Wolff (2007) ‘Emotion at work…’

Roth argues that emotion should be ‘included in the integral analysis of human activities…’ (p. 40), and also argues that emotion is a neglected area in Activity Theory, which identifies the Subject as a node, but does not always dig down into the complexity of subjectivity.

 

Subjectivity is complicated. Within Activity Theory, and materialist approaches more broadly, subjectivity does not comprise an inviolable essence of self. Instead, subjectivity is  a result ‘of collective life and having a material body, which allows the dawning subject, mediated by its embodied and bodily nature, to be conscious of itself as but one among a plurality of subjects’ (p.44). Therefore, subjectivity is determined by history, and by social forces.

 

Emotion clearly plays a part in learning: ‘Being good at something feeds back… thereby producing and reproducing emotion, enjoyment and motivation’ (p.43). Moreover, emotions play a significant part in our professional lives, owing to ‘the pervasive nature of emotions at work’ (p.57).

 

More controversially, Wolff argues that emotions are learned behaviour: ‘We fear the boss, go crazy over our favourite who is winning the game, or enjoy the company of others, but we know these emotions only because we have learned about them in interactions with other members of the culture’ (p. 46). Emotions are often experienced as an imperative and unmediated, but Wolff argues that emotions are learned through interactions with others. Therefore, emotions are historically and socially determined, too.

 

It would seem, therefore, that character, individuality, is action, and we are what we do. This contradicts the idea of an essence of self determining our actions. Hence, ‘we do not know who a person is independent of the actions of that person’ and ‘attributions about who someone is are based on observable behaviour (actions)’ (p. 56). Subjectivity is the product of historical and social forces, emotions are learned behaviour, and the subject (in Activity Theory) is in a dialectical relationship with other nodes, as the subject is in a state of flux, and hence its relationship with its wider contexts is unstable and unpredictable.

 

Reference