DETAILS
Emotions and other affective phenomena play a central role in human behavior, both in a positive way, optimizing performance and well-being, and in a negative sense, encouraging violence and fostering psychopathology. Not surprisingly, the areas of application of affective science are vast.
Affective phenomena are first and foremost subjective, individual phenomena, and a better understanding of emotional processes and especially individual differences in how emotions are generated, experienced, and managed is useful for questions related to physical and psychological health and well-being. For example, what kinds of evaluation patterns and cognitive processes help generate depression and anxiety disorders or promote happiness and well-being? Do individuals who generally experience emotions more frequently or more intensely get sick more often (general psychological stress) or are specific classes of emotions (anger, fear) related to particular symptoms and illnesses? Are there neurological or physiological patterns or pathways that can predict such relationships? What are the personality factors and regulation strategies mediating the relationship between emotions and health, and are there cultural differences ? A better understanding of the cognitive, physiological, and behavioral factors involved in the emotions-and-health connection will allow psychologists, medical professionals, and consultants to propose better prevention, treatment, and therapy options for stress, burn-out, depression, and other affective disorders, as well as provide insights for psycho-somatic disorders and physical symptoms such as pain.
Insight into affective phenomena should also help individuals adapt to their social environment (family, work, community). In particular, interpersonal relationships are created and maintained through perception, use, and management of emotions. First, correctly perceiving emotions in another person’s face or voice facilitates an appropriate response, such as comforting a sad friend or avoiding an irritable colleague. It is therefore useful to understand how expressions are processed in the brain and used in social contexts as well as to identify factors that prevent optimal perception. Second, social norms and personal values dictate which emotional displays are appropriate in different contexts. For example, overt anger towards a child may sometimes be necessary, but yelling at one’s boss is rarely a wise career move. These norms and values can be implicit, ingrained in cultural and religious traditions, or explicit, written into laws and regulations. Understanding how these norms and values shape emotion generation and emotion management will help determine why some groups or individuals are more likely to respond in aggressive and socially destructive fashions, while others are facilitators of cooperation and team work. Finally, the ability to manage emotions is crucial if one wishes to obey these implicit and explicit norms. For example, impulsive people are generally less capable of inhibiting certain types of emotional responses and behaviors, and may be more prone to violence and other maladaptive behaviors than less impulsive people. In addition, certain regulation strategies may be more or less functional in family, work, and community contexts, and a failure to regulate emotions will lead to different outcomes. Understanding how individual and contextual factors shape and modulate emotion regulation goals and skills may help educators, managers, parents, and policy makers create more effective socialization practices, laws, and interventions, which in turn should help foster family cohesion, a favorable organizational climate, and community cooperation.
In summary, the NCCR research efforts will further the understanding of important social problems and public health issues, providing new insights and solutions for politics, economics, business, education, public administration, and the health professions.
Overview
