A Socio-Dynamic Perspective on the Construction of Emotion

1. Is your work consistent with the hypothesis that emotions are psychological events constructed from more basic ingredients? Is it plausible that there are key ingredients from which emotions emerge? Are these ingredients specific to emotion or are they general ingredients of the mind? Which, if any, are specific to humans? We conceive of emotions as dynamic processes that unfold over time and are situated in interactions, relationships, and ultimately cultures. Rather than locating emotions exclusively “in the head ” of individuals, we conceive of emotions as emerging dynamically from an individual’s engagement in specific social contexts. What we call “emotion ” is a collection of different constituents (e.g., cognitive, behavioral, physiological responses) that interact over time—both between people and their social contexts (our primary focus) and within people (not our primary focus, but consistent with our perspective). Only some of these constituents are specific to emotions; some, but not all of them are uniquely human. 2. Which processes bring these ingredients together in the construction of an emotion? Which combinations are emotions and which are not (and how do we know)