Ideology and Interpersonal Emotion Management

Redefining Identity in Two Support Groups

Bibliographic Data

ID5832019
AuthorsLinda E Francis (0000-0003-0346-6642, Stony Brook University, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume60
Issue2
Pages153-153
Publication date1997-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Psychology Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0190-2725 • E-ISSN: 1939-8999
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/2787102
OpenAlexW2042879945
LanguageEN
Citations received82
References cited16

This ethnographic study demonstrates the process by which our emotions are constructed not only by ourselves but also by others. Support groups for divorce or bereavement are used to illustrate the process of interpersonal emotion management. The study considers how support groups with differing ideologies produce dissimilar situational definitions for the loss of a spouse. Each of these definitions promotes different cognitive and affective outcomes for the participants. Despite these differences in definitions, the group leaders use a largely identical process of interpersonal emotion management, in which they redefine not only the event of spousal loss but also the sufferer's very identity. These redefinitions encourage understandings and emotions that coincide with the groups' own ideological perspectives. In addition, the results of the study are unexpectedly congruent with affect control theory, thus demonstrating that the propositions of this theory inform qualitative as well as quantitative research

Emotional Labor in Professions · Emotions and Moral Behavior · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies