Keith Oatley – författare

Fiction is based on narratives in which characters act on their intentions and encounter vicissitudes. Readers enjoy entering into the lives of characters, coming to empathize with them as their plans progress or they meet obstacles. Readers enjoy, too, meeting characters with whom they sympathize, and being reminded of emotional episodes in their own lives.Keith Oatley is both a novelist and research psychologist, and so it is not surprising that he has created a hybrid text that alternates between sections of an original short story, One Another, and chapters on the psychology of emotion and fiction.People's enjoyment of stories depends on the emotions they experience as they read, watch, or listen. We human beings are intensely social and it's to imagined social worlds that fiction transports us, enabling us to meet more people and feel for them in many more situations than we could if we lived many lives. In this text, the author explains why people who read a great deal of fiction have better understandings of others than those who tend to read nonfiction. He argues that through fiction, we come to know more about the emotions of others and of ourselves.

The emotions a character feels--Hamlet''s vengefulness when he realizes his uncle has killed his father, Anna Karenina''s despair when she feels she can longer sustain her life, Marcel''s joy when he tastes a piece of madeleine cake--are vital aspects of the experience of fiction. As Keith Oatley points out, it''s not just the emotions of literary characters such as these in which we are interested. If we didn''t ourselves experience emotions, we wouldn''t go to the play, or watch the film, or read the book. In The Passionate Muse, Oatley, who is both a prize-winning novelist and a distinguished research psychologist, offers a hybrid book that alternates sections of an original short story, "One Another," with chapters that illuminate the psychology of emotion and fiction. Oatley not only provides insight into how people engage in stories, he also illuminates the value of emotion and the importance of stories for our psychological well-being. Indeed, he offers evidence that the more fiction we read, the better is our understandings of others. Through fiction, we come to know more about the emotions of others and ourselves.

Emotions: A Brief History investigates the history of emotions across cultures as well as the evolutionary history of emotions and of emotional development across an individual’s life span. In clear and accessible language, Keith Oatley examines key topics such as emotional intelligence, emotion and the brain, and emotional disorders. Throughout, he interweaves three themes: the changes that emotions have undergone from the past to the present, the extent to which we are able to control our emotions, and the ways in which emotions help us discern the deeper layers of ourselves and our relationships.

Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction explores how fiction works in the brains and imagination of both readers and writers. Demonstrates how reading fiction can contribute to a greater understanding of, and the ability to change, ourselvesInformed by the latest psychological research which focuses on, for example, how identification with fictional characters occurs, and how literature can improve social abilitiesExplores traditional aspects of fiction, including character, plot, setting, and theme, as well as a number of classic techniques, such as metaphor, metonymy, defamiliarization, and cuesIncludes extensive end-notes, which ground the work in psychological studiesFeatures excerpts from fiction which are discussed throughout the text, including works by William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Kate Chopin, Anton Chekhov, James Baldwin, and others

Who gets called 'emotional'? And what does it mean when that happens? What tells us that a person is 'speaking from the heart'? The prevailing stereotype is that she is emotional, while he is not. In Speaking From the Heart Professor Shields draws on examples from everyday life, contemporary culture and comprehensive research, to reveal how culturally shared beliefs about emotion shape our identities as women and men. She shows how the discourse of emotion is fundamentally concerned with judgements about authenticity and legitimacy of experience, themes deeply implicated in creating and maintaining gender boundaries. This fascinating exploration of gender and emotion in a clear and engaging style takes up topics as diverse as nineteenth-century ideals of womanhood, weeping politicians, children's play and the Superbowl. It is a must read for anyone interested in the way emotion affects our everyday lives.

This book is based on a substantial collection of video recordings of everyday medical consultations in the UK, and offers a micro-analysis of the visual and vocal aspects of the interaction between doctors and patients. Using actual examples, accompanied by numerous illustrations, Christian Heath explores the moment-by-moment coordination of body movement and speech by and between doctor and patient. He discusses various aspects of medical examination, leave-taking, and the ways in which the participants sustain each other's attention. He also raises certain practical issues of medical work, such as the use of records and computers during the consultation, and the impact of 'bureaucratic' demands on the flow of information between doctor and patient. The book reveals the delicacy and precision which enter into the articulation and synchrony of visual behaviour and speech, and throws light on the systematics - the social organization - underlying the seeming minutiae of everyday life. In this way, it contributes both to our understanding of doctor-patient communication, and to the growing body of research on face-to-face interaction.

In Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine, the great nineteenth-century French neurologist Duchenne de Boulogne combined his intimate knowledge of facial anatomy with his skill in photography and expertise in using electricity to stimulate individual facial muscles to produce a fascinating interpretation of the ways in which the human face portrays emotions. This book was pivotal in the development of psychology and physiology as it marked the first time that photography had been used to illustrate, and therefore 'prove', a series of experiments. In this volume, Andrew Cuthbertson has provided an English translation of Duchenne, complete with a reproduction of the marvellous Album of photographs. The four commentary chapters by modern experts describe the relevance of Duchenne's findings to the fields of experimental psychology, plastic surgery, neurology and physiology. This book will therefore be valued by all those who deal with facial expression, including psychologists, physicians and those involved in the fine arts and photography.

In this book, Karl G. Heider studies the cultural constructions of emotions, examining how different cultures shape ideas and talk about emotion. The main subjects of the study are the Minangkabau, a matrilineal Muslim culture of three million people in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Comparative data come from the Central Javanese, also of Indonesia and reference is made to studies of American emotions. The Minangkabau have two different 'cultures of emotion', used depending on whether they are speaking their own regional language or the national language. And the Central Javanese have yet another culture of emotion when they are speaking the 'same' national language. Landscapes of Emotion will appeal to a range of readers in anthropology, psychology, sociology and Asian studies who want to understand how different cultures shape emotion.

What are 'emotions'? Drawing together the threads of current research on the nature and funactions of emotional expression, of physiological reactions, and of emotional experience, this book offers a balanced survey of facts and theory. Nico Frijda discusses the motivational and neurophysiological preconditions for emotions, and the ways in which emotions are regulated by the individual. Considering the kinds of events that elicit emotions, he argues that emotions arise because events are appraised by people as favorable or harmful to their own interests. he takes an information-processing perspective: Emotions are viewed as outcomes of the process of assessing the world in terms of one's own concerns, which, in turn, modify action readiness. This analysis leads him to address such fundamental issues as the place of emotion in motivation generally and the discrepancy between the functions of the emotions and their often irrational and disruptive character. An important contribution to recent debates, The Emotions does not presuppose extensive prior knowledge.

Because of the complexity of human behaviour a great many research variables must be constructed from the building blocks of human judgement. A teacher's warmth, a psychotherapist's ability to create rapport, a patient's inner state - these all tend ultimately to be defined by the judgements of others. The purpose of this book is to describe the design, the analysis and the meta-analysis of studies employing judgements in sufficient detail that readers can conduct such studies, and more wisely evaluate them. While the author's examples are drawn primarily from research on non-verbal behaviour, the book is designed for any investigators employing judges, observers, raters, coders, or decoders, whether or not the behaviour being assessed is non-verbal. Judgment Studies: Design, Analysis, and Meta-Analysis constitutes a unique resource for advanced students and researchers in the behavioural and social sciences. It offers the first integrated summary of methodological issues in judgement studies, and the first guide to their planning and analysis.

Why do people gesture while speaking? What role does this activity play in verbal exchanges? Which kind of relationship does it exhibit between the verbal and the gestural domains? This 1991 book attempts to answer these questions by surveying research on gestures carried out from various perspectives: psycho- and sociolinguistic, ethological, social, cognitive, and developmental psychological, and neuropsychological. This large coverage makes it unique in the field. Furthermore, the delineation of several approaches to the topic yields a clearer picture of their respective contributions than a commitment to a single view.

Keith Oatley draws on theories from psychology, philosophy and linguistics, as well as writings from other social sciences, to show how emotions are central to any understanding of human actions and mental life.

