Emotions are a cardinal component of everyday life, affecting one's ability to function in an adaptive manner and influencing both intrapersonal and interpersonal processes. This book brings together leading experts in the field to provide a guide to dealing with emotional problems in children and adolescents.
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.
The first comprehensive treatment of active inference, an integrative perspective on brain, cognition, and behavior used across multiple disciplines. Active inference is a way of understanding sentient behavior—a theory that characterizes perception, planning, and action in terms of probabilistic inference. Developed by theoretical neuroscientist Karl Friston over years of groundbreaking research, active inference provides an integrated perspective on brain, cognition, and behavior that is increasingly used across multiple disciplines including neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. Active inference puts the action into perception. This book offers the first comprehensive treatment of active inference, covering theory, applications, and cognitive domains. Active inference is a “first principles” approach to understanding behavior and the brain, framed in terms of a single imperative to minimize free energy. The book emphasizes the implications of the free energy principle for understanding how the brain works. It first introduces active inference both conceptually and formally, contextualizing it within current theories of cognition. It then provides specific examples of computational models that use active inference to explain such cognitive phenomena as perception, attention, memory, and planning.
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.
Many researchers today view emotions as biologically-based, evolutionary adaptations to environmental stimuli. In this book, Stefan Hofmann and Stacey Doan argue that emotions cannot be understood without taking into account the dynamic social and cultural worlds we inhabit. They propose instead a "core self," containing the biological basis for our emotions, and a "social self," which develops over time and embraces the shifting social and cultural influences around us as we grow and learn. Through a wealth of clinical case examples and an expert synthesis of contemporary research, the authors examine how emotions are determined and regulated both internally and externally, via social bonds and feedback. By emphasizing the client's social world, they show clinicians how to understand and offer treatment solutions to common mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety. As the authors demonstrate, socio-cultural context is not just a contributing factor to emotional development; it is, instead, a constant, ubiquitous, and essential element for understanding the complex foundations of human emotion.
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
Stress and Health: Biological and Psychological Interactions is a brief and accessible examination of psychological stress and its psychophysiological relationships with cognition, emotions, brain functions, and the peripheral mechanisms by which the body is regulated. Updated throughout, the Third Edition covers two new and significant areas of emerging research: how our early life experiences alter key stress responsive systems at the level of gene expression; and what large, normal, and small stress responses may mean for our overall health and well-being.
Straightforward and practical, this is the first book to provide detailed guidance for using neurobiological methods in the study of human social behavior, personality, and affect. Each chapter clearly introduces the method at hand, provides examples of the method's applications, discusses its strengths and limitations, and reviews concrete experimental design considerations. Written by acknowledged experts, chapters cover neuroimaging techniques, genetic measurement, hormonal methods, lesion studies, startle eyeblink responses, facial electromyography, autonomic nervous system responses, and modeling based on neural networks.