse research areas, often received different names and are conceptually not identical. Yet, the first dimension seems to share in all five areas a general positive versus negative evaluation (e.g. happiness–disgust or friendliness–hostility), the second a strong versus weak characterization (e.g. anger–fear or dominance–submission) and the third dimension an active versus passive impression (e.g. ecstasy–boredom or high–low arousability). These three dimensions are likely to function as fundamental dimensions of interaction and communication as perceived and enacted by humans of all (investigated) cultures. They are interpreted as a universal socio-emotional space that corresponds to an evolutionary need for coordination between individuals. They are implied in the logic of game, exchange or interdependence theory, and manifest themselves in the cultural meanings predicted by affect control theory. The presented overview and reconstruction combines the largely fragmented views of several diverse research domains into a perspective that fosters interdisciplinary understanding and integrative theory-building about human sociality within and between the social sciences with extensions into the natural sciences and humanities.

scholarly journals Affect Control Theories: A Double Special Issue in Honor of David R. Heise

2022 ◽  
pp. 000276422110660
Author(s):  
Amy Kroska ◽  
Brian Powell ◽  
Kimberly B. Rogers ◽  
Lynn Smith-Lovin
Keyword(s):  
Control Theory ◽  
Impression Formation ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Emotional Experiences ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Affect Control Theory ◽  
Affect Control ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Multiple Languages ◽  
Do So

We introduce this two-part special issue that celebrates David Heise and his pathbreaking theories: affect control theory (ACT), affect control theory of the self (ACTS), and affect control theory of institutions (ACTI). These interlocking, multi-level, mathematically based theories explain a range of social processes, including impression formation, social interaction, trait and mood attributions, emotional experiences, emotion management, and identity adoption, and they do so in multiple languages and cultures. The 15 articles in this two-part issue test, apply, and develop the theories in new and innovative ways. After briefly summarizing each theory and Bayesian affect control theory (BayesACT), we highlight the key findings from each of the articles that follow.

Intersectional Identities and Stigma Recovery

2019 ◽  
pp. 167-192
Author(s):  
Maria C. Ramos ◽  
Lynn Smith-Lovin ◽  
Bethany Young
Keyword(s):  
Control Theory ◽  
White Male ◽  
Online Experiment ◽  
Affect Control Theory ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Affect Control ◽  
Men Of Color ◽  
Unethical Behaviors ◽  
And Gender ◽  
And Behavior

Unethical behaviors (e.g., stealing) are viewed more positively when they benefit someone other than the unethical actor. Scholars argue actors can use this “prosociality” effect to restore their identities after they engage in deviant actions. We investigate whether this interactional resource is more available to some categories of people than others. We use the intersectionality literature to discuss how combinations of race and gender might influence whether a prosocial unethical behavior is defined in negative or positive terms. We use affect control theory to generate hypotheses about when the intersectional identities will lead to more negative or positive evaluations and labeling of the actor and behavior. In an online experiment, we find that the evaluation and labeling of an actor are less affected by prosociality when he is a white male. Women of both races and men of color can restore their identities, but only by behaving in a completely prosocial way.

Stress and Stress Hormones

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Davis ◽  
Kristen Damron
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Stress Hormones ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Affect Control Theory ◽  
Affect Control ◽  
Biological Responses ◽  
Basic Ideas ◽  
State Of The Environment

During the past four decades, numerous reviews have been published on biological responses to stressful social environments. Reviews targeted for audiences in the social sciences emphasized biological outcomes while skipping over explanations of biological mechanisms. This chapter focuses on the details of the hormonal processes that “report” the state of the environment to the nervous system and regulate cognitive and motor responses to stressful social stimuli. Steroid hormones receive most attention. The chapter concludes with an outline of a sociological model of social action based on current knowledge of hormone actions. It shares some of the basic ideas of previous models such as affect control theory. However, the model proposes a broader role of stress hormones in human social behavior.

scholarly journals Shattering Ethnocentric and Eurocentric Subjectivities in foreign language teaching: A Critical Intercultural Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 382-395
Author(s):  
Adriana Carolina Torres Escobar
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Value Pluralism ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Support Students ◽  
Means Of Production

The complexity and essence of languages and cultures are unique. People live in culturally built niches based on beliefs, subjectivities, skills, and practices resulting from symbolic and material inheritances passed down from generation to generation. Throughout the qualitative, documentary, and hermeneutical research, it has been feasible to identify that postmodern society has reified the human being. People are considered a means of production and consumption. Besides, the dominant groups impose languages and cultures that they label as prestigious, ignoring that every person is unique and has ideas, values, principles, religions, languages, unrepeatable cultures. This article will describe the process of subjectivation and its relationship with 'technologies of power,' which enforce thoughts, self-concept, and behavior abstractly, subtly, and invisibly. The research results depict that some authors define the English language as dominant, imperialistic, and homogeneous. The article goes further than intellectual elaboration about English language teaching and proposes that educational institutions should be sites where students actively adopt an intercultural, analytical, and critical thinking approach. That way, students learn to discover their identities, value pluralism, research the causes and consequences of domination processes, and are open to diversity without acquiring ethnocentrism or xenophobic ideologies. The article contests neutrality and absolutism in education. It views schools as cultural and political arenas where teachers should support students to understand reality with arguments and reflection, building a more democratic and proactive society. Thinking about education from a humanistic and ethical approach and holding transformative social action in classrooms respond to the chaotic and uneven prevailing world.

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