# Success or error & Emotion Display

**URL:** <http://discourse.iapct.org/t/success-or-error-emotion-display/10887>\
**Category:** CSG1996\
**Created:** [October 23, 1996, 11:41pm UTC](http://discourse.iapct.org/t/success-or-error-emotion-display/10887 "1996-10-23T23:41:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Clark\_McPhail](http://discourse.iapct.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@Clark\_McPhail](http://discourse.iapct.org/u/Clark_McPhail)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 1996, 11:41pm UTC](http://discourse.iapct.org/t/success-or-error-emotion-display/10887/1 "1996-10-23T23:41:46Z")

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> Tim Carey (221096.0800)--
> 
> > Powers claims that an emotion is the  
> > combination of a goal and a feeling and then goes on to say that there  
> > must also be a blocking of action before a state would be described as  
> > emotional. Does this just apply to negative emotions?

> [Bill Powers (961023.0530 MDT)]
> 
> I think so -- I don't think you feel pleasure more intensely when you're  
> prevented from carrying out the implied behavior. It's more as though  
> successful behavior is its own reward, with the feelings that accompany it  
> being labeled "good" because they go with success. Of course this doesn't  
> cover the pleasant bodily feelings, which are, according to the official  
> story, caused by internal morphine ("endorphines"). Pleasure can certainly  
> be chemically simulated, but I suspect that kind of pleasure is like  
> simulating a race in a car by operating the speedometer needle with the car  
> sitting in the garage. The subject of positive emotions needs a good deal  
> more sorting out. Any ideas?

What about our experience and display of emotion when we witness the  
success or failure of another person or group of persons for whom we wish  
the best possible outcome. For example, fans who identify with a team can  
do little or nothing to affect the actual play of the team or the final  
score of a game. But is it not possible that fans control for the  
perception of similar outcomes as those of the team members themselves,  
even though the fans cannot directly affect the outcome or the team  
member's perceptions? Home team fans cheer and applaud when their team  
makes completes a forward pass, scores a touchdown (gets a hit, executes a  
successful double-play); conversely, they groan or moan after their team  
members' muff a handoff, or their quarterback is sacked, or when a team  
member strikes-out or fumbles an easy grounder. These emotion displays  
are readily observable as are their cheers for the opposing team's failures  
and groans for the opponents' successes. Less readily observable are the  
smiles upon our "experience" of pleasure at perceiving the success of a  
child, a spouse or close friend frowns and grimaces that  
following/accompany the "experience" of sadness when perceiving they are  
injured or that they fail at something we know is very important to them.

In short, these blatant or subtle emotion displays certainly seem to  
accompany or follow what I experience at the point of comparing the  
perception against the reference perception for which I have been  
controlling (whether it is my own actions or observing the actions of  
someone in whom I have an interest.) But I don't know where or how this  
is taking place in "the loop" or in a set of connecting loops within or  
across levels. Can Bill or Rick or Bruce, anyone, comment on whether you  
have observed, experienced or thought about the phenomena to which I refer.  
Am I on course or have I missed something terribly important.

Clark McPhail, Ph.D.  
Professor of Sociology  
Director, Collective Action Project  
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  
326 Lincoln Hall (MC 454)  
702 S. Wright  
Urbana, IL 61801

office & voicemail: 217-333-2528  
dept: 217-333-1950  
fax: 217-333-5225  
home: 217-367-6058  
email: cmcphail@uiuc.edu  
[http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~cmcphail/](http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~cmcphail/)