The modern world is forcing us to understand emotion in order to cope with new problems such as road rage and epidemic levels of depression, as well as age-old problems such as homicide, genocide and racial tension. At the same time, scholarly research is leading us to appreciate how emotion helps us to understand and transcend our selfish interests, to connect with others, to feel what is just and moral, and not just think it, and to construct societies and cultures that govern our joint efforts. This book draws upon scholarly research to address, explain and legitimize the role that emotion plays in everyday interaction and in many of the pressing social, moral, and cultural issues that we face today.

In his important book, first published in 1997, Thomas Scheff offers an approach to researching human behavior which relates the smallest parts of social interaction to the greatest wholes of social structure. These are the details and connections usually found only in the finest novels, but Scheff combines the insights of the humanities and social sciences to capture the same evocative details of sight, sound, and context, better to understand what he calls 'human reality'. He puts a fresh emphasis on the importance of emotions in the social bond, and describes in newly subtle ways the outer and inner lives of persons in real life, such as inner-city children, and in fiction, such as Jane Austen's heroines. By closely observing the significance of words and gestures in the context in which they occur, he is able to illuminate the connection between people's lives and the society in which they live.

In this fascinating book, Anna Wierzbicka brings psychological, anthropological and linguistic insights to bear on our understanding of the way emotions are expressed and experienced in different cultures, languages, and culturally-shaped social relations. The expression of emotion in the face, body and modes of speech are all explored and Wierzbicka shows how the bodily expression of emotion varies across cultures and challenges traditional approaches to the study of facial expressions. As well as offering a perspective on human emotions based on the analysis of language and ways of talking about emotion, this intriguing and controversial book attempts to identify universals of human emotion by analysing empirical evidence from different languages and cultures. This book will be invaluable to academics and students of emotion across the social sciences.

In this fascinating book, Anna Wierzbicka brings psychological, anthropological and linguistic insights to bear on our understanding of the way emotions are expressed and experienced in different cultures, languages, and culturally-shaped social relations. The expression of emotion in the face, body and modes of speech are all explored and Wierzbicka shows how the bodily expression of emotion varies across cultures and challenges traditional approaches to the study of facial expressions. As well as offering a perspective on human emotions based on the analysis of language and ways of talking about emotion, this intriguing and controversial book attempts to identify universals of human emotion by analysing empirical evidence from different languages and cultures. This book will be invaluable to academics and students of emotion across the social sciences.

This engaging, scholarly book by one of the leading social psychologists in the world reviews the rapidly growing body of research on the antecedents and consequences of positive and negative affect. Starting with studies that identify the dimensions along which affective experience can be located, it considers whether good and bad feelings are opposite ends of a bipolar continuum or are independent dimensions. It then looks at the many conditions that can determine whether an experience is felt as pleasant or unpleasant and examines how feelings can influence thought, memory, and action. For example, the author shows how the associative perspective accounts for mood effects on memory and why creativity is often enhanced by positive feelings. He also discusses how emotion arousal can affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony and how good is the evidence that unusually hot weather might promote violent crimes.

Who gets called 'emotional'? And what does it mean when that happens? What tells us that a person is 'speaking from the heart'? The prevailing stereotype is that she is emotional, while he is not. In Speaking From the Heart Professor Shields draws on examples from everyday life, contemporary culture and comprehensive research, to reveal how culturally shared beliefs about emotion shape our identities as women and men. She shows how the discourse of emotion is fundamentally concerned with judgements about authenticity and legitimacy of experience, themes deeply implicated in creating and maintaining gender boundaries. This fascinating exploration of gender and emotion in a clear and engaging style takes up topics as diverse as nineteenth-century ideals of womanhood, weeping politicians, children's play and the Superbowl. It is a must read for anyone interested in the way emotion affects our everyday lives.

There are profound, extensive, and surprising universals in literature, which are bound up with universals in emotion. Hogan maintains that debates over the cultural specificity of emotion are misdirected because they have ignored a vast body of data that bear directly on the way different cultures imagine and experience emotion - literature. This is the first empirically and cognitively based discussion of narrative universals. Professor Hogan argues that, to a remarkable degree, the stories people admire in different cultures follow a limited number of patterns and that these patterns are determined by cross-culturally constant ideas about emotion. In formulating his argument, Professor Hogan draws on his extensive reading in world literature, experimental research treating emotion and emotion concepts, and methodological principles from the contemporary linguistics and the philosophy of science. He concludes with a discussion of the relations among narrative, emotion concepts, and the biological and social components of emotion.

