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The biopsychology of emotion: Current theoretical, empirical, and

methodological perspectives

Article in Biological Psychology · February 2010

DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.02.001 · Source: PubMed

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Bruce D. Friedman Sylvia D Kreibig

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Biological Psychology 84 (2010) 381–382

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Biological Psychology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biopsycho

Editorial

The biopsychology of emotion: Current theoretical, empirical, and methodological

perspectives

A R T I C L E I N F O
The special issue opens with Friedman’s (2010) historical
Keywords: overview of the autonomic specificity issue, traced from its origins
Biopsychology in William James’s seminal theorizing through the present. Kreibig
Emotion
(2010) proceeds with an extensive, detailed empirical review of
Theory
Research
autonomic response specificity in emotion. Next, Norris et al.
Methodology (2010) outline the current status of theory and research on the
structure of evaluative space, with a special emphasis on the
postulates of affective oscillation and calibration. Lang and Bradley
(2010) then offer a comprehensive perspective on their motiva-
Emotion has been an enduring topic in psychology since the field tional theory of emotion, elegantly synthesizing peripheral
emerged as a distinct discipline in the latter part of the 19th century. psychophysiological and neuroimaging data in support of the
This is not a surprising observation, in view of the central role that theory. Harmon-Jones et al. (2010) review research on the emotive
affect plays in human experience and behavior. The inextricable functions of asymmetric frontal cortical activity and point to the
connection between emotion and the body was notably recognized importance of distinguishing motivational direction from affective
by William James (1884, 1890), who advanced the first major theory valence.
of the biopsychology of emotion. Theoretical debate ensued, A number of distinct content areas and methodological
spawning an empirical tradition that diverged along many lines approaches are reflected in our collection of empirical articles.
throughout the 20th century on into the present. Nevertheless, Stephens et al. (2010) explore the question of autonomic specificity
emotion research has also been conspicuously absent during certain by utilizing multivariate analyses of affective responses to
eras in psychology. Under the influence of radical behaviorists and different laboratory emotion inductions. Kreibig et al. (2010) use
activation theorists, who considered affective phenomena to be too a performance context to investigate motivational antecedents and
subjective and elusive to be part of an objective behavioral science, emotional effects of goal attainment and report on physiological
emotion all but disappeared from the psychological literature in the concomitants of positive achievement-related emotions. Scarpa et
1930–1950s. For similar reasons, emotion was neglected by al. (2010) offer a perspective on emotion in the context of
cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists in subsequent influen- aggressive behavior, which they distinguish into reactive versus
tial movements in behavioral science (Damasio, 1998). proactive acts and analyze differences in autonomic, emotional,
This special issue was initiated by a symposium on William and behavioral functioning. Jain and Labouvie-Vief (2010) present
James’s model of emotion in relation to the concept of autonomic research on emotion regulation over the life span that documents
response specificity of emotion, held at the annual meeting of the compensatory effects on emotional arousal related to age and
Society for Psychophysiological Research (Kreibig, 2007). This attachment. Hess and Bourgeois (2010) explore the roles of
symposium attested to the ongoing interest in the topic of emotional and social contexts in relation to the factors of gender,
emotional response specificity in the field of biological psychology. power status, expressivity, and mimicry in dyadic interactions.
Subsequent discussions led to this special issue which includes, but Mauss and Butler (2010) discuss cultural differences in emotion
goes beyond the topic of autonomic specificity. The set of invited control values and report on cardiovascular responses of Asian-
papers represents the vibrant, dynamic state of contemporary American and European-American cultural groups in an anger-
emotion research in biopsychology. In this issue, we have provoking situation. The construct of emotion regulation, which
attempted to broadly sample this domain from theoretical, has been ubiquitous in contemporary emotion research, is
empirical, and methodological perspectives. A diversity of content addressed in a study of cardiac vagal control and facial expression
areas is represented: basic and applied research; clinical, cultural, by Pu et al. (2010).
developmental, historical, motivational, neuroscientific, personal- The issue also contains stimulating methodological articles that
ity, quantitative, and social perspectives. Of course, it has been offer practical guidelines for conducting future emotion research.
impossible to include all current major influences in this area, and Stemmler and Wacker (2010) propose a framework for modeling
regrettably, work from numerous significant research groups was, trait–situation interactions in personality research, suggesting that
by necessity, omitted. Nevertheless, we feel that the special issue emotional and motivational traits only exert their influence under
represents well the current state of biopsychological emotion trait-relevant conditions (e.g., when certain emotions have been
research, and will be a positive stimulus for future work in this area. elicited), and use several biopsychological data sets to illustrate

