Affect Language Theory

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Affect control theory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In control theory (sociology) affect control theory proposes that individuals maintain affective meanings through their actions and interpretations of events. The activity of social institutions occurs through maintenance of culturally based affective meanings.

Contents

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* 1 Affective meaning

* 2 Impression formation

* 2.1 Deflections

* 3 Action

* 4 Emotions

* 5 Interpretations

* 6 Applications

* 7 Extensions

* 8 See also

* 9 References

* 10 Further reading

* 11 External links

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Affective meaning[edit]

Besides a denotative meaning, every concept has an affective meaning, or connotation, that varies along three dimensions:[1] evaluation – goodness versus badness, potency – powerfulness versus powerlessness, and activity – liveliness versus torpidity. Affective meanings can be measured with semantic differentials yielding a three-number profile indicating how the concept is positioned on evaluation, potency, and activity (EPA). Osgood[2] demonstrated that an elementary concept conveyed by a word or idiom has a normative affective meaning within a particular culture.

A stable affective meaning derived either from personal experience or from cultural inculcation is called a sentiment, or fundamental affective meaning, in affect control theory. Affect control theory has inspired assembly of dictionaries of EPA sentiments for thousands of concepts involved in social life – identities, behaviors, settings, personal attributes, and emotions. Sentiment dictionaries have been constructed with ratings of respondents from the U.S.A., Canada, Northern Ireland, Germany, Japan, and China (both the People’s Republic and Taiwan).[3]

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Impression formation[edit]

Each concept that is in play in a situation has...