Quantitative (Sociological) Research on Emotions: Challenges and Possibilities

The burgeoning field of emotions has developed a set of important theoretical constructions but has not offered equal methodological advances, revealing some of the obstacles the field has yet to overcome. Qualitative methodologies are by far the preferred option among scholars when facing the challenge of analyzing emotions empirically, a decision related both to disciplinary boundaries and the challenge itself emotions involve as a multidimensional (inter) subjective process. A considerable gap in providing a broad portrait of the (stratified) emotional patterns of our societies, their multiple manifestations by gender, race, and social settings, as quantitative methodologies would allow, constitutes without doubt an important limitation. Some of the constraints that quantitative analysis shows stem from positivists, unacknowledged epistemological assumptions and the predominance of methodological individualism and psychological reductionism. This session welcomes papers that reflect upon these and other challenges posed to applying quantitative methods to the sociological study of emotions regarding the following questions: how can one grasp the relational and temporal dimensions of the emotional experience in standardized questionnaires? What innovative, additional techniques can help us to identify obscure or taboo emotions and the hidden emotional inequalities that prevail among social groups? Should quantitative analysis focus better on the behavioral outcomes of specific emotions rather than on emotions themselves? Are there ways to overcome the gap between the social local significance of an emotion and its attributed meaning in a questionnaire?