Assignment 10/05

Write a 200-500 word statement addressing the way in which emotions structure social relationships. Use evidence from this weeks readings

Our emotions structure social relationships because they act as communication between individuals and they affect organizational decision making.  The first point is explained in the article by Lopes.  As this article puts it, emotions play this role by “conveying information about people’s thoughts and intentions”.  The article by Keltner and Haidt explains this point as well.  It says that emotions are used for informing the individual as well as prepare the individual and similar to the other article it says that emotions are for understanding other people’s emotions and intentions.  Understanding the emotions and intentions of a person you are interacting with helps you know how to react to them.  This relates back to the article on Emotional Intelligence that we read for last week.  Being able to understand and manage emotions interactions between people can be more efficient and effective. 

This same article also explains the second point.  This article explains that emotions help to define the roles and statuses of members.  This helps groups know how to function and use their abilities most efficiently and make decisions more efficiently.  The article by Howard also discusses this point.  It says that emotions work to help decision-making groups in a similar way to how it works in individuals.  It affects priorities and where attention is focused.  Emotions can cause changes in priorities and changing priorities can change where an organization focuses attention or how they make a decision.