The Psychology And Biology Of Emotion

The importance of emotions in everyday life is the subject of this systematic study which presents students with a broad summary of 30 years of research and theory on emotion, covering both contemporary and historical theories.

First Published in 1990. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The outgrowth of a University of Chicago conference on the psychological and biological bases of behavior, this unique collection of papers integrates the biological consideration of emotion with current psychological approaches. As such, it includes studies of the coping process associated with emotion as well as those that focus on the appraisal process giving rise to emotion. The book approaches emotion from cognitive, developmental, and biological systems and psychopathological perspectives. Theories on the cognitive, biological, and developmental bases for interpreting, representing, and reacting to emotional situations are proposed. In addition, new studies on issues and questions regarding the roles of cognition, language, brain lateralization, socialization, psychopathology, and coping with affect are presented.

A reader-friendly exploration of the science of emotion. After years of neglect by both mainstream biology and psychology, the study of emotions has emerged as a central topic of scientific inquiry in the vibrant new discipline of affective neuroscience. Elizabeth Johnston and Leah Olson trace how work in this rapidly expanding field speaks to fundamental questions about the nature of emotion: What is the function of emotions? What is the role of the body in emotions? What are "feelings,” and how do they relate to emotions? Why are emotions so difficult to control? Is there an emotional brain? The authors tackle these questions and more in this "tasting menu" of cutting-edge emotion research. They build their story around the path-breaking 19th century works of biologist Charles Darwin and psychologist and philosopher William James. James's 1884 article "What Is an Emotion?" continues to guide contemporary debate about minds, brains, and emotions, while Darwin's treatise on "The Expression of Emotions in Animals and Humans" squarely located the study of emotions as a critical concern in biology. Throughout their study, Johnston and Olson focus on the key scientists whose work has shaped the field, zeroing in on the most brilliant threads in the emerging tapestry of affective neuroscience. Beginning with early work on the brain substrates of emotion by such workers such as James Papez and Paul MacLean, who helped define an emotional brain, they then examine the role of emotion in higher brain functions such as cognition and decision-making. They then investigate the complex interrelations of emotion and pleasure, introducing along the way the work of major researchers such as Antonio Damasio and Joseph LeDoux. In doing so, they braid diverse strands of inquiry into a lucid and concise introduction to this burgeoning field, and begin to answer some of the most compelling questions in the field today. How does the science of "normal" emotion inform our understanding of emotional disorders? To what extent can we regulate our emotions? When can we trust our emotions and when might they lead us astray? How do emotions affect our memories, and vice versa? How can we best describe the relationship between emotion and cognition? Johnston and Olson lay out the most salient questions of contemporary affective neuroscience in this study, expertly situating them in their biological, psychological, and philosophical contexts. They offer a compelling vision of an increasingly exciting and ambitious field for mental health professionals and the interested lay audience, as well as for undergraduate and graduate students.

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the psychology of emotion has grown to become its own field of study. Because the study of emotion draws inspiration from areas of science outside of psychology, including neuroscience, psychiatry, biology, genetics, computer science, zoology, and behavioral economics, the field is now often called emotion science or affective science. A subfield of affective science is affective neuroscience, the study of the emotional brain. This revised second edition of Psychology of Emotion reviews both theory and methods in emotion science, discussing findings about the brain; the function, expression, and regulation of emotion; similarities and differences due to gender and culture; the relationship between emotion and cognition; and emotion processes in groups. Comprehensive in its scope yet eminently readable, Psychology of Emotion serves as an ideal introduction for undergraduate students to the scientific study of emotion. It features effective learning devices such as bolded key terms, developmental details boxes, learning links, tables, graphs, and illustrations. In addition, a robust companion website offers instructor resources.

There have been rapid and important advances in all behavioural sciences in recent years. These advances have in one sense been very diverse and specialised - sufficiently so for a scientist to quickly lose touch with the current concerns of even neighbouring researches: but in some cases the developments have seemed also to be fundamental and perhaps convergent, with implications across a range of disciplines. In either case there is a real, and increasing, need for scientists to communicate their discoveries and to a new generation of students in their own. Problems in the Behavioural Sciences is designed to meet this need. The books are by leading researchers, and deal with problems or topics that are attracting a special current interest. The central subject matter is psychology, but many of the issues will need to be pursued across existing (and fluid) boundaries between psychology and other behavioural sciences like physiology, pharmacology, sociology, ethology and linguistics. The central idea of this book is that biology, and particularly evolution, provides the best starting point for the study of emotion. In particular, it is argued that all the conventional properties of emotion such as expression, feeling, and motivation can be considered in a scientific manner, and useful conclusions drawn therefrom. The major part of the book involves the application of this central idea to a wide variety of the phenomena of emotion. The resultant review should be useful as an undergraduate text, and so explanations in the text are aimed at the non-specialist. At the same time, the specific conclusions drawn in the book should be of interest to all those who do research on emotion, and particularly those who need a solid framework on which to base interdisciplinary studies. Biology and Emotion differs from the majority of books in the field in that it does not present a specific theory of emotion. The material covered is therefore more general than is often the case, and has not been selected to support a particular point of view. It combines an organised, yet artheoretical, approach with coverage of both animal and human emotions.

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the psychology of emotion has grown to become its own field of study. Because the study of emotion draws inspiration from areas of science outside of psychology, including neuroscience, psychiatry, biology, genetics, computer science, zoology, and behavioral economics, the field is now often called emotion science or affective science. A subfield of affective science is affective neuroscience, the study of the emotional brain. This revised second edition of Psychology of Emotion reviews both theory and methods in emotion science, discussing findings about the brain; the function, expression, and regulation of emotion; similarities and differences due to gender and culture; the relationship between emotion and cognition; and emotion processes in groups. Comprehensive in its scope yet eminently readable, Psychology of Emotion serves as an ideal introduction for undergraduate students to the scientific study of emotion. It features effective learning devices such as bolded key terms, developmental details boxes, learning links, tables, graphs, and illustrations. In addition, a robust companion website offers instructor resources.