Yale University - Psychology 131 - Human Emotion
Dr. June Gruber - Yale Psychology - Research Methods in Happiness - Psych 231

Class Calendar

Date

Topic

Readings

Expert Interview

WEEK 1

1/13


1.1 

Introduction & Course Logistics

Who and what?


Required

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

Optional

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



Experts in Emotion Interview:

Lisa Barrett


1.2 

History and Definitions

What is an emotion?

Required

» Chapter 1 (textbook)

Optional

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

» James (1884). What is an emotion? 

» Barrett (2012). Emotions are real.

 

WEEK 2

1/20




2.1

Manipulating Emotions

How do you elicit emotions?

Required

» Mauss & Robinson. (2009). Measures of emotion: A review. 

Optional

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

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

» Roberts, Tsai, & Coan (2007). Emotion elicitation using dyadic tasks. 


Experts in Emotion Interview:

Iris Mauss

James Coan


2.2

Measuring Emotions

How do you measure emotions?



Required

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

Optional

» Robinson & Clore (2002). Belief and feeling: Evidence for an accessibility model of emotional self-report

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


WEEK 3

1/27


OUTREACH PROJECT
ASSIGNED



3.1

Function of Emotions

What good are emotions?

Required

» Chapter 2 (textbook)

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

Optional

» Tooby & Cosmides (2008). The evolutionary psychology of the emotions and their relationship to internal regulatory variables. 


Experts in Emotion Interview:

Paul Ekman

Lisa Parr

Jaak Panksepp


3.2

Emotions in Man and Animals

Do monkeys and dogs have feelings like us?



Required

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

Optional

» Darwin (1872). Emotional Expression in Man and Animals [Excerpt] 

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

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


WEEK 4

2/3


4.1

Emotion Expression

Why do we smile, laugh, & cry?

 


Required

» Chapter 4 (textbook)

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


Optional

» Darwin (1982). Expression of emotion in man and animals (pp. 55-69).

» Ekman (1993). Facial expression and emotion. 

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

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


Experts in Emotion Interview:

Jo-Anne Bachorowksi or Jonathan Rottenberg

Michael Bailey


4.2

Emotion, Gender & Sex

What’s sex got to do with it?



Required

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

Optional

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

» 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

2/10







5.1. 

Exam 1


EXAM #1

IN CLASS



Required

» None

Optional

» None


Experts in Emotion Interview:

Dacher Keltner


5.2

Emotions and the Self

What are self-conscious emotions? 

Required

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

» Tangney (1996). Recent empirical advances in the empirical study of shame and guilt.

Optional

» Tracy & Robins. (2007). The nature of pride. 

» Lagattuta & Thompson (2007). The development of self-conscious emotions: Cognitive processes and social influences.

» Wong & Tsai (2007). Cultural models of shame and guilt


WEEK 6

2/17


6.1

Emotions and Others

Living in a socioemotional world?


Required

» Chapter 9 (textbook)

» Algoe & Haidt (2009). The ‘other-praising’ emotions of elevation, gratitude, and admiration.

Optional

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

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

 

Experts in Emotion Interview:

Jeanne Tsai

Margaret Clark

David Rand


6.2

Sociocultural Context

Are emotions cross-cultural?

 


Required

» Chapter 3 (textbook).

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

Optional

» Keltner & Haidt (1999). Social functions of emotions at four levels of analysis. 

» Morelli, Lieberman, Zaki. (2015). The emerging study of positive empathy.

 

WEEK 7

2/24



7.1

Morality and Emotion

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. 


Experts in Emotion Interview:

Steven Pinker

Jonathan Haidt

7.2

Outreach Project

PROJECT PROPOSALS DUE

Required

» None

Optional

» None

 

WEEK 8

3/2


8.1

Emotions in the Body

Blood, sweat, tears, and fears?


Required

» Cacioppo et al. (2000). The psychophysiology of emotion. 

Optional

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

» Kreibig et al (2010). Autonomic nervous system activity in emotion: A review.

» Ekman, Levenson, & Friesen (1983). Autonomic nervous system activity distinguishes among emotions. 


Experts in Emotion Interview:

Robert Levenson

John Cacioppo

Tor Wager


8.2

Emotions in the Brain

Your brain on emotion?



Required

» Ch 6 (textbook)

» Dagleish (2004). The emotional brain. 

Optional

» Lindquist et al. (2012). The brain basis of emotion: A meta-analytic review.

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

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


WEEK 9

3/9


9.1

Emotion Regulation

Can we control our emotions? Should we control our emotions?


Required

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

Optional

» Ochsner & Gross (2004). Thinking makes it so: A social cognitive neuroscience approach to emotion regulation.

» Zelazo & Cunningham (2007). Executive function: Mechanisms underlying emotion regulation.

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


Experts in Emotion Interview:

James Gross

James Coan


9.2

Unconscious Emotion

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). The unconscious regulation of emotion.

 

WEEK 10

3/16


10.1

Exam 2


EXAM #2

IN CLASS


Required

» None

Optional

» None



Experts in Emotion Interview:

Laura Carstensen


10.2

Emotion and Aging

Do emotions change as we grow old?

Required

» Scheibe & Carstensen (2010). Emotional aging: Recent findings and future trends.

Optional

» Chapter 8 (textbook)

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

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


WEEK 11

3/30


GUEST LECTURE:
TOBIAS


11.1

Emotion and Cognition I:

How do feelings shape attention and memory?


Required

» Lazarus (1982). Thoughts on the relations between emotion and cognition. 

» Clore & Huntsinger (2007). How emotions inform judgment and regulate thought. 

Optional

» Ohman et al (2001). Emotion drives attention: Detecting the snake in the grass. 

» Phelps et al (1997). Emotional memory: What does the amygdala do?


Experts in Emotion Interview:

Derek Isaacowitz

Brian Knutson


11.2

Emotion and Cognition II:

How do feeling shape judgments and decisions?



Required

» Lerner et al (2004). Heart strings and purse strings: Effects of emotions on economic decisions.

Optional

» Knutson et al (2007). Neural predictors of purchases.

» Zajonc (1980). Feeling and thinking: Preferences need no inferences. 


WEEK 12

4/6


12.1

Emotional & Mental Health I: 

Anxiety and Fear 

Only thing to fear is fear itself?

Required

» Gruber & Keltner. (2007). Emotional behavior and psychopathology.

Optional

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


Experts in Emotion Interview:

Doug Mennin

Sheri Johnson

Jonathan Rottenberg

Ian Gotlib


12.2

Emotional & Mental Health II: 

Mania and Depression

Emotion gone awry?


Required

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

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

Optional

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


WEEK 13

4/13


13.1

Emotional Health

How to cultivate healthy feelings? 

Required

» Ch 14 (textbook)

Optional

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

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

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

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

» Pennebaker, J. W. (1993). Putting stress into words: Health, linguistic and therapeutic implications. 


Experts in Emotion Interview:

Daniel Gilbert

Barbara Fredrickson

Maya Tamir

Michael Norton


13.2

Happiness

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 14

4/20


14.1

Emotional Intelligence & The Future

Where do we go from here?


Required

» Salovey & Mayer (1989). Emotional intelligence.

Optional

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

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


Experts in Emotion Interview:

None


14.2

Feedback

What do you need help on before next week?

Required

» None

Optional

» None

WEEK 15

4/27


15.1


EXAM #3

IN CLASS


Required

» None

Optional

» None



15.2


OUTREACH
PROJECT
FLASH TALKS 

Required

» None

Optional

» None