***Topics I am Considering as My Main Project***

Possible Topic 1: Gender roles and various gender roles in different cultures.

I want to research and go farther in depth about what is expected from a man and a woman in society and what role culture/traditions play in gender roles.

Links: Gender roles in Islam [1] and Gender role

*Possible Topic 2: Isolation (emotional and social isolation)*

I want to research not only what makes people emotionally isolated, but I also want to discuss how come though some people are isolated they partake in things such as social media

Link: Isolation

Possible Topic 3: Feeling Rules

I want to go more in depth about why we act the way we do and why do we feel as if we need to please others

Links: Feeling rules and Feeling

Possible Topic 4: Undoing Gender

I want to research how changing genders really came about and also add/research more on gender change

Links: Undoing Gender and Sex change

My 1-2 sentence of new information that I added to an Wikipedia article

Though society shapes individuals; however, it was the individual who made society to begin with and society in turn shaped and influenced us. Emile Durkheim who really played an important role in the theory of social facts, explained and talked how what was once a mere idea which in this case Durkheim is talking about society has turned out to be a thing which basically controls and dictates us.[1]

***Potential Content to Add to Articles***

Information from: Wood, S. L., & Bettman, J. R. (2007). Predicting happiness: How normative feeling rules influence (and even reverse) durability bias. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 17(3), 188-201.[2]

Many people if not all buy things/goods in hoping that this certain product will make them feel a certain way either happy, excited or etc...

Example: Some women buy beauty products in hopes of achieving a state of happiness or a sense of self beauty

"How do you feel about it," many of us have heard this quote several times in our lives and many of us ask ourselves this question. We predict that a certain something will give us our desired outcome or feeling of expectation; however, in reality when we do indulge in what we thought would make us happy or excited sometimes it only causes a temporary fill or it might actually gives us the complete opposite results that we expect.

I plan to discuss/explain 4 studies that were conducted to show how feeling rules influence future emotions/feelings

Information from: Wingfield, A. H. (2010). Are some emotions marked "whites only"? racialized feeling rules in professional workplaces. Social Problems, 57(2), 251-268.[3]

Race not only plays an important role in the way how employees act with each other, but also how employees act toward customers based on what race they are associated with.

There was a research done on black professors and their students, results showed that the white students saw their black professors as" inferior and unintelligent" which was why they usually disputed with their professors. Despite of the professors knowledge of why the students dispute with them they abide by the feeling rules which calls for them to act in a calm manner despite of clear frustration.

People expect people to behave in a certain manner due to what race they are associated with. In a workplace feeling rules are established and are expected to be followed, but there is a double standard on the feeling rules applied to the white workers versus black workers

Information from: Power, C. A., Cole, E. R., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2011). Poor women and the expression of shame and anger: The price of breaking social class feeling rules. Feminism & Psychology, 21(2), 179-197

People of lower status/ poverty are expected to behave in an ashamed or emotional manner versus a cold or angry manner. By showing that they are ashamed the people of higher status are more likely to help them and have pity over them versus those who do not show shame for their current state in which the people of higher status did not help or pity them.

People of lower status that displayed no sense of self pity or dissatisfaction gave people of higher status a harder time to sympathize with them thus proving that expressing shame was more effective and when anger was expressed there was little to no hep being provided.

Information from: Horne, O., & Csipke, E. (2009). From feeling too little and too much, to feeling more and less? A nonparadoxical theory of the functions of self-harm. Qualitative Health Research, 19(5), 655-667

Sometimes not feeling anything at all can be just as painful as feeling too much. Some people resort to self pain in order to get some type of feeling. "The pain . . . gives my mind a concrete feeling that is logical to focus on, rather than the abstract feelings.” This goes to show how far someone is willing to go in order to feel something versus nothing.

Even unfelt emotions are felt. Have you ever experienced something where you should've been sad, but you weren't sad physically. However, due to your knowledge of feelings you know you are sad, it's just at the current moment you are experiencing an overload of emotions and you lose that sense of sadness because you are overthrown with everything else.

"I got so split off from how I was feeling that I didn’t even know it was emotion any more. I couldn’t read the signs. Instead of getting angry, I got tense. Instead of getting scared, I got dizzy. Instead of sad, I felt blank and empty," This goes to show how unfelt emotions are felt.

*****What I Added to Feeling Rules Article****

Title: The Effects of Feeling Rules

Race and the Workplace

Race not only plays an important role in the way that employees act with each other, but also how employees act toward customers based on what race they are associated with. People expect others to behave in a certain manner due to what race they identify or associate with. As members of society, race completely changes the way we see and view others.

