A synthesis of symbolic interactionism and Affect Control Theory showing how emotion, meaning, and identity dynamically organize social life.
What happens when meaning, emotion, and identity are not separate forces—but expressions of a single, organizing system of social life?
In Symbolic Interactionism as Affect Control, Neil J. MacKinnon offers a major synthesis of symbolic interactionist theory and Affect Control Theory, showing how shared cultural meanings shape not only how we interpret the world, but how we feel, act, and sustain a sense of social order. Moving beyond traditional divides in sociological thought, the book demonstrates how affective meaning operates as a core mechanism linking cognition, motivation, identity, and emotion.Drawing on the foundational work of George Herbert Mead, as well as contemporary advances in social psychology, MacKinnon traces how individuals continuously evaluate and produce social events through culturally learned affective expectations. He shows how identities are stabilized through interaction, how emotions function as both signals and regulators of meaning, and how role behavior can be systematically analyzed within a unified theoretical framework.
Clear, rigorous, and integrative, Symbolic Interactionism as Affect Control lays out Affect Control Theory in a structured sequence of propositions and applications, making it accessible to readers in sociological theory, social psychology, and the sociology of emotion. Chapters move from core concepts—symbols, cognition, and affect—to applied analyses of roles, identity processes, emotional dynamics, and reidentification, culminating in a broader argument for theory integration and future research directions.
For scholars seeking to bridge classical interactionist traditions with contemporary affective science, Symbolic Interactionism as Affect Control offers both a theoretical roadmap and a compelling rethinking of how social reality is constructed and maintained through emotion and meaning.
Table of Contents:
Tables and Figures Foreword by David R. Heise Preface Acknowledgments 1. Introduction Affect Control Theory Plan of this Book The Rediscovery of Affect The Social Psychology of Emotion Summary 2. Affect Control Theory Symbols, Language, and Affective Meaning Cognitive Constraints Affective Response and Control Event Assessment Event Production Emotions Cognitive Revisions Summary 3. Cognition, Affect, and Motivation Cognition and Affect Motivation Summary 4. Affect Control Theory and the Social Psychology of George Herbert Mead Emotions in Mead's Social Psychology The Social Psychology of Mead and Affect Control Summary 5. Identities and Roles The Conceptual Framework Two Schools of Role Theory Identity Theory Affect Control Theory and Identity Theory Summary 6. Role Analysis The Affect Control Model for Role Analysis Role Analysis Learning and Accessing Norms Summary 7. Emotions The Constructionist Versus Positivist Debate The Affect Control Theory of Emotions Emotion Analysis The Constructionist Versus Positivist Debate and Affect Control Theory Summary 8. Reidentification Part I: The Established Model--Attributions and Identity Labels Part II: The Expanded Model--The Effect of Expressed Emotions on Reidentification Outcomes Summary 9. Conclusion Relation to Other Theories Affect Control Theory as Sociological Explanation Affect Control Theory as Integrative Social Psychology Directions for Future Research and Refinement Summary Endnotes References Index
About the Author :
Neil J. MacKinnon is Professor at the University of Guelph.
Review :
"Symbolic Interactionism as Affect Control is the only readable english-language text that deals with the theoretical implications of Affect Control Theory for people who are qualitatively oriented and not methodologists. It will become required reading in all courses in sociological theory and in the sociology of emotions. "The book contains an excellent argument for how Affect Control Theory both relates to historical theory and resolves specific paradoxes in contemporary theoretical approaches. I particularly like the way Dr. MacKinnon has spelled out the seven groups of propositions for Affect Control Theory and the way that he demonstrates that Affect Control Theory integrates the Chicago and Iowa Schools of Symbolic Interaction. I am also impressed with his discussion of culture and emotion theory." - John D. O'Brien, Program in the Measurement of Affect and Affective Processes, Indiana University
