Psy 401 Junior Seminar
Research Proposal Paper Topics
SUGGESTED TOPIC AREAS
If you have another topic area to suggest, please let me know as soon as possible. In
general, I’d prefer areas we’re not covering in class, though our coverage of depression
and grief will be so superficial that I’ve listed these below.
Anger
Embarrassment
Fear
Guilt
Joy/happiness
Pride
Behavioral manifestations
Aggression
Laughter
Crying
Vocal affect
Are these affects?
Regret
Surprise
Complex affective states
Anxiety
Depression
Grief
Topics we didn’t cover in class:
Affects and attention
Affects and decision-making
Affects and music
STARTER REFERENCES
Notes: I have not put the library copy of Panksepp, Affective Neuroscience, or of Lane
& Nadel, Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotion on library reserve. Please let me know if
access to these books is a problem. I have personal copies of each from which
chapters can be duplicated.
I have put a * by articles or references I’d highly recommend.
Anger
Averill, J.R. (1983). Studies on anger and aggression: implications for theories of
emotion, American Psychologist, 38, 1145-1180.
*Berkowitz, L. & Harmon-Jones, E. (2004). Toward an understanding of the
determinants of anger, Emotion, 4(2), 107-130. Plus commentary by Buss,
Smith & Kirby, and Clore & Centerbar, pp 131-144.
Lemerise, E.A. & Dodge, K.A. (2000). The development of anger and hostile
interactions, Chapt 37, In Lewis, M. & Haviland-Jones, J.M. (Eds).,
Handbook of Emotions, 2nd ed, Guilford Press (LR).
Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective Neuroscience, Chapt 10, Nature red in tooth and
claw: the neurobiological sources of rage and anger, Oxford University
Press (LR).
Russell, J.A. & Fehr, B. (1994). Fuzzy concepts in a fuzzy hierarchy: Varieties
of anger, Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 67, 186-205.
Embarrassment, Shame, Guilt
*Baumeister, R.F. et al. (1994). Guilt: an interpersonal approach. Psychological
Bulletin, 115(2), 243-267.
Keltner, D. & Anderson, C. (2000). Saving face for Darwin: the functions and
uses of embarrassment, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9,
187-192.
Keltner, D., & Buswell, B. N. (1996). Evidence for the distinctness of
embarrassment, shame, and guilt: A study of recalled antecedents and
facial expressions of emotion. Cognition & Emotion, 10(2), 155-171.
*Lewis, M., (2000). Self-conscious emotions: embarrassment, pride, shame &
guilt, Chapt 39, In Lewis, M. & Haviland-Jones, J.M. (Eds), Handbook of
Emotions, 2nd ed, Guilford Press (LR).
*Tangney, J. P., Miller, R. S., Flicker, L., & Barlow, D. H. (1996). Are shame,
guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions? Journal of Personality & Social
Psychology, 70(6), 1256-1269.
Tangney, J.P. et al. (1996). Relation of shame and guilt to constructive versus
destructive responses to anger across the lifespan, Journal of Personality &
Social Psychology, 70, 797-809.
Fear & Anxiety
*Barlow, D.H. (2000). Unraveling the mysteries of anxiety and its disorders from
the perspective of emotion theory, American Psychologist, 55, 1247-1263.
Bouton, M.E. et al. (2001). A modern learning theory perspective on the etiology
of panic disorder, Psychological Review, 108, 4-32.
Dolan, R.J. & Morris, J.S.. (2000). The functional anatomy of innate and acquired
fear, In In Lane, R.D. & Nadel, R. (Eds.), Cognitive Neuroscience of
Emotion, Oxford University Press.
*Ohman, A. & Mineka, S. (2001). Fears, phobias and preparedness: Toward an
evolved module of fear and fear learning, Psychological Review, 108, 483522.
Ohman, A. (2000). Fear and anxiety: Evolutionary, cognitive and clinical
perspectives, Chapt 36 In Lewis, M. & Haviland-Jones, J.M. (Eds).,
Handbook of Emotions, 2nd ed, Guilford Press (LR).
Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective Neuroscience, Chapt 11, The sources of fear and
anxiety in the brain, Oxford University Press.
Reiman, E.M. et al. (2000). Positron emission tomography in the study of
emotion, anxiety and anxiety disorders, In In Lane, R.D. & Nadel, R. (Eds.),
Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotion, Oxford University Press.
White, T.L. & Depue, R.A. (1999). Differential assocition of traits of fear and
anxiety with norepinephrine- and dark-induced pupil reactivity, Journal of
Personality & Social Psychology, 77(4), 863-877.
Joy/happiness
*Averill, J. R. & Moore, T.A. (2000). Happiness. Chapt 42, In Lewis, M. &
Haviland-Jones, J.M. (Eds), Handbook of Emotions, 2nd ed, Guilford Press
(LR).
Berns, G.S. (2004). Something funny happened to reward, Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 8(5), 193-194.
Berridge, K.C. (2003). Pleasures of the brain. Brain & Cognition, 52(10), 106128.
Cognition & Emotion (2003). Special issue: Pleasure. 17(2). J.A. Russell (Ed.)
Carver, C.S. Pleasure as a sign you can attend to something else: placing
positive feelings within a general model of affect.
Dube, L. & DuBel, J.L.,The content and structure of laypeople’s concept of
pleasure.
Keltner, D. & Haidt, J. Approaching awe: a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic
emotion
*Lyubomirsky, S. (2001). Why are some people happier than others? The role
of cognitive and motivational processes in well-being, American
Psychologist, 56, 239-249.
Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective Neuroscience, Chapt 15, Rough-and-tumble play:
The brain sources of joy, Oxford University Press.
Waterman, A.S. (1993). Two conceptions of happiness: contrasts of personal
expressiveness (eudemonia) and hedonic enjoyment, Journal of Personality
& Social Psychology, 64(4), 678-691.
Pride
*Lewis, M., (2000). Self-conscious emotions: embarrassment, pride, shame &
guilt, Chapt 39, In Lewis, M. & Haviland-Jones, J.M. (Eds), Handbook of
Emotions, 2nd ed, Guilford Press (LR).
Stipek, D. (1998). Differences between Americans and Chinese in the
circumstances evoking pride, shame, and guilt. Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology, 29(5), 616-629.
Sadness/grief
*Barr-Zisowitz, C. (2000). “Sadness” – Is there such a thing, Chapt 38 In Lewis,
M. & Haviland-Jones, J.M. (Eds), Handbook of Emotions, 2nd ed, Guilford
Press (LR).
Bonanno, G. A., & Keltner, D. (1997). Facial expressions of emotion and the
course of conjugal bereavement. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106(1),
126-137.
*Bonanno, G. A., & Kaltman, S. (1999). Toward an integrative perspective on
bereavement. Psychological Bulletin, 125(6), 760-776.
Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective Neuroscience, Chapt 14, Loneliness and the
social bond: the brain sources of sorrow and grief, Oxford University Press.
Stroebe, M. et al. (2002). Does disclosure of emotions facilitate recovery from
bereavement? Evidence from two prospective studies. Journal of
Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 70(1), 169-178.
Stroebe, M. et al. (2001). Gender differences in adjustment to bereavement: an
empirical and theoretical review, Review of General Psychology, 5(1), 6283.
Depression
Alloy, L.B. et al. (1999). Do negative cognitive styles confer vulnerability to
depression? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8(4), 128-132.
Davidson, R.J. (2000). Affective style, psychopathology, and resilience: Brain
mechanisms and plasticity, American Psychologist, 11, 1196-1214.
Joiner, T.E. (1994). Contagious depression: existence, specificity to depressed
symptoms, and the role of reassurance seeking, Journal of Personality &
Social Psychology, 67(2), 287-296.
Kring, A.M. & Bachorowski, J.-A. (1999). Emotions and psychopathology, In
Gross, J.J. & Keltner, D., Functional Accounts of Emotion, Psychology
Press (3 copies in library).
Mineka, S. et al. (2003). Cognitive biases in emotional disorders, Chapt 52 in
Davidson, R.J., Scherer, K. & Goldsmith, H. Handbook of Affective
Sciences, Oxford University Press (LR).
