SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF HUMAN EMOTIONS 31 into line. When individuals cannot confirm an identity, they leave the situation, or, if they cannot leave, they change their behaviors, change their self-perceptions or change their identity to conform to cultural expectations in a situation. Those identities that cannot be verified move down the prominence or salience hierarchy, whereas those identities that are verified move up in the hierarchy(Mc Call be confirmed and that conform to cultural expectations, then identities, behavioral outputs, and perceptual inputs become increasingly congruent over time More psychoanalytic versions of symbolic interactionist theorizing emphasize that these Gestalt dynamics pushing for congruence among self, behaviors, self- perceptions, social structure, and culture can be interrupted by the activation of fensive behaviors. Individuals can selectively perceive the responses they can selectively interpret these responses; they can make external attributions that blame others for the failure to confirm self or identity; or they can bypass and repress negative emotions, such as shame and guilt, to the point where the individual remains unaware of the negative emotions arising from the failure to verify self or live up to cultural expectations. These more psychoanalytical modes of theorizing( Scheff 1990, 1997; Turner 1999, 2002)emphasize that the arousal of negative emotions, particularly shame and guilt, is highly painful and, hence, ikely to drive individuals to defensive behaviors that interrupt the feedback loop from the responses of others. As aresult, cognitions and behaviors are not corrected when encountering negative feedback, leading individuals to engage in patholog ical behaviors that sustain incongruence among self, behavior, perceptions, social structure, and culture and that can decrease interpersonal attunement among in- dividuals(Scheff 1988). When negative emotions are repressed, they increase in intensity and often become transmuted into new kinds of emotions that further dis- upt normal interaction(Turner 2002). For example, in Scheff's(1988)extension of Lewis's(1971)insights, repressed shame often becomes transmuted into anger when it is not acknowledged. In Turner's(2002)theory, repressed shame, guilt, and anxiety lead to sudden spikes of these emotions that break social bonds and breach social situations. Moreover, when individuals repress negative emotions, they are more likely to make external attributions and blame others, the situation, or more inclusive structures for their negative emotional arousal, thereby breaching social bonds and commitments to social situations From the perspective of these more psychoanalytic theories, individuals can be come locked into cycles of ever-escalating negative emotional arousal, repression, sudden outbursts of intense or transmuted versions of the repressed emotions, shame and guilt for having lost emotional control, more repression of negative S, and so on in a cycle that can lead to severe behavioral pathology(Scheff 1988). Moreover, if the structure and culture of a society cause larger segments of opulation to repress shame(and perhaps other negative emotions), this populati an be mobilized collectively to feel anger and to pursue violence, whether exte nal warfare or internal prosecution of perceived enemies(Scheff 1994, Scheff Retzinger 1991). These kinds of psychoanalytic additions offer a useful corrective31 May 2006 17:32 AR ANRV280-SO32-02.tex XMLPublishSM(2004/02/24) P1: JRX SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF HUMAN EMOTIONS 31 into line. When individuals cannot confirm an identity, they leave the situation, or, if they cannot leave, they change their behaviors, change their self-perceptions, or change their identity to conform to cultural expectations in a situation. Those identities that cannot be verified move down the prominence or salience hierarchy, whereas those identities that are verified move up in the hierarchy (McCall & Simmons 1978, Stryker 1980). As individuals present only those identities that can be confirmed and that conform to cultural expectations, then identities, behavioral outputs, and perceptual inputs become increasingly congruent over time. More psychoanalytic versions of symbolic interactionist theorizing emphasize that these Gestalt dynamics pushing for congruence among self, behaviors, self￾perceptions, social structure, and culture can be interrupted by the activation of defensive behaviors. Individuals can selectively perceive the responses of others; they can selectively interpret these responses; they can make external attributions that blame others for the failure to confirm self or identity; or they can bypass and repress negative emotions, such as shame and guilt, to the point where the individual remains unaware of the negative emotions arising from the failure to verify self or live up to cultural expectations. These more psychoanalytical modes of theorizing (Scheff 1990, 1997; Turner 1999, 2002) emphasize that the arousal of negative emotions, particularly shame and guilt, is highly painful and, hence, is likely to drive individuals to defensive behaviors that interrupt the feedback loop from the responses of others. As a result, cognitions and behaviors are not corrected when encountering negative feedback, leading individuals to engage in patholog￾ical behaviors that sustain incongruence among self, behavior, perceptions, social structure, and culture and that can decrease interpersonal attunement among in￾dividuals (Scheff 1988). When negative emotions are repressed, they increase in intensity and often become transmuted into new kinds of emotions that further dis￾rupt normal interaction (Turner 2002). For example, in Scheff’s (1988) extension of Lewis’s (1971) insights, repressed shame often becomes transmuted into anger when it is not acknowledged. In Turner’s (2002) theory, repressed shame, guilt, and anxiety lead to sudden spikes of these emotions that break social bonds and breach social situations. Moreover, when individuals repress negative emotions, they are more likely to make external attributions and blame others, the situation, or more inclusive structures for their negative emotional arousal, thereby breaching social bonds and commitments to social situations. From the perspective of these more psychoanalytic theories, individuals can be￾come locked into cycles of ever-escalating negative emotional arousal, repression, sudden outbursts of intense or transmuted versions of the repressed emotions, shame and guilt for having lost emotional control, more repression of negative emotions, and so on in a cycle that can lead to severe behavioral pathology (Scheff 1988). Moreover, if the structure and culture of a society cause larger segments of a population to repress shame (and perhaps other negative emotions), this population can be mobilized collectively to feel anger and to pursue violence, whether exter￾nal warfare or internal prosecution of perceived enemies (Scheff 1994, Scheff & Retzinger 1991). These kinds of psychoanalytic additions offer a useful corrective Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2006.32:25-52. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org by HARVARD UNIVERSITY on 11/14/07. For personal use only