Figure: Cybernetic control process of affective reaction and affect control.
MacKinnon, Neil J. 1994. Symbolic Interactionism as Affect Control. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Chapter 2: Affect Control Theory
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Principles of Meaning and Action
Osgood pointed out that connotative, and denotative might be two parts of the same coin (sentiment). The term mother implies both:
Connotative meaning is affective:
Denotative meaning is cognitive:
1. "Social interaction is structured in terms of the
social cognitions of interactants."
2. "Language is the primary symbolic system through which cognitions are represented accessed, processed, and communicated."
3. "All social cognitions evoke affective reactions."
"Classifications of places, people, objects and behavior get transformed into a domain of feelings, where things lose their qualitative uniqueness, become comparable to one another, and begin obeying quantitative principles.
This is analogous to observing the Sun, Earth, Mars, Saturn etc., are identifiable by their unique characteristics, but the dynamics of the solar system are governed by the distances, masses, and velocities of these bodies and the operation of physical laws". (Heise 1987, p.6).
4. "Affective associations can be measured with Osgood's semantic differential EPA scale."
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Four Stages in the Model of Action
I. Recognition of Events
10. "Events are recognized within the framework of a defined situation."
11. "Grammatical structures constrain event recognition"
The 5W rule is a simple framework used by journalists
1. When (at what historic time)
2. Where (in which (sub-)culture, or setting)
3. Does Who (actor)
4. What (behavior)
5. to Whom (object)
We might add traits and emotions, and we are relative complete with our description of case grammar.
Today, at Dole's residence, the angry wife feels good about beating her drunken husband, who feels miserable.
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II. Affective Response and Control
7. "The affective reaction principle: people react affectively to every social event."
8. The affect control principle: people try to experience events that confirm fundamental sentiments.
"People construct events so that the transient feelings they generate are as close as possible to fundamental sentiments.
The discrepancy between fundamental sentiments and transient impressions ... is called deflection"(p.22)
Figure: Cybernetic control process of affective reaction and affect
control.
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III. Event Construction
Just as in the case of event recognition
5. "Events are constructed in terms of our subjective definition of a situation."
6. "Grammatical structures of various kinds constrain event construction."
VI. Event Production
15. Just as event recognition and construction, "actions are produced within the constrains of relevant grammars"
14. "A person develops actions by employing situational identities of self and other as actor and object."
Affective Selection
The cognitive system narrows the choice of possible modifications of the event that will reduce deflection. Still there are too many options that would overtax the cognitive system beyond its capacity.
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Feedback in the Cybernetic Control Model
I. Primary Feedback: Cognitive Revisions
21. "Social labelings render past events more creditable by assigning interactants new identities that are confirmed by past events."
22. "Dispositional interferences render past events more creditable by assigning interactants modified identities that are maximally confirmed by past events."
23. "Dispositional interferences are a more likely form of reidentification than assignment of new identities though labeling processes."
II. Primary Feedback: Behavior
16. "After cognitive processes have narrowed the choice of behavior to a smaller set, affective processes kick in to narrow the choice to a single option."
III. Secondary Feedback: Change Sentiments
9. "The reconstruction principle: Inexorably large deflections instigate changes in sentiments which are being used to appraise the meanings of such that the new sentiments are confirmed optimally by recent events"
Disclaimer: The documents linked to other sources on the WWW, others than http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/Schneider/ and its subdirectories, do not necessarily express the views of Texas Tech University or Dr. Andreas Schneider. @Copyright 2006 Andreas Schneider