The Affect Control Theory of Emotions: The Case of Depression

Notwithstanding strong theoretical statements in the emotions literature concerning the kinds of interactional events producing specific types of emotions, Smith-Lovin observes that “we have relatively little systematic information about what types of events lead to what emotions or what types of people are more likely to experience certain emotions chronically” (1995, 135. Emphasis added). In this chapter, we address both these deficits from the perspective of Affect Control Theory (ACT) (Heise 1979; Smith-Lovin and Heise 1988; MacKinnon 1994). Conducting computer simulations of the emotions produced by interactional events and focussing on depression, we identify the types of socially structured events that are most likely to produce depression as a temporary state and the types of people who are most likely to experience depression as a characteristic trait. We begin with a brief statement of ACT and its conceptualization of emotions. With this in hand, we introduce the ACT model of emotions and the distinction between characteristic and structural emotions that guides our empirical analysis. We conclude the theoretical introduction to this chapter by briefly discussing the conceptualization and etiology of depression.