Calendar

Date

Topic

Readings

Week 1
Lecture 1.1

Course Introduction
Question: What's this course about?

Required

» None

Optional

» Gross (2010). The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.

Week 2
Lecture 2.1

Emotions are Real
Question: What is an emotion?

Required

» Chapter 1 (textbook)

» Ekman (1992). An argument for basic emotions.

Optional

» Barrett (2012). Emotions are real.

» James (1884). What is an emotion?

Week 2
Lecture 2.2

Manipulating & measuring emotions
Question: How do you create emotions?

Required

» Mauss & Robinson. (2005). Measures of emotion: A review.

» Coan & Allen (2007). Organizing the tools and methods of affective science.

Optional

» Rottenberg, Ray, & Gross (2007). Emotion elicitation using films.

» Levenson (2007). Emotion elicitation with neurological patients.

Week 3
Lecture 3.1

Emotions in man and animals
Question: Do monkeys and dogs have feelings like us?

Required

Bekoff (2000). Animal emotions: Exploring passionate natures.

Parr (2003). Discrimination of faces and their emotional content by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Optional

Darwin (1872). Emotional Expression in Man and Animals

Panksepp (2005). Beyond a joke: From animal laughter to human joy?

Bartal et al (2011). Empathy and pro-social behavior in rats.

Week 3
Lecture 3.2

Evolution and emotion
Question: Where do emotions come from?

Required

Chapter 2 (textbook)

Ekman (1994). Strong evidence for universals in facial expressions.

Optional

Nesse (2004). Natural selection and the elusiveness of happiness.

Week 4
Lecture 4.1

Emotion & Culture
Question: Are emotions cross-cultural?

Required

» Chapter 3 (textbook)

» Tsai. (2007). Ideal affect: Cultural causes and behavioral consequences.

Optional

» Wong, Y. & Tsai, J. L. (2007). Cultural models of shame and guilt.

» Kitayama et al. (2006). Cultural affordances and emotional experience.

» Matsumoto et al. (2009). Sequential dynamics of culturally moderated facial expressions of emotion.

Week 4
Lecture 4.2

Morality & Emotion
Question: Do emotions make us moral?

Required

» Haidt (2007). The new synthesis in moral psychology.

» Greene et al (2001). An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment.

Optional

» Pizarro et al. (2011). On disgust and moral judgment.

» Haidt, J. (2003). The moral emotions.

Week 5
Lecture 5.1

Gender & Sex
Question: Let's talk about sex?
 

Required

» Kring & Gordon (1998). Sex differences in emotion

» Chivers et al. (2004). A sex difference in the specificity of sexual arousal.

Optional

» DeSteno et al. (2002). Sex differences in jealousy: Evolutionary mechanism or artifact of measurement?

» Gonzaga et al. (2006). Romantic love and sexual desire in close relationships.

Week 5
Lecture 5.2

Aging, emotion, and the brain
Question: Do emotions change as we grow old?
 

Required

» Scheibe & Carstensen. (1998). Emotional aging: Recent findings and future trends.

» Carstensen et al. (2011). Emotional experience improves with age.

Optional

» Chapter 8 (textbook)

» Samanez-Larkin & Carstensen (2011). Socioemotional functioning and the aging brain

Week 6
Lecture 6.1

**EXAM #1**

Required

»None

Optional

»None

Week 6
Lecture 6.2

Emotions & the self
Question: What are self-conscious emotions?

Required

»Tangney (1996). Are shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions?

» Tracy, J. L. & Robins, R. W. (2007). Emerging insights into the nature and function of pride.

Optional

» Keltner & Anderson. (2000). Saving face for Darwin: The function and uses of embarrassment.

Week 7
Lecture 7.1

Emotions & others
Question: Living in a socioemotional world?

Required

»Chapter 9 (textbook)

»Algoe & Haidt (2009). Witness excellence in action: The 'other-praising' emotions of elevation, gratitude and admiration.

Optional

»Smith et al. (2009). Exploring the when and why of schadenfreude.

Gable et al. (2006). Will you be there for me when things go right? Supportive responses to positive event disclosures.

»Graham et al. (2004). Willingness to express negative emotions promotes relationships.

»Levenson & Gottmann (1983). Marital interaction: Physiological linkage and affective exchange.

Week 7
Lecture 7.2

Emotional expression
Question: Why do we laugh, cry, and touch?
 

Required

» Chapter 4 (textbook)

» Rottenberg, J. et al. (2008). Is crying beneficial?

Optional

» Bachorowksi & Owren M. (2001). Not all laughs are alike.

» Hertenstein et al. (2006). Touch communicates distinct emotions.

Week 8
Lecture 8.1

Unconscious emotion
Question: Can we feel without knowing?

Required

»Williams & Bargh (2008). Keeing one's distance: The influence of spatial distance cues on affect and evaluation.

