How Emotions Work [Paperback]

Jack Katz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226426009 | ISBN-13: 978-0226426006 | Publication Date: November 1, 2001

Many of the ways in which we express and react to emotions make very little sense. From the tears that mark both the best and worst moments in our lives to the rages sparked by the most trivial of traffic annoyances, emotions surprise us-they lead us to act in ways contrary to our better judgment, and they always seem to lie just beyond our control. In How Emotions Work, Jack Katz observes situations ranging from a criminal's interrogation-room breakdown to a child's temper tantrum, and offers new approaches to understanding our emotions, their sources, and the behavior they lead to, all with unprecedented clarity.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Why do we cry at the best and worst moments of our lives? How can rational adults suddenly find themselves having an emotional outburst? How do we unconsciously create our emotional responses, and then consciously bring these emotions under control? How do we manage, manipulate, and control emotions in social situations? These are some of the questions that Katz (sociology, UCLA; Seductions of Crime) seeks to answer in this social and psychological examination of emotions provoked by everyday situations. Using a variety of methods, including participant observation, ethnological studies, and the analysis of videotaped situations, Katz unravels complex behavioral, interactive, situational, and somatic elements involved in the expression of anger, shame, laughter, and crying. His intriguing subjects include drivers on L.A. freeways, families at a fun house, a whining toddler in preschool, and a prisoner under police interrogation. While enhancing our understanding of emotional behavior, this academic study is filled with technical jargon that will discourage all but the most persistent general reader. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.ALucille M. Boone, San Jose P.L., CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

A sociologist analyzes emotions by taking a close look at how anger, laughter, shame, and crying emerge and decline in everyday situations. Katz (sociology, UCLA) has selected what would seem to be fruitful situations for his exploration of emotions. His study of anger is based on some 150 detailed reports of adult drivers who were asked to recount their enraging experiences while driving in Los Angeles. To examine laughter, he uses an equally dramatic technique, videotaping 187 episodes of individuals and families in a fun house equipped with distorting mirrors. His work on shame draws largely on statements and videotapes of eight-year-old boys striking out in Little League baseball games and persons involved in white collar crime investigations, as well as on the extensive literature on shame. Crying is studied through two disparate situations, the persistent whining of a preschool child and the breakdown of a criminal being questioned by the police. However, the prose in which the research and analysis is couched is unfortunately clotted with the professional jargon of social psychology. Learning that emotions are ``dialectical tensions between doing and being done by interactions with others,'' that ``the socioaesthetic properties of laughter appear to be a universal feature of socialized competence throughout Western civilization,'' or that someone's crying is a response to a crisis in ``the corporeal authentication of his narration'' is unlikely to enthrall the general reader curious about the phenomenon of road rage or wondering why tears may signal both great joy and great sadnesseven when illustrative liine drawings and stills from the videotapes supplement the text, and excerpts of annotated tape transcriptions offer a glimpse of a sociological researcher's extraordinarily detailed observations of subjects. While the title is appealing in its simplicity and directness, inside the cover this clarity quickly gives way to a dismaying density that will burden and frustrate readers outside the circle of social-psychological research. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 407 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226426009
• ISBN-13: 978-0226426006
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #324,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A breathtaking analysis, August 20, 2001

By 

"rudy200" (Cleveland, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Emotions Work (Hardcover)

Traditionally, emotions were seen as a topic unworthy of study by Sociologists, who saw emotions as "irrational." Recently, emotional experience has been retrieved as integral to social life, however, no analyst has managed to capture the nip and tuck of emotional experience as katz has. Drawing on Freudian theory, symbolic interactionism, and phenomenology, he shows how emotions influence social life through both their situated and their transcendent relevance. Must reading for any researcher who hopes to get a handle on this elusive phenomenon.

1 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars EQ, June 9, 2000

By 

Jennifer Faith Chua (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Emotions Work (Hardcover)

The problem with a lot of people is that they do not get in touch with their own emotions and the causes a lot of problems later. This book will give the insight to be emotional intellegent and how does emotions work in our lives. Enjoy reading it.