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This chapter focuses on the state of research and theory concerning relations among emotion, developmental context, and memory in development, with a particular emphasis on how psychobiological processes play an integral role in these relations. Because memory is a skill relying heavily on a variety of cognitive, social, and biological factors, it posits that a dynamic systems framework is essential to understanding the development of memory for emotional and stressful experiences. The chapter begins with an overview of this theoretical framework in the context of emotional memory. It then turns to factors within the dynamic model by providing an overview of the psychophysiological systems involved in emotional memory. With this lens, memory for emotional experiences is further considered, beginning with the nature of the emotional event itself. Next, the chapter reviews developmental and individual differences related to children's processing of emotional experiences, focusing on individual differences related to social and cognitive processes and emotion regulation. The chapter concludes with applications of this model to clinical and legal domains and suggestions for new directions of future research.

This chapter considers two subjects in the study of emotion. The first subject is how people convey their own emotions and understand the emotions of others, and how these processes are disturbed with injury to the brain. The second subject is how we experience emotion and how this experience, and the behavior that flows from it, are altered by brain injury.

This chapter argues that the core of emotional experience—and the language with which we describe our emotional experience—is defined by the judgments that constitute the emotion. One might argue that judgments as such are not experienced at all, but this is a quibble. We experience the world via our judgments, which is why it is said that our emotions are shaped or structured by judgments. Thus, an essential part of the experience of anger is the experience of being wronged or of having one's intentions frustrated. An essential part of the experience of love is the experience of finding another person attractive and desirable, being drawn to her or him, and later finding this person to be more or less indispensable to one's life. An essential part of the experience of grief is having suffered a terrible loss because one was (and is) bound to another person who is now lost. Again, each of these descriptions is not just a description of “items in our public world;” although, to be sure, it refers to those too. But the person who angers us, the person whom we love or for whom we grieve is not just a person in the world but the person as experienced from the peculiar perspective of the emotion and the person who has the emotion.

The emotional experience of reading a novel is itself educational, teaching us about life and morality. However, emotional learning is not just a matter of making reflective judgements or acquiring beliefs about the characters and events portrayed, but of making affective appraisals of important events, having our attention focused on these events in a bodily way, and reflecting upon them after the fact. This chapter contains a detailed reading of Edith Wharton's The Reef, in which these themes are explored and illustrated. It also defends the version of ‘reader-response theory’ that underpins the discussion.

The ‘Mr Spock’ complaint shows that beliefs and desires are not sufficient for emotional experience. One way of dealing with this complaint is to explain the intentionality of emotional experience in terms of beliefs and desires, and then add on feelings as non‐intentional—the add‐on theory. Instead, the book argues for the intentionality of feelings: feelings towards the object of the emotion; and bodily feelings. Feelings towards enable one to explain the cognitive impenetrability of some of our emotional responses.

This chapter reviews our understanding of the brain pathways that mediate emotional experience and expression. First it considers the early behavioural and anatomical studies that identified the specific brain areas, especially areas in the temporal lobe, that are involved in the appreciation of emotional cues and in the expression of emotional behaviours. It then considers the current notion that some aspects of emotional memories involve a dedicated circuit in the brain that operates in parallel with other memory systems. In particular, it has been proposed that there is a specific memory system that mediates the learning and expression of emotional responses to stimuli even in the absence of conscious memory of the learning experience. The chapter examines the evidence for a specific system for the acquisition of learned fear, and then extends the review to consider whether the same brain system supports the acquisition and expression of a broad range of emotional associations.

In the beginning of this chapter, several studies about the association between social participation and inner happiness are cited. An abundance of literature supporting this connection implies that relationships are vital to an individual's adjustment, physical progress, immunity, and emotional maturity. It becomes logical then to stand on the affective side of the personality, which is centered on the underlying processes and effects involved in the interplay between emotional experience and social network. Despite all these, some researchers have concluded that there have been insufficient proofs to the essential mechanisms and the kinds of ties that induce advantageous and detrimental effects to the overall well-being of humans. This chapter takes the aforementioned premise as a reference point of its aim to break down the components and the aspects of relationships that influence emotional welfare.

This chapter examines the historical background of using the heart to symbolize human emotions. Before the 19th century general medical practice and literary texts both historically recognized emotions as physical and psychological events felt in, and symbolized by, the heart. However with the emergence of scientific medicine, the heart became an organ of the body subject to decay and the barometer rather than the instrument of emotional experiences.

This chapter reviews current understanding of the brain pathways that mediate emotional experience and expression. It then considers the notion that some aspects of emotional memories involve a dedicated circuit of the brain that operates in parallel with other memory systems. In particular, it has been proposed that there is a specific memory system that mediates the learning and expression of emotional responses to stimuli of learned significance even in the absence of conscious memory for the events of the learning experience. The chapter first considers the evidence for a specific system for the acquisition of learned fear, and then extends the review to consider whether the same brain system supports the acquisition and expression of a broad range of emotional associations.

This chapter argues that emotions are not “ineffable,” but that the description of emotional experience is very complicated. There is another problem at work here, however, more easily diffused. If one expects the description or the phenomenology of an emotion to capture or reproduce the actual feeling and intensity of the emotion, then, of course, one is asking much too much. Just as the explanation of a joke is rarely funny—much less as funny as the joke itself—an account of an emotion need not itself be at all emotional. Nevertheless, understanding an emotion may well be instrumental in deepening it, correcting it, or redirecting it toward its proper object.

