Scheff (professor emeritus, University of California-Santa Barbara) compares the imagined emotional world of popular song lyrics with the more realistic world of emotions and relationships as seen from the perspective of social science. Designed for a course introducing social science to high school and college students, the book stresses that individualism is taken for granted in modern societies and explores ideas of connectedness and alienation, reinforcing the use of social science terms for the emotions revealed in Top 40 songs from 1930 to 2000. The author outlines the nature of basic emotions and relationships, arguing that the usual treatment of the social-emotional world in modern societies is limited, casual, and often misleading. The book includes suggestions for a teaching a course for high school seniors and college freshmen. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Arvustused
The great strength of the book lies in the simple idea that popular media provide the psychological pulse of a culture in a way that has the potential to reflect enduring truths about human nature. Such media content in analysis is rare in psychology (cf. DeWall et al., 2011) but has great potentialWe thank Scheff for reminding us that love is all around us love is in the airwaves. Contemporary Psychology Vol. 57, Release 20
| Preface: A Note to the Reader |
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vii | |
| Acknowledgments |
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xiii | |
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1 Introduction: What's in a Love Song? |
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1 | (16) |
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2 Conceptions of Love: The Eternal Debate |
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17 | (26) |
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3 Emotion Languages: Love, Pride, Anger, Grief, Fear, and Other Emotions |
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43 | (16) |
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4 Alienation in Top 40 Songs 1930--2000 |
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59 | (34) |
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5 Nobody Knows but Me: Curtailment of Feeling |
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93 | (10) |
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6 Genuine Love and Connectedness |
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103 | (18) |
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7 What Emotion Is the Shadow of Love? |
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121 | (10) |
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8 The Beat Goes On: Alienation and Curtailment of Emotions |
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131 | (16) |
| Afterword: Two Projects for Better Lyrics |
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147 | (4) |
| References |
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151 | (6) |
| Index |
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157 | (9) |
| About the Author |
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166 | |
Thomas J. Scheff is Professor Emeritus, University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Being Mentally Ill (Aldine, 1999), Microsociology (University of Chicago Press, 1994), Bloody Revenge (Backinprint.com, 2000), Emotions and the Social Bond (Cambridge University Press, 1997), other books, articles, and chapters on social psychology, bonds, emotions, and large scale conflict. His current projects include books on human bonds and on interpersonal communication. He is trying to become a generalist, but it is difficult to overcome bad habits. Still more he would like to be funny, but that seems out of reach.
