EMOTION
PSY 338 / Spring 2006
Professor Batja Mesquita
Class times/room: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30-10:45, Greene Hall Room 308.
Office Hours: Tuesdays 4:30-5:30 pm.
Office
E-mail
: 459 Greene Hall, Phone: 758-4171
: mesquita@wfu.edu
Psychology Department Office : 415 Greene Hall, Phone: 758-5424
TA: Sherry Kausch (kaussl4@wfu.edu)
Text:
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Oatley, K. & Jenkins, J. (1996). Understanding emotions. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers (UE).
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Readings to be purchased in the Psychology Office ($55).
Course Objectives:

You will become familiar with current theories on emotions, and their social, cultural, developmental, and cognitive constituents and consequences.
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You will learn to think about emotions in a scientific way; that is, you will learn to think about various explanations for your own and other people’s emotions, and for the evidence in favor of those explanations.
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You will also become familiar with some of the main research designs and methods used in the study of emotions.
Course requirements:
1.
Two exams.
2.
Participation in class, contributions to the Question and Discussions sessions
3.
Two research assignments
Evaluation
The breakdown of your grade will be as follows:
Attendance and Class Contributions
Questions and Discussion
Research Assignments (15% each)
(+, -, or +)
20 %
30 %
First Test
Second Test
25 %
25 %

There are as many Questions and Discussion (Q&D) sessions as students in class. Reading assignments are larger than average for these sessions. You are expected to hand in two questions each Q&D session, no later than 11 p.m. two days before the actual session. You will lead the
Discussion once. Or if you prefer to work together, you can lead two discussions in pairs of two. See for further details the Q&D assignment. Questions for each Q&D session, as well as your performance as a discussion leader will be evaluated on a fail (D, no questions), low pass (C, questions that reflect little understanding of the material), pass (B), and high pass (A) basis. The overall grade will be the average over (a) the Questions you submitted (each time weighed once), and (b) 3 times your Discussion grade.
 For attendance and contributions in class you will receive a “+” (nearest scale point up), “-“ (nearest scale point down), or “+” (no effect). Your grade for contributions depends on the frequency, but also importantly on the quality of your contributions. You can miss two classes without excuse.

There are two Research Assignments. These assignments can be done in groups of 2-3. The group effort is evaluated. If you prefer to do them by yourself, you can too. In that case you will receive an individual grade. You will be evaluated on a fail, low pass, pass, and high pass basis as well. The

COURSE SCHEDULE
Below you will find a schedule for the lecture topics, readings and assignments/tests which should give you an indication of what we will be doing this term. You are required to keep up with the readings Note, the schedule may change as the course progresses – I will try to give you plenty of time when this happens, but you are responsible for knowing about any changes.
Tuesday, January 10: Introduction to the Course
→ Research Assignment 1
Thursday, January 12: What is an emotion? Appraisal and Action Readiness
UE chapter 4 (pp. 95-106)
Frijda, N. H. (1988). The laws of emotion. American Psychologist, 43 , 349-358.
Tuesday, January 17: What is an emotion? Appraisal and Action Readiness
→ Research Assignment 1 part 1 DUE (Data collected)
Thursday, January 19: What is an emotion? Primacy of affect or cognition- Example of anger
Questions and Discussion 1
Berkowitz, L. & Harmon-Jones, E. (2004). Toward an understanding of the determinants of anger.
Emotion, 4 (2), 107-130.
Smith, C. A. & Kirby, L. D. (2004). Appraisal as a pervasive determinant of anger. Emotion, 4 (2), 133-138.
Clore, G. L. & Centerbar, D. B. (2004). Analyzing anger: how to make people mad. Emotion, 4 (2), 139-
144.
→ Research Assignment 1: Discussion of coding data
Tuesday, January 24: What is an emotion? Expression and behavior
UE chapter 4 (pp. 106-124)
Keltner, D., Kring, A., & Bonanno, G. (1999). Fleeting signs of the course of life: Facial expression and personal adjustment. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8 (1), 18-22.
→ Research Assignment 1: Data needs to be entered
Thursday, January 26:What is an emotion? Expression and behavior
UE Chapter 3 (pp. 61-70)
Questions and Discussion 2
Parkinson, B. (2005). Do Facial Movements Express Emotions or Communicate Motives? Personality and
Social Psychology Review, 9 , 278-311.
→
Research Assignment 1: Parts 2 & 3 Due (Data coded and entered & submit hypotheses and questions)
Tuesday, January 31: Lecture on Coherence and Discreteness
Research session
Discussion of Hypotheses and Questions
Thursday, February 2:
What is an emotion? Discreteness
Questions and Discussion 3:
Ekman, P. (1999). Basic emotions. In T. Dalgleish & M. Powers (Eds.), Handbook of cognition and emotion . Sussex, UK: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.
Questions and Discussion 4:
Barrett, L. F. (2004). Feelings or words? Understanding the content of self-report ratings of emotional experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87 , 266-281.
Tuesday, February 7: Research session
Write an analyses plan to test your hypotheses

