Disorders of emotion

A general framework for the analysis of emotion is developed and applied to an understanding of emotional disorders. A normal emotional state is presumed to exist when a person is disposed to respond in a manner consistent with an appropriately constituted emotional role (syndrome) under conditions...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of social and clinical psychology 1988-09, Vol.6 (3-4), p.247-268
Main Author: AVERILL, J. R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Biological and medical sciences
Emotional disorders
Emotions
Medical sciences
Physiology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry
Socialization
Society
Sociocultural environment
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Summary:A general framework for the analysis of emotion is developed and applied to an understanding of emotional disorders. A normal emotional state is presumed to exist when a person is disposed to respond in a manner consistent with an appropriately constituted emotional role (syndrome) under conditions that legitimize involvement in the role. Enactment of an emotional role requires certain biosocial capacities, but the content of a role is determined primarily by social rules. Three kinds of rules may be distinguished, depending on whether they help create the emotional role in the first place (constitutive rules), specify the manner and circumstances under which the role may be enacted (regulative rules), and/or contribute to the strategic and skilled enactment of the role (procedural rules). Most common emotional disorders result when the rules of emotion are habitually misconstrued or misapplied, for example, due to physiological dysfunction, inadequate socialization, motivational distortion, and/or cognitive bias. Irrespective of the source, three levels of emotional disorders may be distinguished, depending on whether the rules affected are primarily constitutive (neuroticism), regulative (delinquency), or procedural (ineptitude). Anxiety represents a fourth kind of disorder, resulting from a breakdown in cognitive structures. Thus, anxiety is the antithesis of a rule-governed response, whether normal or abnormal. The threat of cognitive breakdown, and hence of anxiety, can contribute to the development of other, more highly structured disorders (e.g., a hysterical conversion reaction).
ISSN:0736-7236
1943-2771
DOI:10.1521/jscp.1988.6.3-4.247