The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us

270 Pages·2018·3.47 MB·English

by  Lench

Heather C. Lench Editor
The
Function of
Emotions
When and Why Emotions Help Us
The Function of Emotions
Heather C. Lench
Editor
The Function of Emotions
When and Why Emotions Help Us
Editor
Heather C. Lench
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-77618-7 ISBN 978-3-319-77619-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77619-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018938555
© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018
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Special thanks to the Emotion Science
Laboratory Group, who were continuously
passionate about the idea that emotions must
do something. Especially Zari Carpenter,
whose conscientiousness and compassion
helped foster the collaboration necessary,
and whose comments for authors and fact
checking helped develop this book. Thanks to
the Virtue, Happiness, and Meaning of Life
Working Group sponsored by the John
Templeton Foundation for comments on the
ideas and scope of this book.
Synopsis
This book poses and answers the question: What do emotions do for us? This ques-
tion is centuries old, but only recently has behavioral and neurological study of
emotion progressed to the point that we can start to answer. Emotions do not just
make us feel good or bad. Findings have revealed that they change the way that we
think, feel, and behave in powerful ways. The changes wrought by emotion have
real-world implications for whether or not we succeed in attaining our goals, for our
relationships with others, and for our well-being and life satisfaction. This book
draws on current work in psychology, management, education, and neuroscience to
address the functions of emotion in everyday life. The authors discuss a range of
emotional experiences and their functions, including fear, love, sadness, boredom,
awe, and pride.
vii
Contents
1 What Do Emotions Do for Us?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Heather C. Lench and Zari Koebel Carpenter
2 Fear and Anxiety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Parisa Parsafar and Elizabeth L. Davis
3 On Sentinels and Rapid Responders: The Adaptive
Functions of Emotion Dysregulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Tsachi Ein-Dor and Gilad Hirschberger
4 Sadness, the Architect of Cognitive Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Melissa M. Karnaze and Linda J. Levine
5 On the Functions of Sadness and Grief. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
David Huron
6 Boredom: What Is It Good For? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
James Danckert, Jhotisha Mugon, Andriy Struk,
and John Eastwood
7 The Adaptive Functions of Jealousy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Jose C. Yong and Norman P. Li
8 Functions of Anger in the Emotion System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Ira J. Roseman
9 Nurturant Love and Caregiving Emotions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Makenzie J. O’Neil, Alexander F. Danvers,
and Michelle N. Shiota
10 The Functional and Dysfunctional Aspects
of Happiness: Cognitive, Physiological, Behavioral,
and Health Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Justin Storbeck and Jordan Wylie
ix
x Contents
11 Awe: A Self-Transcendent and Sometimes
Transformative Emotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Alice Chirico and David B. Yaden
12 Emotions of Excellence: Communal and Agentic
Functions of Pride, Moral Elevation, and Admiration . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Lisa A. Williams
13 The Emotional Toolkit: Lessons from the Science of Emotion . . . . . . 253
Heather C. Lench, Cassandra L. Baldwin, Dong An,
and Katie E. Garrison
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Contributors
Dong An Department of Philosophy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX,
USA
Cassandra L. Baldwin Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas
A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
Zari Koebel Carpenter Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas
A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
Alice Chirico Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart,
Milan, Italy
James Danckert Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo,
ON, Canada
Alexander F. Danvers Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing, University of
Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
Elizabeth L. Davis Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside,
Riverside, CA, USA
John Eastwood Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada
Tsachi Ein-Dor The Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, The Interdisciplinary
Center (IDC) Herzliya, Herzliya, Israel
Katie E. Garrison Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M
University, College Station, TX, USA
Gilad Hirschberger The Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, The Interdisciplinary
Center (IDC) Herzliya, Herzliya, Israel
David Huron Center for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Ohio State University,
Columbus, OH, USA
Melissa M. Karnaze Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University
of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
xi
xii Contributors
Heather C. Lench Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M
University, College Station, TX, USA
Linda J. Levine Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of
California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
Norman P. Li School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University,
Singapore, Singapore
Jhotisha Mugon Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo,
ON, Canada
Makenzie J. O’Neil Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe,
AZ, USA
Parisa Parsafar Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside,
Riverside, CA, USA
Ira J. Roseman Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ,
USA
Michelle N. Shiota Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe,
AZ, USA
Justin Storbeck Queens College, CUNY, Flushing, NY, USA
The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY, USA
Andriy Struk Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON,
Canada
Lisa A. Williams School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney,
NSW, Australia
Jordan Wylie The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY, USA
David  B.  Yaden Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Jose C. Yong School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University,
Singapore, Singapore