Solving the Emotion Paradox: Categorization and the Experience of Emotion

@article{Barrett2006SolvingTE,
  title={Solving the Emotion Paradox: Categorization and the Experience of Emotion},
  author={Lisa Feldman Barrett},
  journal={Personality and Social Psychology Review},
  year={2006},
  volume={10},
  pages={20 - 46}
}
  • L. F. Barrett
  • Published 2006
  • Psychology, Medicine
  • Personality and Social Psychology Review
In this article, I introduce an emotion paradox: People believe that they know an emotion when they see it, and as a consequence assume that emotions are discrete events that can be recognized with some degree of accuracy, but scientists have yet to produce a set of clear and consistent criteria for indicating when an emotion is present and when it is not. I propose one solution to this paradox: People experience an emotion when they conceptualize an instance of affective feeling. In this view… Expand
View on SAGE
psy.miami.edu
1,066 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
128
Background Citations
556
Methods Citations
58
Results Citations
44

1,066 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

What is an Emotion in the Belief-Desire Theory of Emotion?
Let us assume that the basic claim of the belief-desire theory of emotion is true: What, then, is an emotion? According to Castelfranchi and Miceli (2009), emotions are mental compounds that emerge… Expand
What is an Emotion in the Belief-Desire Theory of Emotion ?
Let us assume that the basic claim of the belief-desire theory of emotion is true: What, then, is an emotion? According to Castelfranchi and Miceli (2009), emotions are mental compounds that emerge… Expand
Emotional Experience in the Computational Belief–Desire Theory of Emotion
Based on the belief that computational modeling (thinking in terms of representation and computations) can help to clarify controversial issues in emotion theory, this article examines emotional… Expand
The Embodiment of Emotion
In current psychological discourse, it is fashionable to talk about emotions as “embodied” phenomena. At first glance, this idea is not novel. Historically, almost all psychological theories of… Expand
Emotion words shape emotion percepts.
TLDR
2 studies that together support a role for emotion concepts in the formation of visual percepts of emotion are presented, finding that perceptual priming of emotional faces was disrupted when the accessibility of a relevant emotion word was temporarily reduced. Expand
The experience of emotion.
TLDR
This chapter outlines an emerging scientific agenda for understanding what experiences of emotion feel like and how they arise, and the role of such experiences in the economy of the mind and behavior. Expand
Chapter 5 – Emotion Categorization
The discussion of whether emotions are categorical in nature has loomed large ever since Darwin (1872) posited an evolutionary base for human emotion expressions. This discussion has traditionally… Expand
Handbook of Categorization in Cognitive Science
The discussion of whether emotions are categorical in nature has loomed large ever since Darwin (1872) posited an evolutionary base for human emotion expressions. This discussion has traditionally… Expand
Boo! The consciousness problem in emotion
TLDR
It is argued that emotion IS emotional experience and, consequently, that emotion researchers rarely study emotion itself, and that appraisal theory can be made more relevant to the study of emotion by treating appraisals as components of a pre-reflective perceptual process. Expand
Representation and emotion causation: A cultural psychology approach
This paper proposes a way of conceptualizing the role of representation in emotion causation from the perspective of Vygotskian cultural psychology. It is argued that emotion is caused by the agency… Expand
...
1
2
3
4
5
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 253 REFERENCES
On Emotion and Its Development: A Working Paper
This philosophical essay is a critique of some popular views of the concept of affect. It is neither a theory of emotion nor a synthetic review of the extensive literature on this topic—excellent… Expand
A CONSTRUCTIVIST VIEW OF EMOTION
ABSTRACT Traditionally, the emotions have been viewed from a biological perspective; that is, the emotions have been seen as genetically determined and relatively invariable responses. The present… Expand
Consciousness and the varieties of emotion experience: a theoretical framework.
TLDR
The authors classify the nature and content of emotion experience and propose that it depends on 3 aspects of attention: mode (analytic-synthetic; detached-immersed), direction (self-world), and focus (evaluation-action). Expand
A multiprocess perspective on the neuroscience of emotion.
During the past century, neuroscientists and psychologists have viewed emotion through different lenses. According to many contemporary psychologists our emotions are a product of the way in which we… Expand
The language of emotions: An analysis of a semantic field
Abstract This paper uses a theory of the emotions to motivate a semantic analysis of English words referring to emotions. The theory assumes that emotions have a two-fold communicative function, both… Expand
What more is there to emotion concepts than prototypes
Russell's principal claim is that a characterization of emotion concepts in terms of prototypes offers the most fruitful approach to understanding emotion. He contrasts this position with the… Expand
Basic emotions, rationality, and folk theory
Abstract Answering the question of whether there are basic emotions requires considering the functions of emotions. We propose that just a few emotions are basic and that they have functions in… Expand
Patterns of cognitive appraisal in emotion.
TLDR
This work proposes eight cognitive appraisal dimensions to differentiate emotional experience, and investigates the patterns of appraisal for the different emotions, and the role of each of the dimensions in differentiating emotional experience are discussed. Expand
Valence is a basic building block of emotional life
Abstract The goal of psychology is to discover the scientifically viable constructs or categories that will characterize what is variant and invariant in the working of the human mind. In this paper,… Expand
The wisdom in feeling: psychological processes in emotional intelligence
Barrett, Salovey, Introduction. Part I: Perceiving Emotion. Bachorowski, Owren, Vocal Acoustics in Emotional Intelligence. Elfenbein, Marsh, Ambady, Emotional Intelligence and the Recognition of… Expand
...
1
2
3
4
5
...