Microsociology: Discourse, Emotion, and Social Structure.

University of Chicago Press.

Moving beyond the traditional boundaries of sociological investigation, Thomas Scheff brings together the study of communication and the social psychology of emotions to explore the microworld of thought, feelings, and moods. Drawing on strikingly diverse and rich sources--the findings of artificial intelligence and cognitive science, and examples from literary dialogues and psychiatric interviews--Scheff provides an inventive account of the nature of social life and a theory of motivation that brilliantly accounts for the immense complexity involved in understanding even the most routine conversation.