EMOTION
The complexity of emotion sets limits on how psychologists can set about its scientific investigation and measurement. This has led different investigators to emphasize different aspects of emotion and to develop measurement techniques that spring from each of these approaches. As we will see, these range from self-report, diary-keeping and questionnaires, through coding of facial expressions, to the intricacies of psychophysiological and neurophysiological measurement.
Psychologists have also developed quite distinct descriptive languages, depending on their perspective. To speak of the feelings of anger is quite different from describing its typical facial expression, or its characteristic physiological changes. A particular problem comes from the existence of a strong folk psychology of emotion. Because we are used to observing emotion and thinking about it in everyday life, over time, cultures and subcultures have developed their own language for communicating about emotion. The language used in the scientific study of emotion is simply another of these.
There are important differences between a measurement-based science and an everyday folk psychology. The layperson might argue that if something as complex as emotion is studied through scientific methods, then much of its richness is lost. On the other hand, the psychologist/ scientist would argue that if something cannot be studied using the methods of science then it will not be possible to say anything useful about it. In practice, it is possible both to measure emotion and to make firm science-based statements about it. However, emotion as understood in everyday terms and as portrayed in fiction offers insights that should not be ignored. The fundamental problem in the study of emotion concerns the links between subjectivity and objectivity. In everyday life, feeling, or the subjective side of emotion, is central.
The complexity of emotion sets limits on how psychologists can set about its scientific investigation and measurement. This has led different investigators to emphasize different aspects of emotion and to develop measurement techniques that spring from each of these approaches. As we will see, these range from self-report, diary-keeping and questionnaires, through coding of facial expressions, to the intricacies of psychophysiological and neurophysiological measurement.
Psychologists have also developed quite distinct descriptive languages, depending on their perspective. To speak of the feelings of anger is quite different from describing its typical facial expression, or its characteristic physiological changes. A particular problem comes from the existence of a strong folk psychology of emotion. Because we are used to observing emotion and thinking about it in everyday life, over time, cultures and subcultures have developed their own language for communicating about emotion. The language used in the scientific study of emotion is simply another of these.
There are important differences between a measurement-based science and an everyday folk psychology. The layperson might argue that if something as complex as emotion is studied through scientific methods, then much of its richness is lost. On the other hand, the psychologist/ scientist would argue that if something cannot be studied using the methods of science then it will not be possible to say anything useful about it. In practice, it is possible both to measure emotion and to make firm science-based statements about it. However, emotion as understood in everyday terms and as portrayed in fiction offers insights that should not be ignored. The fundamental problem in the study of emotion concerns the links between subjectivity and objectivity. In everyday life, feeling, or the subjective side of emotion, is central.
No comments:
Post a Comment