Action
On entering a scene an individual defines the situation by assigning identities to each participant, frequently in accord with an encompassing social institution. While defining the situation, the individual tries to maintain the affective meaning of self through adoption of an identity whose sentiment serves as a surrogate for the individual's self-sentiment. The identities assembled in the definition of the situation determine the sentiments that the individual tries to maintain behaviorally.
Confirming sentiments associated with institutional identities – like doctor–patient, lawyer–client, or professor–student – creates institutionally relevant role behavior.
Confirming sentiments associated with negatively evaluated identities – like bully, glutton, loafer, or scatterbrain – generates deviant behavior Affect control theory's sentiment databases and mathematical model are combined in a computer simulation program for analyzing social interaction in various cultures.
Read more about this topic: Affect Control Theory
Famous quotes containing the word action:
“The greatest pleasure I know, is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident.”
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834)
“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o’erstep not the modesty of nature.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The curse of me & my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)