Regret
Connolly, T. & Zeelenberg, M. (2002). Regret in decision making, Current
Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 212-216.
Coricelli, G. et al. (2005). Regret and its avoidance: a neuroimaging study of
choice behavior, Nature Neuroscience, 8(9), 1255.
Gilbert, D.T. et al. (2004). Looking forward to looking backward: the
misprediction of regret, Psychological Science, 15(5), 346-350.
*Gilovich, T. & Medvec, V.H. (1995). The experience of regret: what, when, and
why. Psychological Review, 102, 379-395.
Gilovich, T. et al. (1998). Varieties of regret: a debate and partial resolution,
Psychological Review, 105(3), 602-605.
Surprise
Reisenzein, R. (2000). Exploring the strength of association between the
components of emotion syndromes: the case of surprise, Cognition &
Emotion, 14(1), 1-38.
Schutzwohl, A. (1998). Surprise and schema strength. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 24(5), 1182-1199.
Schutzwohl, A. && Borgstedt, K. (2005). The processing of affectively valenced
stimuli: the role of surprise, Cognition & Emotion, 19(4), 583-600.
Aggression
Berkowitz, L. (2003). Affect, aggression, and antisocial behavior. Chapt 42 In
Davidson, R.J., Scherer, K. & Goldsmith, H. Handbook of Affective Sciences,
Oxford University Press (LR).
Bushman, B.J. et al. (2001). Do people aggress to improve their mood? Catharsis
beliefs, affect regulation, and aggressive responding. Journal of Personality
& Social Psychology, 81(1), 17-32.
Davidson, R.J. et al. (2000). Dysfunction in the neural circuitry of emotion
regulation – a possible prelude to violence, Science, 289, 591-594.
Crying
Lutz, T. (1999). Crying: the natural and cultural history of tears, N.Y., W.W. Norton.
(I have a copy)
Vingerhoets, A.J.J.M. et al. (2000). Adult crying: a model and review of the
literature, Review of General Psychology, 4(4), 354-377.
Laughter
Bachorowski, J.-A. & Owren, M.J. (2001). Not all laughs are alike: voiced but not
unvoiced laughter elicits positive affect in listeners, Psychological Science, 12,
252-257.
*Owren, M. & Bachorowski, J.-A. (2003). Reconsidering the evolution of
nonlinguistic communication: the case of laughter, Journal of Nonverbal
Behavior, 27(3), 183-200.
Provine, R.R. (1996). Laughter. American Scientist, 84, 38-45.
*Comparative vocalizations (“laughter and crying”): the Panksepp/Blumberg debate,
listed in chronological order:
Knutson, B., Burgdorf, J. & Panksepp, J (1998).. Anticipation of play elicits highfrequency ultrasonic vocalizations in young rats, Journal of Comparative
Psychology, 112(1), 65-73.
Panksepp, J. (2000). The riddle of laughter: neural and psychoevolutionary
underpinnings of joy, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 183-186.
Blumberg, M.S. & Sokoloff, G. (2001). Do infant rats cry? Psychological Review,
108, 83-95.
Knutson, B., Burgdorf, J. & Panksepp, J. (2002). Ultrasonic vocalizations as indices
of affective states in rats, Psychological Bulletin, 128(6), 961-977.
Panksepp, J. (2003). Can anthropomorphic analyses of separation cries in other
animals inform us about the emotional nature of social loss in humans?
Psychological Review, 110(2), 376-388.
Blumberg, M.S. & Sokoloff. G. (2003). Hard heads and open minds: a reply to
Panksepp (2003). Psychological Review, 110(2), 389-394.
Vocal affect
*De Gelder, B. (2000). Recognizing emotions by ear and by eye, In In Lane,
R.D. & Nadel, R. (Eds.), Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotion, Oxford
University Press. (Note: De Gelder has a number of articles on cross-modal
integration of vocal and facial cues.)
Dolan, R.J. (2001). Crossmodal binding of fear in voice and face, Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, 98(1), 10006-10010.
