Professional Documents
Culture Documents
http://ssi.sagepub.com/
Published by:
http://www.sagepublications.com
On behalf of:
Additional services and information for Social Science Information can be found at:
Subscriptions: http://ssi.sagepub.com/subscriptions
Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav
Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
Citations: http://ssi.sagepub.com/content/46/3/415.refs.html
What is This?
Keith Oatley
On definition
On function
Part of the issue about definition is that, until the 1950s, research inter-
est in emotions had been intermittent and patchy. It is no longer inter-
mittent, but I think a concern for Scherer is that it remains patchy. He
makes the excellent proposal that, to help solve this problem, we con-
sider design features (a concept derived from engineering). Thus an
important design feature of a communication system is semanticity. I
suggest we make explicit an issue that in Scherer’s account is implicit.
References
Bowlby, J. (1951) Child Care and the Growth of Love. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Darwin, C. (1889 [1872]) The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. London:
Murray.
Mayberg, H.S., Liotti, M., Brannan, S.K., McGinnis, S., Maharin, R.K., Jerabek, P.A.,
Silva, J.A., Tekell, J.L., Martin, C.C., Lancaster, J.L. and Fox, P.T. (1999) “Reciprocal
Limbic Cortical Function and Negative Mood: Converging PET Findings in Depression
and Normal Sadness”, American Journal of Psychiatry 156: 675–82.
Oatley, K. (2004) Emotions: A Brief History. Oxford: Blackwell.
Oatley, K., Keltner, D. and Jenkins, J. M. (2006) Understanding Emotions. Malden, MA:
Blackwell (2nd edn).
W. Gerrod Parrott