Emotions

ABSTRACT Since the signing of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement of 1998, Northern Ireland has made significant progress towards a postcolonising transformation of its political culture and its major political and social institutions, as it has shifted away from violence and the dominance of political ideologies structured by the friend–enemy distinction. These ideological formations and the practices of social and political antagonism that they prescribed have been challenged by adversary–neighbour ideological formations that construct identities and relations through more inclusive norms of recognition and that support a more complex emotional constellation. However, as this cultural transformation has been neither thoroughgoing nor universal, Northern Ireland finds itself in the somewhat counter-intuitive situation in which the shift away from the violence of the past has increased, rather than reduced, the ontological insecurity of its citizens. Moreover, as ontological security may be supported by either friend–enemy or adversary–neighbour ideological formations, two distinct ways in which ontological security may collapse or re-configure have emerged in Northern Ireland.

In this fMRI study we investigated functional connectivity between components of the mentalising system during a social emotion task, using psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis. Ten adults (22–32 years) and 18 adolescents (11–18 years) were scanned while thinking about scenarios in which a social or a basic emotion would be experienced. Unlike basic emotions (such as disgust and fear), social emotions (such as embarrassment and guilt) require the representation of another’s mental states. In both adults and adolescents, an anterior rostral region of medial prefrontal cortex (arMPFC) involved in mentalising showed greater connectivity with the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) bordering on the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) and with anterior temporal cortex (ATC) during social than during basic emotion. This result provides novel evidence that components of the mentalising system interact functionally during a social emotion task. Furthermore, functional connectivity differed between adolescence and adulthood. The adolescent group showed stronger connectivity between arMPFC and pSTS/TPJ during social relative to basic emotion than did the adult group, suggestive of developmental changes in functional integration within the mentalising system.

Despite the dominant role of the hormone oxytocin (OT) in social behavior, little is known about the role of OT in the perception of social relationships. Furthermore, it is unclear whether there are sex differences in the way that OT affects social perception. Here, we employed a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design to investigate the effect of OT on accurate social perception. Following treatment, 62 participants completed the Interpersonal Perception Task, a method of assessing the accuracy of social judgments that requires identification of the relationship between people interacting in real life video clips divided into three categories: kinship, intimacy and competition. The findings suggest that OT had a general effect on improving accurate perception of social interactions. Furthermore, we show that OT also involves sex-specific characteristics. An interaction between treatment, task category and sex indicated that OT had a selective effect on improving kinship ...

Research in the fields of psychology and educational sciences shows that positive emotions foster creativity and motivate people to try new things, while they actively pursue health and well-being in the absence of negativity. The action tendencies produced by negative emotions, on the other hand, powerfully dispose a person to a specific action (Fredrickson 2013). For instance, due to pressure and negative emotions such as anxiety, shame, guilt, and disappointment, bilinguals may give up using their heritage language, which may lead to a language shift. In this chapter, I survey existing proposals on emotional levels in sociolinguistics and family language policy, paying particular attention to the lack of studies on the role of negative and positive emotions in the process of home language maintenance and/or shift. I also focus specifically on anxiety as a negative emotion in transnational contexts, and its causes and effects.

Psychological Healing Through Creative Self-Understanding and Self-Transformation

(ISBN: 978-1-62857-075-5)

Are you ready for psychological healing? This book is your liberating guide to psychological growth, including self-understanding, self-transformation, healing psychologically painful inner conflicts, as well as achieving psychological and spiritual fulfillment. Some aspects of psychological health and fulfillment clarified in this book include, authenticity, sincerity, integrity, creativity, intuition, empathy, inspiration, vitality, courage, strength of character, unselfish love (or warmhearted caring), emotional security, inner wholeness, and fulfillment.

Readers will discover a new understanding of effective psychotherapy, groundbreaking diagnostic psychological testing research, as well as the distinction between the ego self-concept, the experiential self, and the transpersonal self (the real self, the relational self, or the holistic self).

