Grief, Care, and Play: Theorizing the Affective Roots of the Social Self

Abstract

Purpose: For several decades, some sociologists have turned to evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and cognitive science to support, modify, and reconfigure existing social psychological theory. In this paper, we build on this momentum by considering the relevance of recent work in affective and cognitive neuroscience for understanding emotions and the self. Our principal aim is to enlarge the range of phenomena currently considered by sociologists who study emotion, while showing how affective dynamics play an important role across every outcome and process of interests to social scientists. Approach: Central to our concern is the way in which external social objects become essential to, and emotionally significant for, the self. To that end, we draw on ideas from phenomenology, pragmatism, classic symbolic interactionism, and dramaturgy. We begin by showing how basic affective systems may graft on, build from, and extend current social psychological usages of emotions as well as the important sociological work being done on self, from both symbolic interactionist (SI) and identity theory (IT) perspectives. Subsequently, we turn to the promising directions in studying emotional biographies and various aspects related to embodiment. Originality of the Paper: Sociologists usually think of emotions as dependent or intervening variables: (a) signaling identity or situational incongruence, (b) states to be managed, and (c) structural dimensions of superordinate-subordinate relationships. Our integration of the theory of affective systems emphasizes the independence (and, often, primacy) emotions have over other functions and suggests how this affects the construction and maintenance of self and social experience. Implications:The focus on affective systems suggests new research agendas that leverage current neurosociological methods, while pushing for new, naturalistic strategies. The latter, in particular, may be key to sociology's contributions to neuroscience, which while increasingly interested in how affect works in real situations, sociology is better positioned to bring its full tool kit to bear on this question.

Wanting, liking, and the sociology of motivation

“…Finally, the royal road for incorporating AN into social psychology hinges on reimagining the social self from an affective perspective. Affect is intimately tied to all the elements that comprise the social self, like perceiving contradictions, memory, intention, guided action, projection, and reflection (Abrutyn & Lizardo, 2020; Blakemore & Vuilleumier, 2017; LeDoux & Brown, 2017; Ruiz‐Junco, 2021). In this respect, the self is as much an affective as a cognitive creature, and, as such, we would be remiss to dismiss the relationship between exposure to an object eliciting the same neural circuits as innately stimulating things—like food, sex, and play—and the pleasure shaping our anticipation and desire for that object in the future.…”

Toward a sociological theory of social pain

“…All mammals, however, have the capacity to learn through interaction with other animals and the environment more broadly; and learning is generally conditioned through the various primary affective systems present in all mammals (Davis & Montag, 2019). Humans, too, have the capacity to develop a social self-which is, in essence, a set of neural pathways built up from experiences, direct or vicarious, tagged with some intensity and valence of affect, and forming episodic, autobiographical memories (Abrutyn & Lizardo, 2020). One of those key primary affective systems is associated with the innate panic neonates feel when they lose sight of a caretaker and the ensuing grief experienced when they cannot recover their lost social object (Panksepp, 1998).…”

Disintegration in the Age of COVID-19: Biological Contamination, Social Danger, and the Search for Solidarity

“…The construction of a self and its location within a meaningful, purposeful, and supportive space begins in micro-processes related to interactions, exchange, and communication. Current neuroscience has identified the affective systems through which we are driven to seek out relationships that provide desired resources, the anger and fear we feel when those are threatened, and the panic and grief experienced when lost (Abrutyn & Lizardo, 2020). The point being that social relationships are built up from affect, which, in turn, acts as the underlying cohesive mechanism attaching individuals to each other and groups (Collins, 2004;Durkheim, 1912Durkheim, [1995), as well as to abstract systems and the imagined or generalized others associated with these systems (Lawler et al, 2009).…”