The Sociology of Emotions, How I Fake it to Make it
The sociology of emotions is a branch of sociology that focuses on how emotions influence and interact on a societal level. It consists of the idea that society perpetuates and maintains certain emotions in its inhabitants depending on the social circumstance. One particular concept is emotional labor which explains that emotions are sometimes falsely portrayed in order to uphold appearances (on the micro level). People who work jobs that require interaction with consumers must sometimes cognitively reclassify their feelings so that expectations are met. A server at a sit-down restaurant may need to appear happy and elated in order to provide satisfactory service. Despite this, emotional labor is nowhere near exclusive to occupational interaction.
During a short period in high school, I was sent to an inpatient residential facility for unstable teenagers. The sole purpose of this space was to better the lives of and stabilize the adolescents sent to it. As one of the patients, I had to show progress in order to leave and carry on with my life. I “became better” by manually changing my emotions and outlook on life (cognitive reclassification) in the name of the goal of resuming things back home. I forced myself to be happy to reach a goal which exemplifies the aforementioned concept of emotional labor. At first, I was merely faking how I was feeling, attempting to visibly display positive emotions to deceive others into believing that I was genuinely improving. However, after some time of maintaining this act, I actually began to feel better. My mind became clearer and the discontent I was holding onto was replaced by hope. In this very specific circumstance, my happiness was a choice; I consciously chose to come off as happy and eventually, that lie became the truth.
This is not the only time in my life where I put in emotional labor. As stated before, people who hold occupations that require them to have positive social interactions often have to force themselves to come off as pleasant. Years after I graduated high school, I acquired a job as a retail worker in a hardware store. Similar to the phenomena that came about when I was in the residential facility, I found myself actively choosing to be happy. As an employee, I was expected to provide good service which entailed me having a pleasant attitude toward every customer I interacted with. No matter how horrible of a day I had prior to a shift, my mood always managed to become something of a lighter tone soon after I began working that day. Needless to say, I had a fairly easy time moving through shifts with a positive approach almost constantly.
Society holds norms and sets expectations for those who live in it. Collectively, people feel certain emotions on specific subjects which then creates a standard for what they should feel. That, in turn, is what is felt, an emotional version of groupthink; groupfeel, if you will. Emotions must not be ignored when examining both the micro and the macro levels of society and I believe that the sociology of emotions is the perfect gateway into helping us understand what makes a society tick. The sociology of emotions is a vastly intriguing and easily applicable theory in the field of sociology and must be recognized as part of everyday life much more often.
