The Nature Of Emotion

Building on the legacy of the groundbreaking first edition, the Editors of this unique volume have selected more than 100 leading emotion researchers from around the world and asked them to address 14 fundamental questions about the nature and origins of emotion. For example: What is an emotion? How are emotions organized in the brain? How do emotion and cognition interact? How are emotions embodied in the social world? How and why are emotions communicated? How are emotions physically embodied? What develops in emotional development? At the end of each chapter, the Editors--Andrew Fox, Regina Lapate, Alexander Shackman, and Richard Davidson--highlight key areas of agreement and disagreement. In the final chapter--The Nature of Emotion: A Research Agenda for the 21st Century--the Editors outline their own perspective on the most important challenges facing the field today and the most fruitful avenues for future research. Not a textbook offering a single viewpoint, The Nature of Emotion reveals the central issues in emotion research and theory in the words of many of the leading scientists working in the field today, from senior researchers to rising stars, providing a unique and highly accessible guide for students, researchers, and clinicians.

This book provides an overview of theoretical thinking about the communicative scope of emotional expressions as well as an overview of the state of the art research in emotional psychology. For many years, research in emotional psychology has been primarily concerned with the labeling of emotion expressions and the link between emotion expressions and the expresser’s internal state. Following recent trends in research devoting specific attention to the social signal value of emotions, contributors emphasize the nature of emotion expressions as information about the person and the situation, including the social norms and standards relevant to the situation. Focusing on the role of emotion expressions as communicative acts, this timely book seeks to advance a line of theoretical thinking that goes beyond the view of emotion expressions as symptoms of an intrapersonal phenomenon to focus on their interpersonal function. The Social Nature of Emotion Expression will be of interest to researchers in emotional psychology, as well as specialists in nonverbal behavior, communication, linguistics, ethology and ethnography.

Emotion: Theory, Research, and Experience, Volume 1: Theories of Emotion, presents broad theoretical perspectives representing all major schools of thought in the study of the nature of emotion. The contributions contained in the book are characterized under three major headings - evolutionary context, psychophysiological context, and dynamic context. Subjects that are discussed include general psycho-evolutionary theory of emotion; the affect system; the biology of emotions and other feelings; and emotions as transitory social roles. Psychologists, sociobiologists, sociologists, psychiatrists, ethologists, and students the allied fields will find the text a good reference material.

As the full effects of human activity on Earth's life-support systems are revealed by science, the question of whether we can change, fundamentally, our relationship with nature becomes increasingly urgent. Just as important as an understanding of our environment, is an understanding of ourselves, of the kinds of beings we are and why we act as we do. In Loving Nature Kay Milton considers why some people in Western societies grow up to be nature lovers, actively concerned about the welfare and future of plants, animals, ecosystems and nature in general, while others seem indifferent or intent on destroying these things. Drawing on findings and ideas from anthropology, psychology, cognitive science and philosophy, the author discusses how we come to understand nature as we do, and above all, how we develop emotional commitments to it. Anthropologists, in recent years, have tended to suggest that our understanding of the world is shaped solely by the culture in which we live. Controversially Kay Milton argues that it is shaped by direct experience in which emotion plays an essential role. The author argues that the conventional opposition between emotion and rationality in western culture is a myth. The effect of this myth has been to support a market economy which systematically destroys nature, and to exclude from public decision making the kinds of emotional attachments that support more environmentally sensitive ways of living. A better understanding of ourselves, as fundamentally emotional beings, could give such ways of living the respect they need.

From Darwin to "Star Trek", Evans offers a lively look at the science of emotions and finds that whether we live in the shadow of Times Square or in the depths of the rain forest, all humans feel disgust, joy, surprise, anger, fear, and distress. 20 halftones.

The editors of this unique volume have selected 24 leading emotion theorists and asked them to address 12 fundamental questions about the subject of emotion. For example; Are there basic emotions? How do you distinguish emotions from moods, temperament, and emotional traits? Can we control our emotions? Can emotions be non-conscious? What is the relation between emotion and memory? What develops in emotional development? Each chapter addresses a different one of these fundamental questions about emotion, with often divergent answers from 3 to 7 of the following leading researchers: James Averill, Gordon Bower, Linda Camras, Lee Clark, Gerald Clore, Richard Davidson, Judy Dunn, Paul Ekman, Phoebe Ellsworth, Nico Frijda, Hill Goldsmith, Jeffrey Gray, Carroll Izard, Jerome Kaga, Richard Lazarus, Joseph Le Doux, Robert Levenson, Jaak Panksepp, Mary Rothbart, Klaus Shere, Richard Shweder, David Watson, and Robert Zajonc. At the end of each chapter the editors -- Ekman and Davidson -- highlight the areas of agreement and disagreement about each of the 12 questions about emotion. In the final chapter Affective Science: A Research Agenda, the editors describe the research they believe would help answer each of the questions. Not a textbook offering a single viewpoint, The Nature of Emotion, uniquely reveals the central issues in emotion research and theory in the words of many of the leading scientists working in the field today. It is ideal for students, researchers, and clinicians interested in emotion.

CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Need of an inquiry into the nature of emotion - Explanation of the presentdiversity of opinion on this subject - Introspective examination of concrete cases- Emotion contrasted with cognition - Emotion distinguished from pleasure-pain (1) as reaction, (2) as dependent on special conditions, (3) as involvingqualitative distinctions, (4) as factor in conduct - The distinction between emotion and conation - Summary of results. CHAPTER II. The identification of emotion with pleasure-pain - Emotion as impulse -The analysis of emotion into pleasure-pain and conation - The James-Langetheory - Professor Dewey's position - The views of Professors, Baldwin, Ribot,and Külpe - Mr. Marshall's theory - Emotion as ' excitement ' - Emotion asexplicable in terms of pleasure-pain and cognition - Professor Wundt's theoryConclusion. CHAPTER III. Method to be followed in determining the primary emotions - Objectionsconsidered - The tentative nature of the inquiry - Satisfaction and dissatisfaction as the emotional elements in joy and grief - Discussion of anger - Fear inits various forms - Definition of hope - Ill-feeling in all its forms - Kindlyfeeling (1) as race characteristic, (2) as exemplified in gratitude, pity, affection,etc. - Emotions of repugnance - Admiration and scorn - The self-feelings -The so-called 'intellectual emotions' - The aesthetic, moral, and religious feelings - Conclusion. Note. - The references in the headlines to volume and number apply to the Philosophical Review, from which this thesis has been reprinted. The paging has been made consecutive throughout.