Thomas S. Smith

Autobiographical Remembering: Creating Personal Culture

A model of autobiographical remembering and the creation of personal culture is proposed. In this model we hypothesize that autobiographical memories are instantiations--objectifications as in metaphors or idioms-constituted through reconstructive processes that come to be recognized as self. Such memories are subsequently subjectified as personal culture. Our emphasis is on the functions and uses of autobiographical remembering, especially in interaction with others, where reconstructed memories are marked with affective significance. We propose that memories become autobiographical as a function of how they are used--to establish and maintain intimacies or to calm ourselves during times of hightened anxiety-and signified by affect and emotion. From an object-relations theory perspective, autobiographical memories are seen as transitional phenomena (selfobjects) that reconstitue caregiving relationships both when we are alone and when we are interacting with others.

The architecture of small networks : Strong interaction and dynamic organization in small social systems

A new theoretical model of social interaction, conceptualized here as a hyperstructure, provides the basis for simulation experiments designed to explore the network effects of high frequency social dynamics, or strong interactions. Based on neurophysiological discoveries of brain-behavior mechanisms at work in attachment, the theoretical model provides a nonreductionistic understanding of how biological forces constrain social interaction and yield effects that propagate beyond dyads into wider social networks. The network effects of the model are equivalent to patterns long recognized in sociological research on personal networks, showing that the model can reproduce empirically familiar and sometimes surprising bottom up discoveries about network dynamics. Additionally, the model provides sociological theory with a straightforward computational approach to discovering how deep structural principles at work in all complex systems also yield a social architecture-specifically, how a system/subsystem architecture, first described by Herbert Simon, emerges when strong interactions partition persons into naturally occurring subsystems

Hyperstructures and the biology of interpersonal dependence: Rethinking reciprocity and altruism

Fluctuations in endogenous opioid activity in the brain, controlled under ordinary conditions by attachment, are capable of producing patterns of dependence in social behavior resembling those appearing in substance abusers. Withdrawal symptoms arising in relation to these fluctuations, short of producing dependence, ordinarily fuel everyday social interaction, and interaction then serves to modulate opioid activity within a range associated with comfort. Comfort-constraints in this sense operate in all settings of social interaction, part of an innate caregiving mechanism conserved by evolution in human behavior. In this paper we present a formal model of the neurosociological mechanism embodying these comfort constraints. Conceptualized as a hyperstructure, the mechanism grounds thinking about social interaction in recent biological discoveries about the brain, and enables sociologists to study how activity in core brain systems constrains deep patterns in social life, including the human tendencies to altruism and reciprocity. Using computational methods, we undertake simulations to study the mechanism, deriving implications about moral behavior. The theory of the hyper-structure leads to new conclusions about reciprocity and altruism, and bears upon sociological understanding of related subjects such as justice and social comparison.

Emergence, Self-Organization, and Social Interaction: Arousal-Dependent Structure in Social Systems*

these new ideas, and illustrate them using examples from several fields. Our discussion serves to introduce equivalent self-organized phenomena in social interaction. Interaction systems appear to be structured partly by virtue of such emergents. These appear under specific conditions: When cognitive buffering is inadequate relative to the levels of stress persons are subjected to, anxiety-spreading has the potential of pushing their interaction into nonlinear conditions. Arousal in these conditions produces effects on behavior arising from biological sources-indeed, behavior can come under the control of reflex patterns. When this occurs, psychological activity no longer screens off biological controls over behavior As the direct effects of biological activity spill into interaction, attachment behavior introduced into an interaction system can produce effects that are transmitted beyond dyads to produce global social patterns. These effects illustrate how strong interactions based in biological activity can produce an architecture for social systems.

Autobiographical remembering and self-composing

Abstract A interpretive synopsis based on our empirical research and theoretical perspectives on autobiographical remembering and self-composing is presented. Conceptual links are made among Kellys notions of personal constructs, autobiographical remembering, and self. The influences of attitudes on remembering personally significant information, either by oneself or with others, are emphasized. The possible functions of autobiographical remembering are explored through an ecological perspective. Two functions are identified: a coherence or unity function and an interpersonal function. A sense of coherence is achieved in (re)constructive or productive remembering; intimacies are established and maintained in productive interactions. It is proposed that a sense of self can be instantaneously experienced directly through an improvisational process of self-composition in autobiographical remembering and interacting.

Conflicting Criteria of Success in the Careers of Symphony Musicians

Orchestral musicians earn larger salaries as their career development wins them employment in major orchestras, but they may simultaneously face disappointing losses of intrinsic musical satisfactions from their work. Such trade-offs of intrinsic for extrinsic rewards, along with other contradictions in the setting of orchestral work, appear to be primarily a function of the stratification among orchestras. These and other observations are presented in this article in the course of developing a structural equation model of orchestral career commitment. The model is fitted to survey data drawn from a national sample of symphony orchestras.

Attachment, Interaction, and Synchronization: How Innate Mechanisms in Attachment Give Rise to Emergent Structure in Networks and Communities

Discoveries in social neuroscience over the last 30 years have led to startling new knowledge about innate mechanisms associated with the bonding and attachment of newborns and their mothers. This chapter presents a formal theoretical model of the part played in attachment by endogenous opioid peptides and related hormonal and neurotransmitter systems. In these models we see the coupling of two neurosocial oscillators. One is stimulated by attachment and induces activity in the opioid system, and the other is stimulated by separation and raises arousal levels. Central to the optimal functioning of these controls is interpersonal synchronization. We show that synchronization plays a part beyond dyads in generating social networks and in augmenting the integration of whole communities, and conclude by arguing that attachment and interaction function as extensions of the human immune system.

Social Perspectives on Emotions, Vol. 5, Mind, Brain, and Society: Toward a Neurosociology of Emotion

Introduction. Introduction: emergence, reduction, and levels of analysis in the neurosociological paradigm (T.S. Smith, D.D. Franks). Summaries of chapters (D.D. Franks, T.S. Smith). Theoretical Frameworks and Overview of Neurosociology. Explorations in neurosociological theory: from the spectrum of affect to time consciousness (W.D. Tenhouten). The neurology of emotion: implications for sociological theories of interpersonal behavior (J.H. Turner). The neurosociological role of emotions in early socialization: reasons, ethics, and morality (J.V. Tredway et al.). Some convergences and divergences between neuroscience and symbolic interaction (D.D. Franks). Consciousness and the potential for contributions from brain science to the sociology of emotion (W.M. Wentworth). Research in Brain Processes and Subconscious Influences on Social Interaction. The familiar and the strange: Hopfield network models for prototype-entrained attachment-mediated neurophysiology (T.S. Smith et al.). Navigating the sound stream of human social interaction (S.W. Gregory Jr.). Hyper compliance in charismatic groups (B.D. Zablocki). The biosociology of testosterone in men (A. Mazur, A. Booth). Arouser depreciation and the expansion of social inequality (M. Hammond).