ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the ways that sociologists think about human feelings. It views that sociology studies the patterning of human relationship. However, the term 'relationship' can be understood in different ways. Many of our private behaviors follow the guidelines of those standards. We feel uncomfortable committing certain acts because they seem wrong for us. However, social life is much more than culturally guided action; it is also a set of relationships between persons. Just as we have relationships with other people, so we have relationships with social positions. All of us hold varieties of social statuses friend, brother, teammate, and the like; attached to those statuses are socially recognized rights and responsibilities. Thoits describes the different emotion-management strategies people use to bring their own emotionality in line with the feeling rules. The emotion theory describes how people's perceptions of well-being or success in social roles and identities are fundamental sources of emotions.