Human Emotions: A Reader brings together a collection of articles which give an approach to the fast-growing field of empirical and theoretical research on emotions. The volume includes classic writings from Darwin, James and Freud chosen to show their current significance, together with articles from contemporary research literature. The articles give a broad coverage of the subject and include selections from cross-cultural, biological, social, developmental and clinical areas of study. Human Emotions: A Reader begins with an overall introduction to both the volume and subject area by the Editors. Each of the six sections of the book, and each article are introduced, contextualizing and relating these articles to comparable research.The volume is organized to correspond with the structure and coverage of Understanding Emotions written by Keith Oatley and Jennifer M. Jenkins (also published by Blackwell). It can also be used independently allowing instructors to teach courses on emotions with their own emphases, and giving students access to a range of primary source material in this thought provoking field.

Human Emotions: A Reader brings together a collection of articles which give an approach to the fast-growing field of empirical and theoretical research on emotions. The volume includes classic writings from Darwin, James and Freud chosen to show their current significance, together with articles from contemporary research literature. The articles give a broad coverage of the subject and include selections from cross-cultural, biological, social, developmental and clinical areas of study. Human Emotions: A Reader begins with an overall introduction to both the volume and subject area by the Editors. Each of the six sections of the book, and each article are introduced, contextualizing and relating these articles to comparable research.The volume is organized to correspond with the structure and coverage of Understanding Emotions written by Keith Oatley and Jennifer M. Jenkins (also published by Blackwell). It can also be used independently allowing instructors to teach courses on emotions with their own emphases, and giving students access to a range of primary source material in this thought provoking field.

An original history of psychology told through the stories of its most important breakthroughs and the people who made themAdvances in psychology have revolutionized our understanding of the human mind. Imaging technology allows researchers to monitor brain activity, letting us see what happens when we perceive, think, and feel. But technology is only part of how ideas about the mind and brain have developed over the past century and a half. In Our Minds, Our Selves, distinguished psychologist and writer Keith Oatley provides an engaging, original, and authoritative history of modern psychology told through the stories of its most important breakthroughs and the men and women who made them.Our Minds, Our Selves traverses a fascinating terrain: forms of conscious and unconscious knowledge; brain physiology; emotion; stages of mental development from infancy to adulthood; language acquisition and use; the nature of memory; mental illness; morality; free will; creativity; the mind at work in art and literature; and, most important, our ability to cooperate with one another. Controversial experiments--such as Stanley Milgram's investigation of our willingness to obey authority and inflict pain and Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues' study of behavior in a simulated prison—are covered in detail. Biographical sketches illuminate the thinkers behind key insights and turning points: historical figures such as Hermann Helmholtz, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, B. F. Skinner, and Alan Turing; leading contemporaries such as Geoffrey Hinton, Michael Tomasello, and Tania Singer; and influential people from other fields, including Margaret Mead, Noam Chomsky, Jane Goodall, and Gabrielle Starr.Enhancing our understanding of ourselves and others, psychology holds the potential to create a better world. Our Minds, Our Selves tells the story of this most important of sciences in a new and appealing way.

An original history of psychology told through the stories of its most important breakthroughs—and the men and women who made themIn Our Minds, Our Selves, distinguished psychologist and writer Keith Oatley provides an engaging, original, and authoritative history of modern psychology told through the stories of its most important breakthroughs and the men and women who made them. The book traverses a fascinating terrain: conscious and unconscious knowledge, brain physiology, emotion, mental development, language, memory, mental illness, creativity, human cooperation, and much more. Biographical sketches illuminate the thinkers behind key insights: historical figures such as Darwin, Piaget, Skinner, and Turing; leading contemporaries such as Michael Tomasello and Tania Singer; and influential people from other fields, including Margaret Mead, Noam Chomsky, and Jane Goodall. Enhancing our understanding of ourselves and others, psychology holds the potential to create a better world. Our Minds, Our Selves tells the story of this most important of sciences in a new and appealing way.

