Emotionalities
Emotionalities are the underlying frameworks and grammars through which people interpret, experience, and regulate their feelings, acting as deeper structures than fleeting emotions.
Emotionalities refer to the deep-seated frameworks and grammars through which individuals interpret, experience, and regulate their feelings, rather than mere transient emotions. In the context of exiting religious communities like the LDS Church, these structures encompass the affective tools—such as guilt, grief, and joy—that are tied to specific cultural narratives. Former members often struggle to process these feelings without the original religious frame, indicating that emotionalities are foundational to one's sense of the world.
What this means in real life
A teenager's friend group might share a particular emotionality of ironic detachment and dark humor, while their parents' generation expresses a more earnest, optimistic emotionality—two different emotional cultures within the same family.
What it isn’t
Not the same as individual emotions (anger, joy, sadness). Emotionalities are broader patterns or atmospheres of feeling, not discrete, momentary states. A person can experience sadness within a culture of cynical emotionality.
Commonly misused online
Often flattened to mean 'being emotional' or 'having feelings,' when it actually refers to the *character* or *style* of emotional expression in a group or era—a more structural concept than individual sentiment.
Based on 1 reference source, including primary sources. Last verified July 11, 2026.