Thursday, February 9: Research session
Analyze Data- Bring your laptops
Tuesday, February 14: What is emotion? Regulation
Questions and Discussion 5:
John, O. P. & Gross, J. J. (2004). Healthy and unhealthy emotion regulation: personality processes, individual differences, and life-span development. Journal of Personality, 72 (6), 1301-1333.
Bonanno, G. A., Papa, A., Lalande, K., Westphal. M., & Coifman, K. (2004). The importance of being flexible . Psychological Science, 15 (7), 482-487.
→
Research Assignment 1 First Version Due
Thursday, February 16: Emotions as social phenomena
UE chapter 10
Test Review
Tuesday, February 21: TEST 1 (Readings and Lectures January 10-February 14)
Feedback on first draft of Research Assignment 1
Thursday, February 23: Emotions as social phenomena: Self-conscious emotions
Questions and Discussion 6:
Tracy, J. L. & Robins, R. W. (2004). Putting the self into self-conscious emotions: a theoretical model.
Psychological Inquiry, 15 (2), 103-125.
Baldwin, M. W. & Baccus, J. R. (2004). Maintaining a focus on the social goals underlying self-conscious emotions. Psychological Inquiry, 15 (2), 139-144.
Tuesday, February 28: Emotions as social phenomena: Emotions and the coordination of relationships
Questions and Discussion 7:
Tiedens, (2001). Anger and advancement versus sadness and subjugation: the effect of negative emotion expression on social status conferral. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80 , 86-94.
Keltner, D. & Anderson, C. (2000). Saving face for Darwin: The functions and uses of embarrassment.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9 (6), 187-192.
→
Final draft of Research Assignment 1
Test 1 back
Thursday, March 2: Culture and emotion: Different approaches
UE Chapter 2 (pp. 38-54)
March 7 - 9: Spring Break
Tuesday, March 14: Culture and emotion: “Unit” of emotional experience
Questions and Discussion 7:
Mesquita, B., & Karasawa, M. (2004). Self-conscious emotions as dynamic cultural processes.
Psychological Inquiry, 15 , 161-166.
Bagozzi, R. P., Verbeke, W., & Gavino, J. C. (2003). Culture moderates the self-regulation of shame and its effects on performance: The case of salespersons in the Netherlands and the Philippines. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88 (2), 219-233.
Thursday, March 16: Culture and emotion: Does everyone want to be happy? And other questions about the universality of patterns of emotional responding.
Questions and Discussion 8:
Kitayama, S., & Markus, H. R. (2000). The pursuit of happiness and the realization of sympathy: Cultural patterns of self, social relations, and well-being. In E. Diener & E. Suh (Eds.), Subjective well-being across cultures (pp. 113-161). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Tuesday, March 21: Emotion and Cognition: Introduction
Emotion and judgment
Questions and Discussion 9:
Lerner, J. S., Gonzalez, R. M., Small, D. A., & Fischhoff, B. (2003). Effects of fear and anger on perceived risks of terrorism: A national field experiment. Psychological Science, 14, 144-150.
Clore, G. L., & Gasper, K. (2000). Feeling is believing: Some affective influences on belief. In N. H.
Frijda, A. S. R. Manstead & S. Bem (Eds.), Emotions and beliefs: How do emotions influence beliefs?
(pp. 10-34). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge.
Thursday, March 23 : Emotion and processing
Questions and Discussion 10:
Gasper, K., & Clore, G. L. (2002). Attending to the big picture: Mood and global vs. local processing of visual information. Psychological Science, 13 , 34-40.
Derryberry, D., & Tucker, D. M. (1994). Motivating the focus of attention. In P. M. Niedenthal & S.
Kitayama (Eds.), The heart's eye: Emotional influences in perception and attention (pp. 167-196). San
Diego, CA: Academic Press.
→
Research Assignment 2
Tuesday, March 28: Research Assignment 2
Remaining readings for the RA 2:
Gasper, K., & Clore, G. L. (1998). The persistent use of negative affect by anxious individuals to estimate risk. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74 , 1350-1363.
Keltner, D., Ellsworth, P. C., & Edwards, K. (1993). Beyond simple pessimism: Effects of sadness and anger on social perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64 (5), 740-752.
Lerner, J. S., & Keltner, D. (2001). Fear, anger, and risk. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
81 (1), 146-159.
Lerner, J. S., Small, D. A., & Loewenstein, G. (2004). Heart strings and purse strings: Carry-over effects of emotions on economic transactions. Psychological Science, 15 , 337-341.
Tiedens, L., & Linton, S. (2001). Judgment under emotional uncertainty: The effects of specific emotions on information processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81 (6), 973-988.
→Do and discuss the readings for Research Assignment 2 (Be ready to present a study)
Thursday, March 30:Development of emotions
UE chapter 6
Terwogt, M. M., & Harris, P. L. (1993) Understanding of emotion. In M. Bennett (Ed.), The development of social cognition: The child as psychologist (pp. 62-86).
New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
→Hypotheses Research Assignment 2 Due–Discuss in class
Tuesday, April 4: Development of emotions: Different trajectories
UE chapter 7
Mascolo, M. F., & Fischer, K. W. (1995). Developmental transformations in appraisals for pride, shame, and guilt. In J. P. Tangney & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Self-conscious emotions. The psychology of shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride (pp. 64-113). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Thursday, April 6: Emotional disorders:
Introduction to the field
Kring, A. M. (2001). Emotion and Psychopathology. In T. J. B. Mayne & George A. (Ed.), Emotions (pp.
337-360). New York: The Guilford Press.
Disordered appraisal/experience
Questions and Discussion 11:
McNally, R. J. (2001). On the scientific status of cognitive appraisal models of anxiety disorder. Behaviour
Research and Therapy, 39 , 513-521.
Dodge, K. A., Price, J. M., Bachorowski, J., & Newman, J. P. (1990). Hostile attributional biases in severely aggressive adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 99 , 385-392.
→Research Assignment 2: First version of report due
Tuesday, April 11: Emotional disorders: Disordered Behavior
Questions and Discussion 12:
Kring, A. M. (1999). Emotion in schizophrenia: Old mystery, new understanding.
Current Directions in
Psychological Science, 8, 160-163.
Patrick, C.J., Bradley, M. M., & Lang, P. J. (1993) Emotion in the criminal psychopath: Startle reflex modulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 82-92.
→ Feedback first version of report of Research Assignment 2
Thursday, April 13: Emotional disorders: Disordered Regulation/Course of Response
Questions and Discussion 13:
Nolen-Hoeksema, S, Morrow, J., Fredrickson, & B. L. (1993). Response styles and the duration of episodes of depressed mood. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 20-28.
Cooper, M.L., Frone M.R., Russell M., & Mudar, P. (1995). Drinking to regulate positive and negative emotions: A motivational model of alcohol use.
Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 69,
990-1005.
Mennin, D.S., Turk, C.L., & Heimberg, R.G. (in press). Focusing on the regulation of emotion: A new direction for conceptualizing and treating generalized anxiety disorder: In M.A. Reinecke & D.A.
Clark (Eds.), Cognitive therapy over the lifespan: Theory, research and practice.
Cambridge
University Press.
Test Review
Tuesday, April 18: Presentations Research Assignment 2
Hand in Final version Research Assignment
Thursday, April 20: NO CLASS
Tuesday, April 25: Test 2 (cumulative, open book)

