scholarly journals Emotions and Emergence

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Lamb-Books
Keyword(s):  
Critical Realism ◽  
Causal Power ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Social Emotion ◽  
Sociology Of Emotion ◽  
Historical Sequences ◽  
Emotion Labels

The sociology of emotion remains divided. One group of social scientistsadheres closely to positivism and formulates lengthy lists of abstractpropositions and predictions (Collins, Turner, Kemper, etc.). In contrast,the other group’s epistemology is enmeshed in interpretivism and producesthick-descriptions of emotion labels, scripts, and understandings(Hochschild, Katz, Wetherell, etc.). Neither positivist nor interpretivistapproaches adequately theorize the causal and conjunctural status of humanemotions in social-historical sequences; thus, they both fail to show how,why, and when accounts of emotional states may be necessary in socialexplanations. Critical realism (CR) offers a better way to conceptualizethe influence of the psychophysiological subsistence of emotion withinsocial interactions. A CR-inspired approach to the sociology of emotionshould include three insights: (1) *Emotions as Evolved Capabilities:* Fromour evolutionary prehistory, humans have inherited distinctive emotionalcapabilities, including a complex palette of emotional experience andimpressive emotional mechanisms for rapid-fire sublinguistic communication.(2) *Emotions as Emergent Causal Powers:* Human emotions are themselves‘emergent’ neurophenomenological entities belonging to themicrosociological domain of ontology. Emotional experiences emerge from butare not reducible to labels, bodies, gestures, minds, social situations,scripts, etc. Integrating these multicomponent ingredients, thepsychophysiological coherence of emotions indicates the existence ofemergent properties, including possibilities of upward and downwardcausation. (3) *Emotions as Situational Dispositions*: Emotions realizetheir causal power as psychological dispositions to action, inaction, andcommunication. By embracing critical realism, sociologists can avoid bothan upward conflation of emotion into higher-level social structures, likelanguage (an error of the interpretivists), as well as a downward reductionof the psychology of social emotion to neurobiology or behavioralism (anerror of the positivists).

scholarly journals Of Babies and Bathwater. A Review of Tuukka Kaidesoja Naturalizing Critical Realist Social Ontology

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-331
Author(s):  
Dave Elder-Vass
Keyword(s):  
Critical Realism ◽  
Causal Power ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Transcendental Argument ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Realist Ontology

AbstractTuukka Kaidesoja’s new book is a welcome addition to the literature on critical realism. He shows good judgement in defending Roy Bhaskar’s argument for causal powers while criticising its framing as a transcendental argument. In criticising Bhaskar’s concept of a real-but-not-actual ontological domain, however, he discards an essential element of a realist ontology, even a naturalised one: a recognition of the transfactual aspect of causal power.

scholarly journals Uncertainty, Possibility, and Causal Power in QCA

2021 ◽  
pp. 004912412110312
Author(s):  
Roel Rutten
Keyword(s):  
Critical Realism ◽  
Causal Power ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Regularity Theory ◽  
Truth Table ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Table Analysis ◽  
Analysis Models ◽  
Better Than

Uncertainty undermines causal claims; however, the nature of causal claims decides what counts as relevant uncertainty. Empirical robustness is imperative in regularity theories of causality. Regularity theory features strongly in QCA, making its case sensitivity a weakness. Following qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) founder Charles Ragin’s emphasis on ontological realism, this article suggests causality as a power and thus breaks with the ontological determinism of regularity theories. Exercising causal powers makes it possible for human agents to achieve an outcome but does not determine that they will. The article explains how QCA’s truth table analysis “models” possibilistic uncertainty and how crisp sets do this better than fuzzy sets. Causal power is at the heart of critical realist philosophy of science. Like Ragin, critical realism suggests empirical analysis as merely describing underlying causal relationships. Empirical statements must be substantively interpreted into causal claims. The article is critical of “empiricist” QCA that infers causality from the robustness of set relationships.

