Integrating findings from recent literature and his ongoing 20-year research program, Watson (psychology, U. of Iowa) presents a framework for understanding short-term mood fluctuations and their relationship to differences in temperament and emotionality. He discusses the biological and environmental bases for mood fluctuations, relates affectivity to personality, links negative emotionality to various health complaints, and describes the implications of his study for theories of happiness.
The 1980s have been called the decade of anxiety. Not only is this true of the popular press, but students of behavior and psychopathology have contributed to the rather sudden reemergence of anxiety as a respectable and fascinating field of investigation. This volume is a culmination of more than two years of planning, literature reviews, writing, conference discussions, revising of original papers, and integrating the material for final publication. It is a series of interrelated statements about research on anxiety and the anxiety disorders written by many of the leading investigators currently active in this field. First published in 1985. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Some investigators have argued that emotions, especially animal emotions, are illusory concepts outside the realm of scientific inquiry. However, with advances in neurobiology and neuroscience, researchers are demonstrating that this position is wrong as they move closer to a lasting understanding of the biology and psychology of emotion. In Affective Neuroscience, Jaak Panksepp provides the most up-to-date information about the brain-operating systems that organize the fundamental emotional tendencies of all mammals. Presenting complex material in a readable manner, the book offers a comprehensive summary of the fundamental neural sources of human and animal feelings, as well as a conceptual framework for studying emotional systems of the brain. Panksepp approaches emotions from the perspective of basic emotion theory but does not fail to address the complex issues raised by constructionist approaches. These issues include relations to human consciousness and the psychiatric implications of this knowledge. The book includes chapters on sleep and arousal, pleasure and fear systems, the sources of rage and anger, and the neural control of sexuality, as well as the more subtle emotions related to maternal care, social loss, and playfulness. Representing a synthetic integration of vast amounts of neurobehavioral knowledge, including relevant neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and neurochemistry, this book will be one of the most important contributions to understanding the biology of emotions since Darwins The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
Research on personality psychology is making important contributions to psychological science and applied psychology. This second edition of The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology offers a one-stop resource for scientific personality psychology. It summarizes cutting-edge personality research in all its forms, including genetics, psychometrics, social-cognitive psychology, and real-world expressions, with informative and lively chapters that also highlight some areas of controversy. The team of renowned international authors, led by two esteemed editors, ensures a wide range of theoretical perspectives. Each research area is discussed in terms of scientific foundations, main theories and findings, and future directions for research. The handbook also features advances in technology, such as molecular genetics and functional neuroimaging, as well as contemporary statistical approaches. An invaluable aid to understanding the central role played by personality in psychology, it will appeal to students, researchers, and practitioners in psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and the social sciences.
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.
We have seen these children—the shy and the sociable, the cautious and the daring—and wondered what makes one avoid new experience and another avidly pursue it. At the crux of the issue surrounding the contribution of nature to development is the study that Jerome Kagan and his colleagues have been conducting for more than two decades. In The Long Shadow of Temperament, Kagan and Nancy Snidman summarize the results of this unique inquiry into human temperaments, one of the best-known longitudinal studies in developmental psychology. These results reveal how deeply certain fundamental temperamental biases can be preserved over development. Identifying two extreme temperamental types—inhibited and uninhibited in childhood, and high-reactive and low-reactive in very young babies—Kagan and his colleagues returned to these children as adolescents. Surprisingly, one of the temperaments revealed in infancy predicted a cautious, fearful personality in early childhood and a dour mood in adolescence. The other bias predicted a bold childhood personality and an exuberant, sanguine mood in adolescence. These personalities were matched by different biological properties. In a masterly summary of their wide-ranging exploration, Kagan and Snidman conclude that these two temperaments are the result of inherited biologies probably rooted in the differential excitability of particular brain structures. Though the authors appreciate that temperamental tendencies can be modified by experience, this compelling work—an empirical and conceptual tour-de-force—shows how long the shadow of temperament is cast over psychological development.
Timely and authoritative, this unique handbook explores the breadth of current knowledge on temperament, from foundational theory and research to clinical applications. Leaders in the field examine basic temperament traits, assessment methods, and what brain imaging and molecular genetics reveal about temperament's biological underpinnings. The book considers the pivotal role of temperament in parent–child interactions, attachment, peer relationships, and the development of adolescent and adult personality and psychopathology. Innovative psychological and educational interventions that take temperament into account are reviewed. Integrative in scope, the volume features extensive cross-referencing among chapters and a forward-looking summary chapter.
Originally published in 1984, this title looks at the development of temperament in early life. At the time of publication there were three major perspectives on temperament: paediatrics, individual differences in infants, and inherited personality traits that appear in early life. Whatever the diversity of these perspectives, they converge on personality traits that develop early in life, hence the title of this book. The authors start by looking at the main research in this field, then go on to discuss their own approach to temperament, building on their original theory from 1975.
For the past twenty years Keirsey has continued to investigate personality differences, to refine his theory of the four temperaments and to define the facets of character that distinguish one from another. His findings form the basis of Please Understand Me II, an updated and greatly expanded edition of the book, far more comprehensive and coherent than the original, and yet with much of the same easy accessibility. One major addition is Keirsey's view of how the temperaments differ in the intelligent roles they are most likely to develop. Each of us, he says, has four kinds of intelligence, tactical, logistical, diplomatic, strategic, though one of the four interests us far more than the others, and thus gets far more practice than the rest. Like four suits in a hand of cards, we each have a long suit and a short suit in what interests us and what we do well, and fortunate indeed are those whose work matches their skills. As in the original book, Please Understand Me II begins with The Keirsey Temperament Sorter, the most used personality inventory in the world. But also included is The Keirsey Four-Types Sorter, a new short questionnaire that identifies one's basic temperament and then ranks one's second, third, and fourth choices. Share this new sorter with friends and family, and get set for a lively and fascinating discussion of personal styles.