Questions on the theory of constructed emotions
October 19, 2017 7:51 AM   Subscribe

I recently listened to an audiobook of Lisa Barrett's book, How Emotions Are Made. The writing was compelling and the position well argued, but as a lay person, I find myself concerned as I am unable to really follow the research in depth.

I previously read McWhorter's Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English and was impressed by it, only to find out that while his other work is widely respected, his work on the origins of English is generally regarded as lacking. I want to believe Barrett's work, which makes me want to make sure that the science is sound.

So, given that it seems that all the work on constructed emotions is coming from her lab, what is the general neurological/psychological view of her work? I found an article in the Atlantic that was interesting and a review in metapsyschology that might as well have been written in another language.

Where can I read more about this that is accessible? Is there a current overall view and where does it lie? Given my mistrust of both Ekman's commercialization and Barrett's attempt at a revolution, are there other interesting researchers to follow?
posted by Hactar to Science & Nature (3 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Good questions. Lisa Feldman Barrett is a genuine superstar in emotion theory and her work is empirically plausible and theoretically rigorous. She's extremely well-regarded in the field, and with good reason.

As for whether there is a consensus view in emotion research, there isn't, really. Part of the problem is that it depends on what discipline you're coming from. Evolutionary theorists, psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers all back somewhat different horses. Basic emotion theory, perceptual theories, social role theories, appraisal theories, embodied theories, and constructivist theories are all in the mix right now. I would start by browsing the Emotion Research website:

http://emotionresearcher.com/

It's generally quite accessible, and it has interviews and articles on lots of currently topics in emotion theory. It will also give you some names of folks to check out. In philosophy, Martha Nussbaum published "Upheavals of Thought", which attracted a lot of notice. Antonio Damasio, a neuroscientist, wrote "The Feeling of What Happens". They're pretty readable, about on par with LFB's book.
posted by informavore at 2:56 PM on October 19, 2017 [5 favorites]


Response by poster: informavore, thank you so much, this is exactly what I needed. If anyone else has more resources, I'm happy to take a dive at them.
posted by Hactar at 8:59 AM on October 20, 2017


Since you listened to the audiobook of How Emotions are Made, you were not able to see something important & helpful in the print book. The text has hundreds of endnotes that link to about 1000 scientific papers and books! Each time the print book makes a point or discusses a finding, there's usually an endnote and some papers (mostly by other scientists) you can read for more details.

So when you write that "all the work on constructed emotions is coming from her lab," that's definitely not the case, but you can't tell from the audiobook.

The book also has a website with even more detailed endnotes, how-emotions-are-made.com. The print book links to specific pages on this website to reinforce some points with lots of picky detail. :) You can also just browse the site and use the search box.
posted by dockock at 9:42 AM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


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