Roxana Harlow, a sociologist conducted extensive research on black colleges and professors. Harlow depicted how white college students viewed their professors as "unintelligent" and "inferior" simply because of the color of their skin and not the measurement of their knowledge. [4] In a classroom setting, white students were shown to give their professors a hard time and questioned every statement that their professor made. Whereas, if they were in a classroom with a white professor that made the same statement that a black professor had made previously, the white professor was not questioned and was viewed as knowledgeable. Despite of the clear fact that the students were disputing with the black professor solely on the fact that he or she was black, the black professor maintained their composure and adhered to the feeling rules. That black faculty member could've caused an uproar and behaved in crazy manner due to that situation, but instead the professor maintained her cool. Many people in society tend to associate people of color with loud mannerisms and being rash, but because of the feeling rules of the workplace which calls for professors to be calm and rational, the professor maintained her professionalism.In a workplace feeling rules are established and are expected to be followed, but there is a double standard on the feeling rules applied to the white workers versus black workers. Shandab96 (talk) 05:01, 8 March 2016 (UTC)Shanda

The Effects of Feeling Rules

Status

Due to feeling rules, people of lower status or standing are expected to behave in an ashamed or emotional manner versus a cold or angry manner. By showing that they are ashamed of their current standing, the people of higher status are more likely to help them out and have pity on them versus those who do not show shame or pity for their current state. When we go out on the streets we encounter people the streets asking for money or rambling through trash to find items. Usually, people tend to respond to seeing that by giving that individual of lower status clothes, food, money or etc...Our generosity would greatly differ if that same individual of lower status were to act in an indifferent or prissy manner. You would probably find yourself not wanting to help the individual, not because his or her current situation had changed, in fact that person is still the poor individual you saw a few minutes ago, but in fact your demeanor had changed due to feeling rules.

Feeling rules gives us that expectancy that individuals of lower status should act in a pitiful and ashamed manner just because of their standing. Feeling rules affect our status because it dictates how one should act just because of their economic/ financial standing.

An experiment was conducted to show how people would react if they saw an ad with a person who was angry about being poor and another person who was shameful about being in poverty. After viewing the ad, people were more willingly to give money to the person who ashamed about being poor versus the person who was angry about being poor. Since the individual who was angry about being in poverty broke the feeling rule of what is expected our people of lower class, little to none donations were received in their favor. People of lower status that displayed no sense of self pity or dissatisfaction gave people of higher status a harder time to sympathize with them thus proving that expressing shame was more effective and when anger was expressed there was little to no help being provided

*****What I added to the Feelings Article*****

Many people if not all buy products in hoping that this certain product will make them feel a certain way either happy, excited, beautiful or etc...For example, Some women buy beauty products in hopes of achieving a state of happiness or a sense of self beauty. We use past events in past events in our lives to form schemas in our minds and based on those past experiences we expect our lives to follow a certain script just because of a past event.

Let's say you purchase a product and the following day you receive several comments based on your use of that product. Those compliments made you feel elated or beautiful, the chances are in the future that you are going to purchase that product again because using it in the past made you feel extremely happy.[2]

Title: How do you feel about it Many of us have heard the quote "How do you feel about it" or "How does that make you feel" and many of us ask ourselves this question on the daily basis. We predict that a certain something will give us our desired outcome or feeling of expectation; however, in reality sometimes when we do indulge in what we thought would make us happy or excited sometimes it only causes a temporary fill or it might actually gives us the complete opposite results than we had expected. We do things in life in hopes to satisfy our feelings.

Incorporating or thinking about our past feelings, helps us make decisions. A study was done to show how pleased a person would feel if they purchased flowers for themselves for no specific reason (birthday, anniversary, promotion or etc...) just because and how long they thought that feeling would last. People who had no experience of purchasing flowers for themselves and those who had experienced buying flowers for themselves were tested. Results showed that those who had purchased flowers in the past for themselves felt happier and that feeling lasted longer versus a person who had never experienced purchasing flowers for themselves. This was a prime example of how past experiences of feelings influence our current decision making. We use past feelings to dictate how we will feel in the future and if we in turn want to feel that way again.[5]

***March 28 What I Added to Feeling Rules Article***

Title: Exploitation of People Through the Use of Feeling Rules

A large portion of workers in our population have jobs or careers that requires them to use their feelings or emotional labor as Hochschild calls it, in the workplace. Whether we realize it or not, we base our reactions and actions on the way we see how other people react or express their feelings. Companies and corporations see this and use it to exploit workers in order to maximize profitshttps://caringlabor.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/the-managed-heart-arlie-russell-hochschild.pdf.

