The Psychological Construction of Emotion

This volume presents cutting-edge theory and research on emotions as constructed events rather than fixed, essential entities. It provides a thorough introduction to the assumptions, hypotheses, and scientific methods that embody psychological constructionist approaches. Leading scholars examine the neurobiological, cognitive/perceptual, and social processes that give rise to the experiences Western cultures call sadness, anger, fear, and so on. The book explores such compelling questions as how the brain creates emotional experiences, whether the "ingredients" of emotions also give rise to other mental states, and how to define what is or is not an emotion. Introductory and concluding chapters by the editors identify key themes and controversies and compare psychological construction to other theories of emotion.

Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, is University Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory at Northeastern University, with research appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Barrett's research focuses on the nature of emotion from both psychological and neuroscience perspectives, and incorporates insights from anthropology, philosophy, linguistics, and the history of psychology. She is the recipient of a Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health, among numerous other awards, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Association for Psychological Science. She was a founding Editor-In-Chief of the journal Emotion Review and cofounder of the Society for Affective Science. Dr. Barrett has published more than 160 papers and book chapters. James A. Russell, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Emotion Development Lab at Boston College. His research centers on human emotion, with interests in how large-scale environments influence emotion, the nature of emotion, how emotions can be described and assessed, a circumplex model of core affect, cultural similarities and differences in emotion concepts, and the perception of emotion from facial expressions. Dr. Russell is an Editor-In-Chief of Emotion Review and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science. He has published more than 100 articles in scientific journals.

"Barrett and Russell have assembled a star-studded cast of scholars. In contrast to faculty psychology accounts, which enumerate distinct psychological modules, psychological construction accounts are concerned with specifying how emotions are constituted from more basic mental processes. This volume's well-coordinated chapters treat the reader to a fresh set of perspectives. Eschewing the search for 'essences, ' the authors outline ambitious and exciting programs of process-oriented research. A 'must read' for anyone interested in emotion."--James J. Gross, PhD, Department of Psychology, Stanford University "Research on emotion has long been dominated by the search for innate modules that unleash feelings. "The Psychological Construction of Emotion" presents an exciting and compelling alternative."--Joseph E. LeDoux, PhD, Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology, New York University "The science of psychology strikes back (against modularity of mind and biological reductionism). Read "The Psychological Construction of Emotion" and be dazzled: it reveals the neuroscience of emotion as deep phrenology; basic emotion theory as not basic enough (and certainly not hard-wired); faculty psychology as folk psychology. Read the book and be impressed by the philosophical puzzles of the mind-body problem and the problem of the one and the many when it comes to defining and understanding that mysterious thing called 'the emotions.'"--Richard A. Shweder, PhD, Harold Higgins Swift Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago "This much-needed book nicely summarizes a new wave of neuroscientific and psychological constructionist accounts of emotion that oppose still very popular and easier-to-grasp essentialist views. Instead of conceiving emotions as hard-wired natural entities that rely on specific modules or networks in the brain selected by biological evolution, constructionist approaches take a more modern dynamical system approach. At a time when sim