*Grandjean, D. et al. (2005). The voices of wrath: brain responses to angry
prosody in meaningless speech, Nature Neuroscience, 8(2), 145-146.
Hietanen, J.K., Surakka, V. & Linnankoski, I. (1998). Facial electromyographic
responses to vocal affect expressions, Psychophysiology, 35, 530-536.
Laukka, P. et al. (2005). A dimensional approach to vocal expression of emotion,
Cognition & Emotion, 19(5), 633-653.
Scherer, K.R. et al. (2003). Vocal expression of emotion, Chapt 23 in Davidson,
R.J., Scherer, K. & Goldsmith, H. Handbook of Affective Sciences, Oxford
University Press (LR).
Schirmer, A. & Kotz, S.A. (2006). Beyond the right hemisphere: brain
mechanisms mediating vocal emotional processing, Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 10(1),
Attention
*Compton, R.J. (2003). The interface between emotion and attention: A review of
evidence from psychology and neuroscience, Behavioral and Cognitive
Neuroscience Reviews, 2, 115-129. (get a copy from me)
Derryberry, D. & Tucker, D.M. (1994). Motivating the focus of attention, In,
Niedenthal, P.M. & Kitayama, S. (Eds). The Heart’s Eye, Academic Press, pp.
167-196. (I have)
Fox, E. et al. (2002). Attentional bias for threat: Evidence for delayed
disengagement from emotional faces, Cognition & Emotion, 16, 355-379.
Hugdahl, K & Stormack, K.M. (2003). Emotional modulation of selective attention:
behavioral and psychophysiological measures, Chapt 14 in Davidson, R.J.,
Scherer, K. & Goldsmith, H. Handbook of Affective Sciences, Oxford University
Press (LR).
Ohman, A. et al. (2001). Emotion drives attention: Detecting the snake in the grass,
Journal of Experiemental Psychology: General, 130: 466-478.
Phelps, E.A. et al. (2006). Emotion facilitates perception and potentiates the
perceptual benefits of attention, Psychological Science, 17(4), 292Pratto, F. & John, O.P. (1991). Automatic vigilance: The attention-grabbing power of
negative social information, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61,
380-391.
Raymond, J.E. et al. (2003). Selective attention determines emotional responses to
novel visual stimuli, Psychological Science, 14, 537-542.
*Vuilleumier, P. (2005). How brains beware: neural mechanisms of emotional
attention, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(12),
Zeelenberg, R. et al. (2006). The impact of emotion on perception: bias or
enhanced processing? Psychological Science, 17(4), 287Decision-making
Connolly, T. & Zeelenberg, M. (2002). Regret in decision making, Current
Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 212-216.
Loewenstein, G.F. et al. (2001). Risk as feelings. Psychological Bulletin,
127, 267-286.
*Loewenstein G.F. & Lerner, J, (2003) The role of affect in decision making, Ch 31 In
Davidson, R.J. et al. (Eds). Handbook of Affective Sciences. (LR)
Mellers, B.A. & McGraw, A.P. (2001). Anticipated emotions as guides to choice,
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, 210-214.
Yechiam, E. et al. (2005). Using cognitive models to map relations between
neuropsychological disorders and human decision-making deficits,
Psychological Science, 16(12), 973-978.
Music
Balkwill, L.-L. & Thompson, W.F. (1999). A cross-cultural investigation of the
perception of emotion in music: Psychophysical and cultural cues, Music
Perception, 17, 43-64.
Bigand, E. et al. (2005). Mulitdimensional scaling of emotional responses to
music: the effect of musical expertise and of the duration of excerpts,
Cognition & Emotion, 19(8), 1113-1139.
*Gabrielsson, A. & Juslin, P.N. (2003). Emotional expression in music, Chapt 26
in Davidson, R.J., Scherer, K. & Goldsmith, H. Handbook of Affective
Sciences, Oxford University Press (LR).
Juslin, P.N. & Laukka, P. (2003). Communication of emotions in vocal
expression and music performance: different channels, same code?
Psychological Bulletin, 129(5), 770-814.
*Krumhansl, C.L. (2002). Music: A link between cognition and emotion, Current
Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 45-50.