The authors deeply explored their own psychological pain and experiential truth to write this book, as a way of helping readers achieve greater self-understanding, fulfillment, and liberation from psychological pain. These principles of psychological self-understanding and healing self-transformation can also enhance the development of interpersonal relationships, as well as facilitate effective and fulfilling ways of living in society. Self-transformation at your fingertips!


About the Authors

The primary author, Dr. Max Hammer, was a distinguished Psychology Professor and supervisor of graduate students and interns in the clinical psychology, psychotherapy, and counseling practice training program of the Psychology Department at the University of Maine, for many years, as well as a respected psychotherapist and clinical psychology consultant and diagnostician. Dr. Max Hammer was one of the original core clinicians who founded and developed the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Maine, beginning in the 1960′s. In his work with graduate and undergraduate students in that program, Dr. Max Hammer provided a refreshing Humanistic and Transpersonal perspective, with an emphasis on flexible, warmly caring, empathic responsiveness to the needs of the individual psychotherapy client. A secondary contributing author is Dr. Alan C. Butler, a distinguished colleague and friend of Dr. Max Hammer’s. Dr. Butler, a Cooperating Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Maine, as well as a psychotherapist, clinical psychology consultant, and diagnostician, was one of the original staff members at the University of Maine counseling center, and served as the Training Director for its internship program for over thirty years, which he was instrumental in developing. Both Dr. Max Hammer and Dr. Alan C. Butler helped gently nurture and encourage thousands of graduate and undergraduate psychology students in their own individual journeys of personal reflection and transformation. The other secondary contributing author, Dr. Barry J. Hammer, also from Maine, has a specialization in the history of world religions, and for many years has studied the process of psychological and spiritual transformation, and its applicability to enhancing human relationships and compassionate social change.

The primary author, the late Dr. Max Hammer, was an editor and a major contributor of two previously published books, The theory and Practice of Psychotherapy with Specific Disorders (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas Publisher, 1972); and The Practice of Psychotherapy with Children (Homewood, Illinois: Dorsey Press, 1967). He also published about 30 articles in the fields of psychotherapy and clinical psychology.

The primary author, Dr. Max Hammer, is deceased, therefore, this website will be managed by his eldest son and secondary contributing author Dr. Barry J. Hammer. Another secondary contributing author is Dr. Alan C. Butler.

Ausgehend von der Phänomenologie des Lachens in der Mimik und der Stimme wird erläutert, mit welchen anderen Emotionen und Trieben das Lachen am häufigsten verbunden ist. Es sind dies Verachtung, Ekel, Trauer und Verführungskontexte. Die phylogenetische Herleitung aus der Submission einerseits und dem Spiel andererseits wird aufgezeigt. Es wird dargelegt, dass das Lachen in der Ontogenese die Grundform der Herstellung von Reziprozität zwischen Mutter und Kind ist und eine der behavioralen Grundlagen für ein ausreichendes Wissen um die glückbringende Bedeutung des heranwachsenden Kindes. In Bezug auf die Aktualgenese wird Freude im Kontext der Beuteaggression, der Schamregulierung und der Funktionslust unterschieden. Die empirisch nachgewiesene Freudlosigkeit aller seelischen Erkrankungen kann durch spezielle Lachtherapien nicht behandelt werden. Based on the phenomenology of laughter in the facial expression and in the voice it is shown which other emotions and drives are most frequently linked to laughter. These are in particular contempt, disgust, sadness and seduction. The phylogenetic deduction of laughter from submission on the one hand and play on the other is described. In the ontogenetic development mutual laughing is the behavioral basis for creating reciprocity between mother and child and one of the behavioral foundations for a sufficient knowledge for the growing baby to be a source of happiness. In relation to the current genesis happiness and joy in the contexts of captured aggression, shame regulation and “funktionslust”. There is no evidence that the empirically verified reduced expression and experience of joy of mentally disturbed people can be treated with specific laughter therapies beyond placebo effects.

