Work

Reconstructing the Past: A Century of Ideas About Emotion in Psychology

Year: 2009

Type: article

Abstract: Within the discipline of psychology, the conventional history outlines the development of two fundamental approaches to the scientific study of emotion-"basic emotion" and "appraisal" traditions. In this article, we outline the development of a third approach to emotion that exists in the psychological literature-the "psychological constructionist" tradition. In the process, we discuss a number of works that have virtually disappeared from the citation trail in psychological discussions of emotion. We also correct some misconceptions about early sources, such as work by Darwin and James. Taken together, these three contributions make for a fuller and more accurate account of ideas about emotion during the century stretching from 1855 to just before 1960.

Source: Emotion Review

DOI: 10.1177/1754073909338877

Authors: Maria Gendron, Lisa Feldman Barrett

Institutions: Boston College, Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital

Language: English

Topic: Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology

Subfield: General Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging

Awards: Neural Mechanisms of Affective Salience in Aging, Emotions are emergent events constrained by affective and conceptual processes.