The Emotions - Social, Cultural and Biological Dimensions

`There is much that is fascinating here. Long-established experiments and conclusions are rubbished and reinterpreted, long-established assumptions and beliefs about emotions are soundly trounced, and generally a good going-over is delivered to the whole field... it is such a blockbuster that one can only reel backwards and tell anyone studying the subject that they would be crazy not to get it' - Self - Society

`The book consists of a series of erudite chapters on a wide array of emotions, including regret, hope, embarrassment and grief. It includes new research on emotion, but also incorporates a number of older key works, such as a chapter by Darwin on blushing. The book provides insight into why the biological perspective has dominated psychological explanations of emotion... A strong feature of the book is its emphasis on a range of emotions beyond the "basic" emotions. In order to explain other emotional reactions, theorists find it necessary to draw on social and cultural features... the book... forces more biologically inclined readers to consider whether their theories can be applied to the rich array of emotions' - The Psychologist