The SoSM Revisited-A Critical Realist Perspective

2011 ◽  
pp. 122-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Dobson
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Critical Systems ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Defining System ◽  
Emancipatory Practice ◽  
Framework System ◽  
Realist Perspective

The chapter revisits the System of System Methodologies (SoSM) and suggests that use of the SoSM as a framework for defining methodological assumptions is difficult when the concerned methodologies have significantly different meanings for one axis of the framework—“system” complexity. It is suggested that the purpose of the underlying system can provide a more appropriate frame for defining system approaches—such purpose being defined as interaction or transformation (Mathiassen & Nielsen, 2000). The chapter also uses aspects of critical realism to provide insights into the SoSM and the critical theory underpinning the framework. The SoSM helped to highlight the neglect of coercive situations and ultimately helped prompt the development of critical systems theory which is focused on three basic commitments, critical awareness, methodological pluralism, and emancipation. Maru and Woodford (2001) recently argue that the focus on emancipation has been relegated due to a concentration on pluralism. This chapter suggests that this is a logical outcome of the epistemological focus of the underlying critical theory of Habermas. The Habermas focus on the epistemological or knowledge-based aspects of the development process must necessarily relegate the importance of ontological matters such as the conditions necessary for emancipatory practice. This chapter proposes that the philosophy of critical realism has insights to offer through its highlighting of the ontological issues in more detail and in arguing for a recognition of the deep structures and mechanisms involved in social situations.

scholarly journals Empathic Accuracy: Worse Recognition by Older Adults and Less Transparency in Older Adult Expressions Compared With Young Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (8) ◽  
pp. 1658-1667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted Ruffman ◽  
Jamin Halberstadt ◽  
Janice Murray ◽  
Fiona Jack ◽  
Tina Vater
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Older Adult ◽  
Social Adjustment ◽  
Real World ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Empathic Accuracy ◽  
Emotional States

Abstract Objectives We examined empathic accuracy, comparing young versus older perceivers, and young versus older emoters. Empathic accuracy is related to but distinct from emotion recognition because perceiver judgments of emotion are based, not on what an emoter looks to be feeling, but on what an emoter says s/he is actually feeling. Method Young (≤30 years) and older (≥60 years) adults (“emoters”) were unobtrusively videotaped while watching movie clips designed to elicit specific emotional states. The emoter videos were then presented to young and older “perceivers,” who were instructed to infer what the emoters were feeling. Results As predicted, older perceivers’ empathic accuracy was less accurate relative to young perceivers. In addition, the emotions of young emoters were considerably easier to read than those of older emoters. There was also some evidence of an own-age advantage in emotion recognition in that older adults had particular difficulty assessing emotion in young faces. Discussion These findings have important implications for real-world social adjustment, with older adults experiencing a combination of less emotional transparency and worse understanding of emotional experience.

scholarly journals Effects of Differential Strategies of Emotion Regulation

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Boehme ◽  
Stefanie C. Biehl ◽  
Andreas Mühlberger
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Behavioral Therapy ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
P300 Amplitude ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽  
Common Strategy ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
And Training

Patients suffering from mental disorders, especially anxiety disorders, are often impaired by inadequate emotional reactions. Specific aspects are the insufficient perception of their own emotional states and the use of dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies. Both aspects are interdependent. Thus, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) comprises the development and training of adequate emotion regulation strategies. Traditionally, reappraisal is the most common strategy, but strategies of acceptance are becoming more important in the course of advancing CBT. Indeed, there is evidence that emotion regulation strategies differ in self-reported effectiveness, psychophysiological reactions, and underlying neural correlates. However, comprehensive comparisons of different emotion regulation strategies are sparse. The present study, therefore, compared the effect of three common emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal, acceptance, and suppression) on self-reported effectiveness, recollection, and psychophysiological as well as electroencephalographic dimensions. Twenty-nine healthy participants were instructed to either reappraise, accept, suppress, or passively observe their upcoming emotional reactions while anxiety- and sadness-inducing pictures were presented. Results showed a compelling effect of reappraisal on emotional experience, skin conductance response, and P300 amplitude. Acceptance was almost as effective as reappraisal, but led to increased emotional experience. Combining all results, suppression was shown to be the least effective but significantly decreased emotional experience when thoughts and feelings had to be suppressed. Moreover, results show that greater propensity for rumination differentially impairs strategies of emotion regulation.

scholarly journals Fallibilism and Ontology in Tuukka Kaidesoja’s Critical Realist Social Ontology

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Little
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Valuable Contribution ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Naturalistic Approach ◽  
The Social

AbstractThis article addresses Tuukka Kaidesoja’s critique of the philosophical presuppositions of Roy Bhaskar’s theories of critical realism. The article supports Kaidesoja’s naturalistic approach to the philosophy of the social sciences, including the field of social ontology. The article discusses the specific topics of fallibilism, emergence, and causal powers. I conclude that Kaidesoja’s book is a valuable contribution to current debates over critical realism.

scholarly journals The OpenLAV video database for affect induction: Analyzing the uniformity of video stimuli effects