Revenge is a complex notion with many facets and not an easy subject to discuss. However, investigating and understanding this challenging topic may prove to be an important endeavor. This book contains the proceedings from a conference on revenge, covering themes that vary from revenge in history and society, to philosophies of revenge, to revenge in literature and many subjects in between. Each one of the authors contributes ideas to the study of revenge, its meaning and its motivations. The papers on the philosophy cover thoughts from Bacon, Nietzsche and Bataille on the concepts of revenge. The papers on the history of revenge showcase prominent wars and legal systems that formed ideas of revenge on a national level. The papers on revenge in society examine how revenge creates social norms, and therefore, influences peoples' behaviour. Finally, the papers on revenge in literature discuss how prominent authors write about revenge, partially as a reflection of their times, and partially as a reaction against their times. Though this study is by no means complete, it forms a solid foundation upon which more research into the topic of revenge may rest.

Asistimos a la reaparición de viejos fantasmas políticos: el nacionalismo, la xenofobia, el populismo… Se trata de movimientos de introversión agresiva caracterizados por la búsqueda de un chivo expiatorio y por el predominio de las emociones sobre la razón. El resultado: una amalgama de pasiones muy distinta de la esfera pública sosegada que los ilustrados soñaron como fundamento para nuestras democracias representativas.

Al mismo tiempo, se ha hecho visible un giro afectivo en las ciencias sociales y las humanidades. Como consecuencia de los avances en el estudio del cerebro, se otorga un papel cada vez mayor a los afectos en nuestros procesos de percepción, cognición y decisión. Y, si bien las noticias que suministran los distintos saberes humanos no son definitivas, las neurociencias parecen indicar que nuestra soberanía individual es menor de lo que creíamos.

Así pues, ¿somos individuos políticamente racionales o más bien ciudadanos sentimentales? ¿Pueden explicarse los problemas de la democracia contemporánea como un efecto del peso de las emociones en el proceso político y la vida social? ¿O hay que rescatar a los afectos de su descrédito tradicional e integrarlos en una concepción más realista del ser humano?

En este exhaustivo trabajo, Manuel Arias Maldonado se enfrenta al desafío de arrojar luz sobre la cuestión. Con un enfoque admirablemente multidisciplinar, el autor plantea la necesidad de una reformulación de la autonomía individual y la defensa de una sociedad abierta en la que sujetos más sofisticados puedan gestionar reflexivamente sus propias emociones. Sin duda, somos demasiado humanos para lograrlo del todo, pero seríamos menos que humanos si dejáramos de intentarlo.

Musicology is a small discipline within the wide spectrum of human knowledge, yet it is already divided into various branches, each with its own societies, conferences, journals, jargons, degrees, prejudices, …, and jobs. Although they share their object of investigation-"the art of music as a physical, psychological, aesthetic, and cultural phenomenon", these branches very often ignore one another. Research in musicology is mostly a solitary task, as investigations, papers, and publications are commonly signed by single authors, in contrast with STEM disciplines where teamwork is the rule. This is in part the result of tradition-the "Musicological Toolbox"-but also the aftermath of the job market and financing programs. Large funding schemes such as the European Research Council (ERC) grants are becoming a major disruptive factor in many disciplines in the humanities, including musicology. Scholars in all fields now have the opportunity to build research teams, and most of their members receive their salaries to exclusively work on the project. In other words, we are starting to build what could be called a Musicology Lab, learning along the way how teamwork is reshaping and transforming the Musicological Toolbox, the look and feel of our discipline, the way we work as well as the way we publish and disseminate our results. This paper presents some of the key features of the ERC Didone project, one of its principal tasks being to create a digitally encoded corpus of some 3,000 arias in MusicXML format from about 180 musical settings of a small number of opera librettos by Pietro Metastasio. It focuses on some of the project's research tasks, emphasizing how the skills of a team of eighteen scholars with very different expertise-historical musicology, music theory and analysis, cultural history, librettology, archival research, music performance, music engraving, MIR, computer science, and statistical modeling-combine to explore the potential answer(s) to the main research question of the project: How are emotions expressed through music?

