This study examines how others indicate that our emotions violate social norms and how people feel about and respond to those indications. The data come from in-depth interviews with thirty-two people who had recently lost a loved one to murder (“bereaved victims”). Through the symbolic interaction process, bereaved victims came to appreciate the burden their grief imposed on others, and some of them took steps to minimize that burden. Despite their awareness of the burden, however, many of the bereaved expected others to express heartfelt sympathy for their loss. Instead, people offered inappropriate (and even hurtful) responses, including avoiding the topic of their loss, offering unnecessarily dramatic responses to the loss, and telling them to move on. The responses suggest that current feeling rules and emotion norms surrounding grief do not reflect the true extent of bereaved people's actual experiences, creating awkward situations for potential supporters and the bereaved.
(Publisher abstract provided.)
Downloads
Related Datasets
Similar Publications
- Confirmation Bias and Other Systemic Causes of Wrongful Convictions: A Sentinel Events Perspective
- Training police for procedural justice: An evaluation of officer attitudes, citizen attitudes, and police-citizen interactions
- DNA-Based Identification of Forensically Important Lucilia (Diptera: Calliphoridae) in the Continental United States