You will be discussion leaders during half of one class period (no more than 30 minutes).
Alternatively, you can choose to be discussion leader twice, with someone else.
Find and read additional literature
When you are discussion leader you read one scientific article in the field of interest, in addition to the material that everybody in class reads. This article should be published in an APA journal. If you need help finding an article, please consult me in a timely fashion.
Give a copy of your article to me one week before you are discussion leaders.
Further preparations for discussion.
Preparation for discussion leadership involves reflection on the readings that everybody did as well as on an additional source. You are also expected to prepare 2-3 discussion questions that are central to the readings and that connect the readings to the relevant chapter of the book as well as to our discussions in class.
Tasks of the discussion leader during class
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Introduce the readings in class in no longer than 5 minutes. Do not just summarize the readings, but also place them within the context of the course. Use visual aids.
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Group the discussion questions in a logical way.
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Introduce the discussion questions, and prompt for discussion if the question does not elicit any response.
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Lead the discussion: give people turns, summarize discussion, keep the discussion to the point, phrase new questions as you go, make sure the readings are well represented.
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End the discussion by summarizing the remaining questions, controversies, and points of agreement.
Please, consult me well in advance so that I can help you prepare.
When it is not your turn to be discussion leader:

Read the materials for which you are responsible.
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Turn in your two questions about the materials no later than 11 p.m. two days before.
Your questions should preferably about the implications/applications of findings or views, the way different data sets speak to theory or to each other, and ideas or questions that you had while doing the reading. Try to avoid questions that are very tangential and that require knowledge that cannot be derived from the readings.

Make sure that you make at least one contribution to the discussion during each class.