Hochschild gives a clear example on how companies maximize their profits through the use of feeling rules by viewing the job of a flight attendant. A flight attendants' job much like many other jobs require emotional labor. The flight attendance uplifts the customer through his or her demeanor and expression of feelings. A flight attendant who is constantly smiling or asking the customer how they are doing is more comforting to a customer versus if a flight attendant who rolls their eyes and rarely smiles. The feeling rules for a flight attendant calls for them to be happy, calm, and to suppress their negative feelings. Customers who see the way the flight attendant upholds themselves are more likely to come back if the experience was pleasant. Which is why many airlines like Delta, which was rated as one of the top airlines calls and requires these feeling rules at the workplace. In a way this is beneficial to the companies and the customer because the customer is satisfies and keeps coming back which makes the company more money. However, at the same time it can be harmful to the flight attendant because they are not able to express their feelings, but rather required to suppress their feelings for the benefit of othershttps://caringlabor.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/the-managed-heart-arlie-russell-hochschild.pdf.

As consumers we are constantly probed with the question of how a product will benefit us. Consumers purchase certain products because they want to feel a certain way whether happy, beautiful or excited. We believe that when we buy a product that we will feel a type of way, but in reality that feeling can be short lived. Feeling rules tell us that since we got such and such, that we must feel this or that. If a company posts an ad about teeth whitening strips and shows how an individual was before and after using the product, it can persuade people to want to buy that product. In the ad, before using the whitening strips the individual was seen as sad and insecure and after using the strips the individual was shown as happy and confident. As consumers and as people we think if that individual from the ad was happy and confident after using the whitening strips then if they used the whitening strips as well it would also bring them happinesshttp://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.fiu.edu/science/article/pii/S1057740807700281.

Feelings can be private or public and we have the capability of controlling how it is expressed. As members of society, individuals want to in a sense conform and follow the norms of society. People in society conform to feeling rules because when they stray away from it they are seen as deviant or inhumane. For example, if someone tells you they have suffered a loss of a pet; the feeling rules requires you to show a public display of sadness or sympathy for the person who suffered the loss. Regardless of the fact that your private feelings may be that you are indifferent or you simply do not care for the loss of that pet. What an individual may feel on the inside may not be what is considered as normal in the eyes of society.

Gender It is no secret that in many parts of the world, males get paid more than females. But what we do not realize is how feeling rules are affected by gender. Feeling rules require men and women to act a certain way and in fear of breaking that norm, these rules stay in place. We associate women with being sweet and innocent, whereas we associate men with being tough and strong. People are assigned jobs based on their gender. Since women are usually seen as beings that can control their anger they are most likely enlisted in jobs that require them to use their looks or charms. Men on the other hand who are seen as tough are usually in jobs that require them to use that toughness or anger in order to deliver some type of meanshttps://caringlabor.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/the-managed-heart-arlie-russell-hochschild.pdf.

Women in traditional and middle class families rely on men to make or give them money. In response to the men providing, the women in a sense feel as if they have to repay the men back by hugging, kissing or celebrating the man. Since the women do not have the financial capability of repaying the man, the women use emotional means in order to thank or repay the man for what he has provided for them. If the man had provided the money for the women and she in return did not act by hugging or kissing him, she would be seen an ungrateful because the feeling rules calls for her to feel joy or happiness for what the man has done for her.

Our habits and emotional skills are some of the many things we learn from our parents. Generally men are not capable of controlling their feelings or emotions because they were not taught or required to as a child. Males obtain jobs such as bill collector, taxi driver, and construction worker because many of those jobs do not rely heavily on emotional labor. Hochschild, in a study even showed that male flight attendants though they status and position as female flight attendants showed more power and tolerated less abuse from passengers than female flight attendants. Since we associate males with being tough and associate females with being sweet, feeling rules makes us feel appalled when a women behaves in a tough manner, but when a male behaves in this very same demeanor it is seen as acceptable because feeling rules are influenced by our gender. https://caringlabor.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/the-managed-heart-arlie-russell-hochschild.pdf.Shandab96 (talk) 21:34, 28 March 2016 (UTC)

***March 28 Added to Feelings Article***

Self-Harm

What do you feel when you feel? We are all familiar with feelings of anger, happiness, joy, stress, and excitement. When we are feeling these emotions our bodies are reacting as well. When we are nervous we feel knots in our stomach or when we are angry the very hairs on our bodies tend to rise

