In this paper, I question the assumption that emotions are first and f
oremost individual reactions, and suggest instead that they are often
best viewed as social phenomena. I show that many of the causes of emo
tions are interpersonally, institutionally or culturally defined; that
emotions usually have consequences for other people; and that they se
rve interpersonal as well as cultural functions in everyday life. Furt
hermore, many cases of emotion are essentially communicative rather th
an internal and reactive phenomena. Previous research has often undere
stimated the importance of social factors in the causation and constit
ution of emotion. In conclusion, I recommend that existing cognitive a
nd physiological approaches to emotional phenomena be supplemented or
supplanted by social psychological analysis.