Toward a general sociological theory of emotions

Key ideas from expectation-states theory, symbolic interactionism, dramatur gical analysis, power-status theories, attribution theory, and psychoanalyt ic theories are combined in an effort to generate a more general theory of emotional arousal in face-to-face interaction. The level of emotional arous al in interaction is seen to reflect the degree of incongruity between expe ctations, including expectations for confirmation of self, and actual exper iences. Such arousal involves the conversion of primary emotions into first - and second-order combinations. The nature of emotional arousal Is, howeve r, further complicated by the activation of defense mechanisms and attribut ion processes. The composite theory is formalized into a series of proposit ions which can serve as hypotheses for empirical tests.