Feelings can lead to harm and also blissful things. When an individual is dealing with an overwhelming amount of stress and problems in their lives, it can lead them to cause self harm. When one is in a good state of feeling they never want it to end; however, when someone is in a bad place in their life they just want that feeling to go away or stop completely. Inflicting harm or pain to oneself is sometimes the answer for many individuals because they just want something to keep their mind off the real problem or issue that is going on in their lives. The individual figures that the pain they are causing to themselves is not as bad as what their actual problem is. These individuals cut, stab, and starve themselves in efforts to feel something other than their current feeling. Distraction is not the only reason why many individuals choose to inflict self harm. Some people inflict self harm not to numb or distract themselves from that feeling they were feeling earlier, but they inflict self pain as a way to punish themselves for feeling a certain way.

The Feeling of Knowing and Not Knowing

If we encountered an angry individual, how would that make us feel? We could either respond back to the anger individual in the same demeanor that he or she did, or we could maintain our calm. When we see angry people walking about in society we do not know what made that individual angry or how long they have been angry. When we see someone who is cursing or angry we automatically assume the worst of that person. What we fail to realize is that maybe that individual probably lost a loved one or is really going through a tough time. If someone was yelling at you and you had no clue why they were behaving in such manner you would probably yell back at the individual and feel as if the person was just arrogant or purely rude. However, if that same scenario occurred and you did know the person was going through a hard time you would adhere to the feeling rules and sympathize with the individual and you might even try to help that person.

Timothy D. Wilson, a psychology professor tested this theory of the feeling of uncertainty along with his colleague Yoav Bar-Anan, a social psychologist. Wilson and Bar-Ann found that the more uncertain or unclear an individual is about a situation, the more invested they are. Which basically means since an individual does not know the background or the ending of a story they are constantly replaying an event in their mind which is causing them to have mixed feelings of happiness, sadness, excitement, and et cetera. It is in our human nature to want to know every detail about something in hopes to maximize our feeling for that moment, but Wilson found that feeling uncertain can lead to something being more enjoyable because it has a sense of mystery. In fact the feeling of not knowing can leave our minds to wonder off and to constantly think and feel about what could've been

Title: Emotion Work

There are two types of emotion work, evocation and suppression. Evocation is used to obtain or bring up a certain feeling and suppression is used to put away or hide certain unwanted feelings. Emotion work is done by you yourself, others upon you, or you upon others. Emotion work is done to achieve a certain feeling that one believes they should feel.

There are three types of emotion work: cognitive, bodily, and expressive. Cognitive changes images, bodily changes physical aspects, and expressive changes gestures. A person who is sad uses expressive emotion work to lift their spirits by trying to smile. A person who is stressed uses bodily emotion work by trying to breathe slower in order to lower stress levels. Emotion work allows individuals to change their feelings to suit the current situation. https://campus.fsu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/academic/social_sciences/sociology/Reading%20Lists/Social%20Psych%20Prelim%20Readings/II.%20Emotions/1979%20Hochschild%20-%20Emotion%20Work.pdf.

Feelings are deemed appropriate if they fit the current situation. Since individuals want to fit in and be normal, they are constantly working on their feelings in order to fit the situation. Emotion work is more so how people want to feel or how they want other people to see them feel. Feelings are not permanent, but an ongoing thing because people constantly try to bring up, suppress, or manage feelings.

Title: Class and Feelings

Class differences influence and varies how a parent raises their child. Middle-class parents raise their child through the use of feelings and lower-class parents raise their children through behavior control. Middle-class parents and lower-class parents raise their children to be like them feeling and behavioral wise. Middle-class children get reprimanded for feeling the wrong way and lower-class children are punished for behaving in a bad manner or behavior. Lionel Trilling, an author and literary critic described the technique that the middle and the lower class parents use over under-working and overworking their children's feelings causes them to seek approval of their feelings in the future. When children of the lower class of working class family go out into the work field they are less prepared for emotional management than the middle class children. [3]

  1. ^ Durkheim, Emile (1982). The Rules of Sociological Method. New York: The Free Press. pp. 52–59.
  2. ^ Wood, Stacy L.; Bettman, James R. (2007-07-01). "Predicting Happiness: How Normative Feeling Rules Influence (and Even Reverse) Durability Bias". Journal of Consumer Psychology. 17 (3): 188–201. doi:10.1016/S1057-7408(07)70028-1.
  3. ^ Hochchild, Arlie. "Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure" (PDF).