Keith Oatley

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

The Psychology of Fiction

Such Stuff as Dreams

John Heritage

J. Maxwell Atkinson

These essays reflects fresh developments in the increasingly influential field of conversation analysis.

Structures of Social Action

An original history of psychology told through the stories of its most important breakthroughs and the people who made them Advances 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.

A Brief History of Psychology

Our Minds, Our Selves

Jennifer M. Jenkins

This new textbook is the first book to fully span the fast growing field to research on emotions. It ranges across a broad range of disciplines, covering the entire lifespan from infancy to adulthood. Its main theme is that emotions have functions: they set priorities among our concerns and they provide the underlying structure of human friendships, to the excitements of sexuality. Understanding Emotions is designed as a textbook for second- and third-year university courses, and the text itself is fully supported by introductions and summaries, suggestions for further reading, plus a comprehensive bibliography and a glossary.

Understanding Emotions

Dacher Keltner

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.

Dacher Keltner, Keith Oatley, and Jennifer Jenkins’s Understanding Emotions, 3rd Edition emphasizes the value of emotions and explores the latest research with practical concerns for clinical problems, education and everyday understanding. The text extends across a broad range of disciplines and covers the entire lifespan from infancy to adulthood. It includes sections on the study of emotion, the different elements of emotion, evidence of how emotions govern and organize social life, and emotion and individual functioning, including psychological disorders and wellbeing. Furthermore, the text offers combined chapters on evolutionary and cultural approaches, studies of new expressions (love, desire) as well as new systems of communication (touch, music), findings on emotion and the central nervous systems, and studies on the role of emotion in moral judgment. Discussions of how popular and classical movies emphasize emotions show how to keep an emotion diary to track one’s emotions and interactions. The text includes boxes on emotional intelligence and how to improve it as well as scales of assessing the self. Boxes on emotions in art and literature and positive psychology boxes are also new editions to this issue.

An accomplished young woman traumatized by guilt at her role in the death of a British diplomat, who was her lecherous guardian. Sigmund Freud, whom she consults to ease her mental suffering and Sherlock Holmes, enlisted by his brother, Mycroft, to probe the man's death.

The Case of Emily V.

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.

Exploring Emotion in Stories

The Passionate Muse

Nancy Stein

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.

A Reader

Human Emotions

Serving a crucial function when the unexpected occurs and when priorities must be set, emotions are shown to be central to the understanding of human action and mental life in a survey that draws upon research in cognitive science as well as other fields.

The Psychology of the Emotions

Best Laid Schemes

A hybrid book that alternates sections of an original short story, "One Another", with chapters that illuminate how emotion and fiction interact.

An original history of psychology told through the stories of its most important breakthroughs—and the men and women who made them 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. 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: 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.

A Brief History

Emotions

Colin Wayne Leach

Larissa Z. Tiedens

This book showcases new research and theory about the way in which the social environment shapes, and is shaped by, emotion. The book has three sections, each of which addresses a different level of sociality: interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup. The first section refers to the links between specific individuals, the second to categories that define multiple individuals as an entity, and the final to the boundaries between groups. Emotions are found in each of these levels and the dynamics involved in these types of relationship are part of what it is to experience emotion. The chapters show how all three types of social relationships generate, and are generated by, emotions. In doing so, this book locates emotional experiences in the larger social context.

Keith Oatley

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