Further Reading — Chapter 6: Emotion

Annotated resources for deeper exploration. Items marked with ★ are especially recommended as starting points.

Accessible Books on Emotion

★ Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. Putnam. The book in which Damasio presents the somatic marker hypothesis, based on his research with patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage. One of the most important books in the science of emotion. Accessible and beautifully written — a corrective to the false reason-emotion dichotomy.

★ Barrett, L. F. (2017). How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Lisa Feldman Barrett's accessible account of constructed emotion theory. Challenges Ekman's universalist view, proposes a radical reconceptualization of what emotions are and how they arise. Thought-provoking and practical. The most current scientific account of emotion for a general audience.

Gross, J. J. (Ed.). (2014). Handbook of Emotion Regulation (2nd ed.). Guilford Press. The definitive academic reference on emotion regulation. Dense; not for casual reading. The introductory chapters by Gross himself are the most accessible and lay out the process model clearly.

Nummenmaa, L., et al. (2014). Bodily maps of emotions. PNAS, 111(2), 646–651. A striking visual paper showing body maps of emotional experience across different cultures — where different emotions are felt in the body. Open access and visually engaging. A good starting point for exploring the somatic dimension of emotion.

On Emotion Regulation

★ Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348–362. The foundational empirical paper comparing reappraisal and suppression. Essential reading for understanding what the research actually shows.

Aldao, A., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Schweizer, S. (2010). Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(2), 217–237. Meta-analysis showing that maladaptive regulation strategies (suppression, rumination, avoidance) are associated with psychopathology across diagnostic categories. Provides the empirical foundation for the clinical importance of emotion regulation.

On Emotional Intelligence

Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 9(3), 185–211. The original paper introducing the emotional intelligence construct. More careful and limited than Goleman's popular version.

Brackett, M. A. (2019). Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Our Selves, and Our Society Thrive. Celadon Books. A warm, practical account of emotional intelligence by the director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Particularly good on emotional granularity and on practical applications in education and parenting. Accessible and evidence-grounded.

On Guilt and Shame

★ Tangney, J. P., & Dearing, R. L. (2002). Shame and Guilt. Guilford Press. Tangney's comprehensive account of the research distinguishing shame and guilt and their consequences. Dense but foundational for anyone who wants to understand this distinction deeply.

Brown, B. (2010). The Gifts of Imperfection. Hazelden. Brené Brown's accessible account of shame and vulnerability, drawing on her qualitative research. Less rigorous than Tangney but more accessible and particularly relevant for practical self-examination.

On Social and Cultural Dimensions of Emotion

Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1993). Emotional contagion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2(3), 96–99. Hatfield's accessible summary of the emotional contagion research. Brief and readable.

Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224–253. The influential paper on how collectivist vs. individualist self-construals affect emotional experience and expression. Essential background for Chapter 38 (Cultural Psychology) and for understanding the limits of Western emotion research.

Ekman, P. (2003). Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life. Times Books. Ekman's practical guide to emotion recognition, based on his research on facial expressions. Accessible and practically useful despite the theoretical debates about his universalist model.