Class Calendar

Date

Topic

Readings

1.1
TUESDAY
1/13

Introduction

Question: What’s this course about?

Required

» None

Optional

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

1.2
THURSDAY
1/15

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?

2.1
TUESDAY
1/20

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.

2.2
THURSDAY
1/22

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.

3.1
TUESDAY
1/27
OUTREACH PROJECT
ASSIGNED

iCLICKER
BEGINS

Evolution & 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.

3.2
THURSDAY
1/29

Emotion & culture

Question: Are emotions cross-cultural?
 

Required

» Chapter 3 (textbook).
» Tsai. (2007). Ideal affect: Cultural causes and behavioral consequences.

Optional

» Wong & Tsai (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.

4.1
TUESDAY
2/3

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. (2003). The moral emotions.

4.2
THURSDAY
2/5

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.

5.1
TUESDAY
2/10

Emotions & the self

Question: What are self-conscious emotions?

Required

» Tangney (1996). Are shame, guilt, and embarrassment distinct emotions?
» Tracy & Robins. (2007). Emerging insights into the nature of pride.

Optional

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

5.2
THURSDAY
 2/12

EXAM #1
IN CLASS

6.1
TUESDAY
2/17

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

Optional

» Gable et al. (2006). Will you be there for me when things go right?
» Graham et al. (2004). Willingness to express negative emotions promotes relationships.
» Levenson & Gottman. (1983). Marital interaction: Physiological linkage and affective exchange.

6.2
THURSDAY
2/19

Emotional expression

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

Required

» Chapter 4 (textbook)
» Rottenberg et al. (2008). Is crying beneficial?

Optional

» Bachorowksi & Owren. (2001). Not all laughs are alike.
» Hertenstein et al. (2006). Touch communicates distinct emotions.

7.1
TUESDAY 2/24

Thinking, judgment, & emotion

Question: Are emotions irrational?

 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.

7.2
THURSDAY
2/26

Bodily changes and emotion I:
Central nervous system

Question: Is our brain emotional?

Required

» Ch 6 (textbook)
» Dagleish (2004). The emotional brain.

Optional

» Davidson & McEwen (2012). Social influences on neuroplasticity.
» LeDoux. (2000). Emotion circuits in the brain.
» Davidson et al. (1990). Emotional expression and brain physiology: approach/withdrawal and cerebral asymmetry
» Rolls (2000). Precis of the brain and emotion.

8.1
TUESDAY 3/3

Bodily changes and emotion II:
Neuroendocrine system

Question: Are hormones emotional?

Required

» Nelson. (2005). An introduction to behavioral endocrinology.
» Stansbury & Gunnar. (1994). Adrenocortical activity and emotion regulation

Optional

» Kudielkaa et al. (2008). Why do we respond so differently? Reviewing determinants of human salivary cortisol responses to challenge.
» Rubinow & Schmidt (1996). Androgens, brain, & behavior

8.2
THURSDAY
3/5

Bodily changes and emotion III:
Peripheral nervous system

Question: Blood and 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.

9.1
TUESDAY
3/10

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.

9.2
THURSDAY 3/12

Unconscious emotion

Question: Can we feel without knowing?

Required

» Williams & Bargh (2008). Keeping 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.

10.1
TUESDAY
3/17

Emotion and aging

Question: Do emotions change as we grow old?

Required

» Scheibe & Carstensen (2010). Emotional aging: Recent findings and future trends.
» Carstensen et al (2011). Emotional experience improves with age: Evidence based on over 10 years of experience-sampling.

Optional

» Chapter 8 (textbook)
» Samanez-Larkin & Carstensen. (2011). Socioemotional functioning and the aging brain.

10.2
THURSDAY
3/19

EXAM #2
IN CLASS

11.1
TUESDAY
3/31

Emotional & Mental Health I:
Anxiety and Fear

Question: Only thing to fear is fear itself?

Required

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

Optional

» Mennin et al. (2005). Preliminary evidence for an emotion regulation deficit model of generalized anxiety disorder.

11.2
THURSDAY
4/2
OUTREACH PROJECT
DUE

Emotional & Mental Health II:
Mania and Depression

Question: Emotion gone awry?

Required

» Gruber & Keltner. (2007). Emotional behavior and psychopathology.
» Gruber. (2011). Can feeling too good be bad? Positive emotion persistence (PEP) in bipolar disorder.
» Rottenberg (2005). Mood and emotion in major depression.

Optional

» None

12.1
TUESDAY
4/7

Emotional & Mental Health III:
Psychosis

Question: Emotion gone awry?

Required

» Chapter 13 (textbook)
» Kring & Moran (2008). Emotional response deficits in schizophrenia.

Optional

» Kring et al (1993). Flat affect in schizophrenia does not reflect diminished subjective experience of emotion.
» Schiffman et al (2004). Childhood videotaped social and neuromotor precursors of schizophrenia 

12.2
THURSDAY
4/9

Emotional & 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 emotion: 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.

13.1
TUESDAY
4/14

GUEST LECTURE:
DIMIDJIAN

Emotional Treatments I

Question: Emotion gone awry?

Required

» Ch 14 (textbook)

Optional

» Baer, R. A. (2003). Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review.

13.2
THURSDAY
4/16

GUEST LECTURE:
ARCH

Emotional Treatments II

Question: Emotion gone awry?

Required

» Rottenberg & Gross (2007). Emotion and emotion regulation: A map for psychotherapy researchers.

Optional

» Greenberg & Safran (1984). Emotion in psychotherapy.

14.1
TUESDAY
4/21

Emotional Intelligence

Question: Can you be emotionally smart?

Required

» Salovey & Mayer (1989). Emotional intelligence.
» Mayer, Caruso & Salovey (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.  

14.2
THURSDAY
4/23

Emotional Health: Sleep & Stress

Question: How to cultivate healthy feelings?

Required

» Walker & van der Helm (2009).  Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing.
» Folkman & Moskowitz (2000). Stress, positive emotion, and coping.
» Pennebaker, J. W. (1993). Putting stress into words: Health, linguistic and therapeutic implications.

Optional

» Bonanno (2004). Loss, trauma, and human resilience.

15.1
TUESDAY
4/28

Happiness
& 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.

15.2
THURSDAY
4/30

EXAM #3
IN CLASS