This chapter argues that the field of positive psychology will benefit by expanding beyond a focus on positive states and traits, for the fundamental reason that the human mind has a basic, ongoing vulnerability to suffering. It presents an approach to positive psychology that is founded upon an accounting of the full range of human cognitive and emotional experience. In doing so, it shows that the fundamental human capacity to see how mental states of all sorts arise, how they are experienced, and how they influence the self and others, can enable an integration of psychological experience and behavior that helps to provide a stable platform for well-being.

In this chapter, the case is made that the procedure for memory reconsolidation (MR) is compatible with the strategies and interventions of modern psychodynamic psychotherapy. In particular the concept of the corrective emotional experience (CEE) is seen as integral to the MR process. A measure (the Narrative-Emotional Processing Coding System [NEPCS]) was used to code transcripts from a case being seen in Time-Limited Dynamic Psychotherapy. Results indicate that the NEPCS was able to track key shifts consistent with the MR process and CEE. One implication of this work is that psychodynamic therapists might be able to use an MR framework intentionally to foster enduring change more effectively and efficiently.

Experimental psychologists and neuroscientists often adopt film excerpts in order to study the secrets of human emotions. This chapter considers intersections between brain and film studies when dealing with emotions. The proximity of these fields has been recently appreciated, including in the research of emotional experience. In both cases, perceptual and cognitive information is carefully assembled to efficiently elicit emotional reactions in the viewers. However, despite these commonalities and the related potential mutual benefits, the interaction between these disciplines has been occasional and a systematic communication channel has yet to be established. In specific with respect to brain imaging of emotions, the flow of scientific information is largely one-sided: while commercial films are often utilized for the aim of identifying neural correlates of certain emotions, empirical neuroscientific research of “pure” emotion-related cinematic notions (such as the effects of different styles of editing, soundtrack, cinematic narrative, acting, and so on) is virtually a virgin land. Film studies, on the other hand, have only recently begun to look at emotions per se and have only occasionally referred to neuroscience while proposing new hypotheses to brain studies. This recourse to neuroscience has often been limited to only one strand within the field of film studies known as “Cognitivist”. This chapter is devoted to introducing some of the work and challenges in each field to scholars in the other area of study, and to underline the possibilities for future joint research to form an academic interface between the two areas of study.

In this chapter, it is investigated to what extent the psycholinguistic results of the GRID can be generalized to the actual emotional experiences of people. In the present study a sample of adults reported on the most intense emotional episode of the day, freely labeled these episodes with three emotion terms, and then rated to what extent 137 GRID features described their emotional experience. For the 95 most reported terms the average empirical feature profile was computed and analyzed in exactly the same way as the GRID data. A very comparable four-dimensional VALENCE, POWER, AROUSAL, and NOVELTY structure was identified for the emotional experiences. The results clearly indicate that the findings with the GRID instrument are not only relevant for (psycho)linguistic approaches, but also interesting for the study of actual emotion episodes.

Examinations of different sample populations are designed to identify associations (usually hypothesized as causal linkages) between personal traits and environmental stimulation that heighten the risk of diseases and trim down life expectancy. Since the connection between the said factors has been proven, this chapter highlights the attempt to establish the relationship between emotional contact with significant others and improved health as a result of harmonious social relationships. Along with this is the elaboration of procedures on how to attain the said goal. These include the incorporation of insights and the latest discoveries about flourishing research endeavors regarding the emotions attached in the social context. Another step is to gather information from those who explore the biological underpinnings of the social bond and its accompanying emotions. Lastly, there must be consultation from people specializing on solving the pertinent issues between interpersonal relationships and mortality.

The model of enduring change in psychotherapy featuring memory reconsolidation and emotional arousal was based on recent neuroscientific advances that were presented originally from a predominantly psychological perspective. This chapter translates the components and processes of the model into evidence-based neural systems terms. This neural circuitry model highlights what is known and not known and where new research is most urgently needed. The authors then consider the research agenda, emphasizing what they consider to be the most important knowledge gaps. The basic science research agenda focuses on a variety of topics pertaining to memory and memory reconsolidation as well as interactions between emotion and memory. The clinical science research agenda focuses on the most pressing issues pertaining to the processes and mechanisms contributing to enduring change in psychotherapy. The potential exists to develop a new taxonomy of clinical interventions based on what problems are being targeted, how intractable they are, and how long-lasting the intervention needs to be.

There is a general consensus that music is capable of arousing deep and significant emotion in those who interact with it. These experiences deserves a more central position in the psychology of music than it currently enjoys because such experiences are widespread and seem to be important motivators for engagement with music. This chapter explores how empirical science may study this type of phenomenon and to summarise some of what is known about it. In a previously unpublished study, regular listeners to music described in their own words the nature of their most valued emotional experiences of music. Although every account was different in detail, some common themes emerged. The most commonly mentioned concept was that of music as change agent. Common to these examples is the characterisation of music as offering an alternative perspective on a person's situation, allowing him or her to construe things differently.

This chapter examines emotion and communication associated with music. It analyses the ways emotional content in musical stimuli have been understood and classified and how social content and context influence the emotional experience. It also considers the neurological and physiological mechanisms involved in emotional experience in music and suggests that the context in which people experience music is also very important in determining the emotion, and intensity of emotion, experienced.