Emotions are an inescapable part of the human experience. They motivate actions and reactions, guide our interpersonal and business relationships, inspire political and societal trends, and influence our sense of self and well-being. Emphasizing the broad practical reach of this field of study, Understanding Emotions draws from neuroscience, psychiatry, biology, genetics, the humanities, economics, and more to provide a strong foundation in core concepts. An easy-to-follow narrative arc encompasses the entire life span, while representative studies provide immediate insight into the real-world implications of important findings.

This new Fourth Edition continues to provide clear and concise guidance toward the factors that drive emotion, with new, revised, and expanded discussions that reflect the current state of the field. Detailed coverage of social and anti-social motivations, moral judgment, empathy, psychological disorders, the physiological components of emotion, and many more equip students with the conceptual tools to probe deeper into the material and apply methods and techniques to their own personal lives. 

Emotions are an inescapable part of the human experience. They motivate actions and reactions, guide our interpersonal and business relationships, inspire political and societal trends, and influence our sense of self and well-being. Emphasizing the broad practical reach of this field of study, Understanding Emotions draws from neuroscience, psychiatry, biology, genetics, the humanities, economics, and more to provide a strong foundation in core concepts. An easy-to-follow narrative arc encompasses the entire life span, while representative studies provide immediate insight into the real-world implications of important findings.This new Fourth Edition continues to provide clear and concise guidance toward the factors that drive emotion, with new, revised, and expanded discussions that reflect the current state of the field. Detailed coverage of social and anti-social motivations, moral judgment, empathy, psychological disorders, the physiological components of emotion, and many more equip students with the conceptual tools to probe deeper into the material and apply methods and techniques to their own personal lives.

Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction explores how fiction works in the brains and imagination of both readers and writers. Demonstrates how reading fiction can contribute to a greater understanding of, and the ability to change, ourselves Informed by the latest psychological research which focuses on, for example, how identification with fictional characters occurs, and how literature can improve social abilities Explores traditional aspects of fiction, including character, plot, setting, and theme, as well as a number of classic techniques, such as metaphor, metonymy, defamiliarization, and cues Includes extensive end-notes, which ground the work in psychological studies Features excerpts from fiction which are discussed throughout the text, including works by William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Kate Chopin, Anton Chekhov, James Baldwin, and others

Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction explores how fiction works in the brains and imagination of both readers and writers. Demonstrates how reading fiction can contribute to a greater understanding of, and the ability to change, ourselves Informed by the latest psychological research which focuses on, for example, how identification with fictional characters occurs, and how literature can improve social abilities Explores traditional aspects of fiction, including character, plot, setting, and theme, as well as a number of classic techniques, such as metaphor, metonymy, defamiliarization, and cues Includes extensive end-notes, which ground the work in psychological studies Features excerpts from fiction which are discussed throughout the text, including works by William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Kate Chopin, Anton Chekhov, James Baldwin, and others

Originally published in 1978, this study examines the shortcomings of some theoretical approaches to psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms at the time. Keith Oatley illustrates the extent of these shortcomings by showing how inefficient brain researchers – using their present approaches – would be in trying to understand a computer, which is considerably simpler than the human brain. He concludes that we need better theories than those usually espoused in psychology, and goes on to expound a theory of cognitive representation and inference in perception, which began with Helmholtz more than a hundred years ago but which can now be given substance and formal structure in artificial intelligence programs. The author deploys this theory to give an account of some fundamental problems, such as how we see a three-dimensional world, and how the brain copes so well with incomplete sensory data and with damage to its own components.

Originally published in 1978, this study examines the shortcomings of some theoretical approaches to psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms at the time. Keith Oatley illustrates the extent of these shortcomings by showing how inefficient brain researchers – using their present approaches – would be in trying to understand a computer, which is considerably simpler than the human brain. He concludes that we need better theories than those usually espoused in psychology, and goes on to expound a theory of cognitive representation and inference in perception, which began with Helmholtz more than a hundred years ago but which can now be given substance and formal structure in artificial intelligence programs. The author deploys this theory to give an account of some fundamental problems, such as how we see a three-dimensional world, and how the brain copes so well with incomplete sensory data and with damage to its own components.