Anger, social power, and cognitive appraisal: application of octonionic sociocognitive emotion theory

ABSTRACT

Octonionic Sociocognitive Relational-Models Theory combines an information-processing model of perception (P), thought (T), and action-potential (A), and a sociorelational model of communal-sharing (CS), equality-matching (EM), hierarchical-ranking (HR), and market-pricing (MP). These seven dimensions are ordered P, T, A, CS, EM, HR, MP, and their pairwise interactions deduced using split-octonion algebra. HR-based social events trigger sociocognitive appraisal processes P × MP, CS × T, and EM × A, which in turn stimulate anger. Lexical-level content-analytic methodology is applied to a corpus of 564 life-historical interviews with Euro-Australians and Australian Aborigines. The structural-equations model fit the data, and results were sustained following disaggregation by culture and sex.

KEYWORDS:

• Social power
• anger
• emotion
• cognitive appraisal
• relational models theory
• octonionic sociocognitive emotions theory
• split-octonion algebra

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge the many helpful suggestions, criticism, and discussions provided by Maria Gritsch and Charles D. Kaplan. The data analyzed in this study were acquired with the aid of the New South wales Aboriginal Family Education Centres, with thanks to Alex Grey, Maisie Cavanagh, and Kevin Cavanagh.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Anger and joy–happiness can combine to form a secondary-level emotion, pride, which is an adaptive reaction to success in a social competition or difficult endeavor; failure in competition rather leads to the experiences of the opposite of anger, fear, and the opposite of joy, sadness, which can combine to form the opposite of pride, shame (TenHouten 2017c).

2. Inputs from the environment, or from the internal milieu, are processed through cognitive networks of posterior cortex (parietal, temporal, and occipital), which are further processed and analyzed cognitively by association cortex, with output from these processes flowing into prefrontal cortex where, through executive-level processing, it informs action upon the environment. This action-potential is effected through premotor cortex, the basis ganglia, and the pyramidal system. This action produces changes in the environment, which are processed through the senses and fed back into posterior cortex, which leads to further action (Fuster 2009, 2017).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Warren D. TenHouten

Warren D. TenHouten is Research Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of California at Los Angeles. His field of interest include neurosociology, alexithymia, the sociology of emotions, time-consciousness, and alienation theory. His books include Time and Society (SUNY Press 2005), A General Theory of Emotions and Social Life (Routledge 2007), Emotion and Reason: Mind, Brain, and the Social Domain of Work and Love (Routledge 2013), and Alienation and Affect (Routledge 2017).