The more potential helpers there are, the less likely any individual is to help. A traditional explanation for this bystander effect is that responsibility diffuses across the multiple bystanders, diluting the responsibility of each. We investigate an alternative, which combines the volunteer's dilemma (each bystander is best off if another responds) with recursive theory of mind (each infers what the others know about what he knows) to predict that actors will strategically shirk when they think others feel compelled to help. In 3 experiments, participants responded to a (fictional) person who needed help from at least 1 volunteer. Participants were in groups of 2 or 5 and had varying information about whether other group members knew that help was needed. As predicted, people's decision to help zigzagged with the depth of their asymmetric, recursive knowledge (e.g., "John knows that Michael knows that John knows help is needed"), and replicated the classic bystan...

Love constitutes a paradigmatic emotion deployed by mystical writers across the three monotheistic traditions as a counterpoint to ratiocinative discourse transporting the reader into a direct and intimate knowledge of the divinity in contrast to indirect knowledge that logic and scholastic argumentation engender. In my paper, the concept of love will form the main emotional pivot of analysis and will engage related phenomena of jealousy, desire, rapture, physical expressions of attachment (kiss), and poetics or language through which affection becomes articulated. In Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), I will be focusing on Elijah de Vidas’s main work, Reshit Hokhmah (The Beginning ofWisdom) written in Safed in the last decades ofthe sixteenth century. De Vidas’s work belongs to the genre of ethical literature (mussar) within the Jewish esoteric corpus with a clear focus on affecting and refining human character traits in order to cultivate greater love in a person for God as well as for other human beings. The base text that Reshit Hokhmah recurrently cites and comments on is the medieval kabbalistic classic, the Sefer ha-Zohar (Book of Splendor) and as such my analysis will draw on the Zohar’s rich symbolic and poetic layers to uncover how emotive states and feelings function in the creation of meaning in Jewish mysticism.
Love comprises a fundamental aspect of Christian mystical discourse and the writings of important female mystics, such as the medieval Beguine Hadewijch of Brabant, provide an especially fertile ground for fostering spirituality through embodied emotions. Speaking of the Divine through poetry is depicted by Hadewijch as not only a powerful means of awakening love in the inner person of the speaker but also diffusing this love in the hearts of members of her own community: “You must gladly speak of God. This is a criterion of Minne (Love), that the name of the Beloved is found sweet. Saint Bernard speaks of this: ‘Jesus is honey in the mouth.’ To speak of the Beloved is exceedingly sweet; for it awakens Love immeasurably.” In another poem the intersecting repetition of love and the ambiguous movement between the beloved and the lover creates a sense of union with the Divine through love:
O love, were I love, and with love, love you, love, O love, for love, give that love which love may know wholly as love.
The Sufi poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi will provide the third pivot for engaging the concept of love and emotions in Islamic mysticism. Rumi uses the image of a hunter and the deer to depict the attraction between the human soul and the divine beloved. The path to the deer begins with the hunter following the footprints of the animal but as he approaches closer the scent of the deer’s musk gland guides him finally to the prey. Reciprocity and mutual attraction is underlined by Rumi as a key principle in his doctrine of mystical love: “[A]s the beggar is in love with bounty and in love with the bountiful giver, so the bounty of the bountiful giver is in love with the beggar.”
Through the close examination of mystical sources in Judaism, Christianity and Sufism, my paper will chart new fruitful avenues for investigating the expression, theory, transmission, and practice of emotional states in the pursuit of higher religious ideals espoused by the authors of these texts.

When making choices, individuals can follow alternative strategies or decision rules to the traditional compensatory utility maximization, raising doubts about to what extent these choices can be used to elicit preferences. In this paper we use a verbal protocol approach to investigate the use of alternative decision rules in discrete choice experiments. The main interest is to identify some of