»Williams & Bargh (2008). Experiencing physical warmth promotes interpersonal warmth.

Optional

»Williams et al (2009). On the unconscious regulation of emotion.

Week 8
Lecture 8.2

Cognition and Emotion
Question: How does thinking affect feeling?

Required

» Chapter 10 (textbook)

» Clore et al (2000). Cognition in emotion: Always, sometimes, or never.

Optional

» Lazarus (1984). On the primacy of cognition.

» Zajonc (1984). On the primacy of affect.

Week 9
Lecture 9.1

Bodily Changes and Emotion
Question: Blood, sweat, tears and fears?

Required

» Chapter 5 (textbook)

» Levenson (2003). Blood, sweat, and fears: The autonomic architecture of emotion.

Optional

» Levenson et al. (1990). Voluntary facial activity generates emotion-specific autonomic nervous system activity.

» Zajonc & McIntosh (1992). Emotions research: Some promising questions and some questionable promises.

» Critchley & Nagai (2012). How emotions are shaped by bodily states.

Week 9
Lecture 9.2

OCTOBER BREAK

Required

»None

Optional

»None

Week 10
Lecture 10.1

Emotions and the Brain
Question: Is our brain emotional?

Required

» Chapter 6 (textbook).

» Dagleish (2004). The emotional brain

Optional

» Davidson & McEwen. (2012). Social influences on neuroplasticity.

» LeDoux, J. (2000). Emotion circuits in the brain.

» Davidson et al. (1990). Emotional expression and brain physiology: Approach/withdrawal and cerebral asymmetry.

» Rolls, E. T. (2000). Precis of the brain and emotion.

Week 10
Lecture 10.2

Emotion Regulation
Question: Can we change our emotions?

Required

» Gross (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review.

» Gross & Levenson (1993). Emotional suppression: Physiology, self-report, and expressive behavior.

Optional

» Lewis et al. (2010). Advances, problems, and challenges in the study of emotion regulation: A commentary

Week 11
Lecture 11.1

**EXAM #2**

Required

»None

Optional

»None

Week 11
Lecture 11.2

Emotion & Mental Health I: Autism and Childhood disorders
Question: How early in life can emotions go awry?

Required

» Chapter 12 (textbook)

» Heerey et al. (2003). Making sense of self-conscious emotions: Linking theory of mind and emotion in children with autism.

Optional

» McPartland et al. (2011). Recent advances in understanding the neural bases of autism spectrum disorder.

» McIntosh et al. (2006). When the social mirror breaks: Deficits in automatic, but not voluntary, mimicry of emotional facial expressions in autism.

Week 12
Lecture 12.1

Emotion & Mental Health II: Anxiety & Fear
Question: Only thing to fear is fear itself?

Required

» Chapter 13 (textbook)

» Kring (2008). Emotion disturbances as transdiagnostic processes in psychopathology.

Optional

» Mennin et al (2005). Emotion regulation and generalized anxiety disorder.

Week 12
Lecture 12.2

Emotion & Mental Health III: Mood and Psychosis
Question: Emotion gone awry?

Required

» Gruber & Keltner (2007). Emotional behavior and psychopathology: A survey of methods and concepts.

» Gruber (2011). Can feeling too good be bad? Positive emotion persistence in bipolar disorder.

» Rottenberg (2005). Mood and emotion in major depression.

Optional

» Kring & Moran (2008). Emotional response deficits in schizophrenia: Insights from affective science.

Week 13
Lecture 13.1

Emotional Intelligence
Question: Can you be emotionally smart?

Required

» Salovey & Mayer (1989). Emotional intelligence.

» Mayer et al. (2000). Emotional intelligence meets traditional standards for an intelligence.

Optional

» Brackett & Mayer (2003). Convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of competing measures of emotional intelligence.

» Picard et al. (2001). Toward machine emotional intelligence.

Week 13
Lecture 13.2

Emotional Health and Healing
Question: How to cultivate healthy feelings?

Required

» Chapter 14 (textbook)

» Folkman & Moskowitz (2000). Stress, positive emotion, and coping.

» Walker, M. P. & van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing.

Optional

» Stansbury & Gunnar (1994). Adrenocortical activity and emotion regulation.

Week 14
Lecture 14.1

THANKSGIVING BREAK

Required

»None

Optional

»None

Week 14
Lecture 14.2

THANKSGIVING BREAK

Required

»None

Optional

»None

Week 15
Lecture 15.1

Happiness and the Future
Question: Don't worry be happy?

Required

» Fredrickson (1998). What good are positive emotions?

» Gruber, Mauss, & Tamir (2011). A dark side of happiness? How, when, and why happiness is not always good.

Optional

» Myers & Diener (1995). Who is happy?

» Dunn et al. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness.

Week 15
Lecture 15.2

**EXAM #3**

Required

»None

Optional

»None