Anger in interaction – A case for emotionography

2026-01-22 LMS - Potter Hepburn
22 Jan 2026 02.00 PM - 04.00 PM SHHK Conference Room (05-57) Alumni, Current Students, Industry/Academic Partners, Prospective Students, Public
Organised by:
Lim Ni Eng
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In the quarter century since Derek Edwards’ Discourse and Cognition (1997; also 1995, 1999) laid out some of the challenges and possibilities of studying emotion in interaction, a small but growing body of work has flourished. This includes studies of the way emotion is displayed and receipted, the way emotion categories do action and action ascription, and areas such as laughter, shame, and empathy which are often collected under the broad category emotion (e.g. Potter & Hepburn, 2020; Përakylä & Sorjonen, 2012; Robles & Weatherall, 2021; Shaw et al., 2013).

This talk will focus on anger in the form of displays, orientations, ascriptions, and avowals using the example of King Charles’ leaky pen and a fraught family phone call.  The vernacular category ‘anger’ is dissolved into a set studyable features with their own logic: symmetrical blaming; absent accounts and apologies; script and disposition management; object side and subject side constructions; interrogatives to highlight moral failings; heightened volume, pitch, emphasis; persistent overlap and disorganized delay.

The argument here is part of a broader project to develop an emotionography of emotion in and for interaction (Potter & Hepburn, 2026).  This both reconfigures the topic of emotion and provides a new approach for its systematic study.

  • Edwards, D. (1995). Two to tango: Script formulations, dispositions, and rhetorical symmetry in relationship troubles talk. Research on language and social interaction, 28(4), 319-350.
  • Edwards, D. (1997). Discourse and cognition. Sage.
  • Edwards, D. (1999). Emotion discourse. Culture & psychology, 5(3), 271-291.
  • Peräkylä, A. & Sorjonen, M. L. (Eds)(2012). Emotion in interaction. Oxford University Press.
  • Potter, J. & Hepburn, A. (2020). Shaming interrogatives: Admonishments, the social psychology of emotion, and discursive practices of behaviour modification in family mealtimes. British Journal of Social Psychology, 59(2), 347-364.
  • Potter, J. & Hepburn, A. (2026). Emotionography: Theory, Research and Practice.  American Psychological Association Press. https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/emotionography
  • Weatherall, A. & Robles, J.S. (Eds)(2021). How Emotions Are Made in Talk. John Benjamins.
  • Shaw, C., Hepburn, A., & Potter, J. (2013). Having the last laugh: On post-completion laughter particles.  In Glenn, P. & Holt, E. (Eds). Studies of laughter in interaction, 91-106.

Jonathan Potter is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University, and Honorary Professor in the School of Social Science and Humanities at Loughborough University. He has worked on basic theoretical and methodological issues in social science for more than 40 years. He has engaged with, and developed, post-structuralism (in Social Texts and Context, with Margaret Wetherell and Peter Stringer, 1984), discourse analysis (in Discourse and Social Psychology with Margaret Wetherell, 1987), discursive approaches to racism (in Mapping the Language of Racism, with Margaret Wetherell, 1992), discursive psychology (in Discursive Psychology, with Derek Edwards, 1992), and constructionism (systematically reworked in Representing Reality, 1996). Since then he coedited a collection on cognition in interaction research (Conversation and Cognition, with Hedwig te Molder, 2005) and coauthored an introduction to conversation analysis aimed at psychologists (Essentials of Conversation Analysis, with Alexa Hepburn, 2021). Most recently he and Alexa Hepburn have in press: Emotionography: Theory, Research and Practice, American Psychological Association 2026.

Alexa Hepburn, PhD, is Professor Emerita in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University, and Honorary Professor in the School of Social Science at Loughborough University. She has published widely regarding methodological, practical, theoretical, and meta-theoretical frameworks in the social sciences, and on the use and development of conversation analytic methods. A major focus has been to develop new insights into profound issues related to emotion, socialization and influence, and how conversation analysis and discursive psychology can support a reconfiguration of psychological research. This is reflected in her five books - An Introduction to Critical Social Psychology, Discursive Research in Practice: New approaches to psychology and interaction co-edited with Sally Wiggins, Transcribing for Social Research, co-authored with Galina Bolden, Essentials of Conversation Analysis, co-authored with Jonathan Potter, and Emotionography: Theory, Research and Practice, with Jonathan Potter, American Psychological Association 2026. Recent research has focused on emotional expressions such as upset, anger and laughter Her investigations into empathy in professional settings and techniques for managing resistance during advice-giving have resulted in several training workshops for practitioners, highlighting her commitment to applied research that addresses real-world challenges. She has delivered many invited seminars, plenaries keynotes, and specialist workshops on interaction analysis around the world.

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