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Israel ◽  
Philipp Paukner ◽  
Lena Schiestel ◽  
Klaus Diepold ◽  
Felix D. Schönbrodt
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Predictive Power ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Video Database ◽  
Emotion Induction ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Machine Learning Approach ◽  
Emotion Labels ◽  
Big 5 Personality

The Open Library for Affective Videos (OpenLAV) is a new video database for experimental emotion induction. The 188 videos (mean duration: 40 s; range: 12–71 s) have a CC-BY license. Ratings for valence, arousal, several appraisals, and emotion labels were assessed from 434 US-American participants in an online study (on average 70 ratings per video), along with personality traits from the raters (Big 5 personality dimensions and several motive dispositions). The OpenLAV is able to induce a large variety of different emotions, but the videos vary in uniformity of emotion induction. Based on different variability metrics, we recommend videos for the most uniform induction of different emotions. Moreover, the predictive power of personality traits on emotion ratings was analyzed using a machine-learning approach. In contrast to previous research, no effects of personality on the emotional experience were found.

scholarly journals Emotional states as distinct configurations of functional brain networks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rotem Dan ◽  
Marta Weinstock ◽  
Gadi Goelman
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Modular Organization ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Functional Brain ◽  
Functional Connectome ◽  
Functional Brain Networks

The conceptualization of emotional states as patterns of interactions between large-scale brain networks has recently gained support. Yet, few studies have directly examined the brain's network structure during emotional experiences. Here, we investigated the brain's functional network organization during experiences of sadness, amusement, and neutral states elicited by movies, in addition to a resting-state. We tested the effects of the experienced emotion on individual variability in the brain's functional connectome. Next, for each state, we defined a modular organization of the brain and quantified its segregation and integration. Our results show that emotional states increase the similarity between and within individuals in the brain's functional connectome. Second, in the brain's modular organization, sadness, relative to amusement, was associated with higher integration and increased connectivity of cognitive control networks: the salience and fronto-parietal networks. Modular metrics of brain segregation and integration were further associated with the reported emotional valence. Last, in both the functional connectome and emotional report, a higher similarity was found among women. Our results suggest that the experience of emotion is linked to a reconfiguration of whole-brain distributed, not emotion-specific, functional brain networks and that the topological structure carries information about the subjective emotional experience.

scholarly journals Questioning the ‘Anthropos’ in the Anthropocene: Is the Anthropocene Anthropocentric?

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 ◽  
pp. 01040
Author(s):  
Rangga Kala Mahaswa ◽  
Agung Widhianto
Keyword(s):  
Critical Realism ◽  
Causal Power ◽  
Geological Structure ◽  
Scientific Concept ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Speculative Realism ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Ontological Turn

The word ‘Anthropocene’ has been controversial scientific concept, to name a new geological epoch that situates ‘Anthropos’ or ‘Man’ as an actor changing geological structure, altering the Earth system, and also making in unpredictable planetary changes. Criticism of the Anthropocene is based on Holocene's formal ratification rather than the Anthropocene findings. In addition, this paper will argue a realism philosophical approach though that the Anthropocene is not merely scientific speculation. This paper provides an ontological justification for humanity’s causal power in geological time based on Bhaskar’s critical realism and Graham’s speculative realism. This ontological turn will be a ‘new conceptual ground’ to define the Anthropocene without being imprisoned in ‘Anthropocentrism’ and will contribute to other fields, such as social sciences and humanities, to remake their understanding of the Anthropocene. Therefore, the result will be able to strengthen the Anthropocene ratification indirectly.

scholarly journals Strangers, Friends, and Lovers Show Different Physiological Synchrony in Different Emotional States

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Bizzego ◽  
Atiqah Azhari ◽  
Nicola Campostrini ◽  
Anna Truzzi ◽  
Li Ying Ng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationship ◽  
Cross Correlation ◽  
Emotional State ◽  
Direct Interaction ◽  
Romantic Partners ◽  
Romantic Partner ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Physiological Synchrony

The mere copresence of another person synchronizes physiological signals, but no study has systematically investigated the effects of the type of emotional state and the type of relationship in eliciting dyadic physiological synchrony. In this study, we investigated the synchrony of pairs of strangers, companions, and romantic partners while watching a series of video clips designed to elicit different emotions. Maximal cross-correlation of heart rate variability (HRV) was used to quantify dyadic synchrony. The findings suggest that an existing social relationship might reduce the predisposition to conform one’s autonomic responses to a friend or romantic partner during social situations that do not require direct interaction.

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