A Critical Investigation of Jonathan Turner, Theodore Kemper and Edward Lawler's Theories of Emotion

One of the new fields of sociology that is well developed during recent three decades is Emotional theory. Emotion is a process by which actors evaluate real or imaginary positions and interact toward them. In this field emotion is not against rationality, but it is a source of energy that facilitates the process of interaction. Theorizers of this field emphasize on the way of entering emotion in personal and structuration of interaction. There is another group who tries connecting this field to macro level of society. Sociology of emotion is one of the most diversified field of sociology, because the participating theorizers are from different disciplines. In this article we reviewed Turner's analytical theory, Kemper's power- status theory and Lawler's theory of social exchange. Then we proposed some weaknesses and strong points of this theory in researches related to Iranian society.