0301-0511/$ – see front matter ß 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.02.001
 Author's personal copy

382 Editorial / Biological Psychology 84 (2010) 381–382

applications of this model. Wilhelm and Grossman (2010) Jain, E.M., Labouvie-Vief, G., 2010. Compensatory effect of emotion avoidance in
adult development. Biological Psychology 84, 497–513.
contribute a wide-ranging guide to conducting ambulatory James, W., 1884. What is an emotion? Mind 9, 188–205.
emotion research, addressing inclusively the numerous methodo- James, W., 1890. What is an emotion? In: James, W. (Ed.), The Principles of
logical considerations inherent in this enterprise. Psychology. Dover, New York, pp. 442–485.
Kreibig, S.D., 2010. Autonomic nervous system activity in emotion: a review.
Finally, distinguished theorist Nico Frijda (2010) integrates the Biological Psychology 84, 394–421.
body of work contained in the special issue into his emotion model. Kreibig, S.D. (Chair), 2007, October. William James’ legacy: the present state of
Drawing on this diverse set of theoretical, empirical, and autonomic response specificity of emotion. Symposium Presented at the Annual
Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research, Savannah, GA.
methodological contributions, Frijda argues that emotional events, Kreibig, S.D., Gendolla, G.H.E., Scherer, K.R., 2010. Psychophysiological effects of
as appraised by the individual, lead to changes in motive state that emotional responding to goal attainment. Biological Psychology 84, 474–487.
can be causal in subsequent action. He concludes by identifying Lang, P.J., Bradley, M.M., 2010. Emotion and the motivational brain. Biological
Psychology 84, 437–450.
unanswered questions that will constitute important avenues for
Mauss, I., Butler, E.A., 2010. Cultural context moderates the relationship between
future research. emotion control values and cardiovascular challenge versus threat responses.
We gratefully acknowledge a number of people who con- Biological Psychology 84, 521–530.
tributed in various ways in bringing this special issue to press. First, Norris, C.J., Gollan, J., Berntson, G.G., Cacioppo, J.T., 2010. The current status of
research on the structure of evaluative space. Biological Psychology 84, 422–436.
we want to show our appreciation to members of the Editorial Pu, J., Schmeichel, B.J., Demaree, H.A., 2010. Cardiac vagal control predicts sponta-
Board and Staff of Biological Psychology and Elsevier Publications: neous regulation of negative emotional expression and subsequent cognitive
Ottmar Lipp, Editor; Fiona Healy, Journal Manager; Lijuan Wang performance. Biological Psychology 84, 531–540.
Scarpa, A., Haden, S.C., Tanaka, A., 2010. Being hot-tempered: autonomic, emotional,
and Grace Yao, Content Development Coordinators; and Ewa and behavioral distinctions between childhood reactive and proactive aggres-
Kittel-Prejs, Publisher Neuroscience. We also thank John J.B. Allen, sion. Biological Psychology 84, 488–496.
a past Associate Editor of Biological Psychology, for his role in Stemmler, G., Wacker, J., 2010. Personality, emotion, and individual differences in
physiological responses. Biological Psychology 84, 541–551.
initiating this project. We are especially indebted to the reviewers Stephens, C.L., Christie, I.C., Friedman, B.H., 2010. Autonomic specificity of basic
of special issue manuscripts, whose insightful comments and emotions: evidence from pattern classification and cluster analysis. Biological
useful suggestions contributed immeasurably to the high quality of Psychology 84, 463–473.
Wilhelm, F.H., Grossman, P., 2010. Emotions beyond the laboratory: theoretical
these papers. Finally, we express our gratitude to the contributing fundaments, study design, and analytic strategies for advanced ambulatory
authors of this issue, from their initial commitment to submit a assessment. Biological Psychology 84, 552–569.
paper through the final revisions to their manuscripts. We hope
that you, the readers, will find this set of articles to be collectively Bruce H. Friedman*
thought-provoking, and that the issue as a whole will make a Department of Psychology (0436), Virginia Polytechnic
meaningful statement about the past, present, and future of Institute and State University, Blacksburg,
research on the biopsychology of emotion. As such, it will be a VA 24061-0436, United States
fitting tribute to the fertile intellect, eloquence, and prescience of
William James, whose seminal ideas have been so influential in Sylvia D. Kreibig**
launching this body of research. Department of Psychology, University of Geneva and Swiss
Center for Affective Sciences, Geneva, Switzerland
References
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 540 231 9611;
Damasio, A.R., 1998. Emotion in the perspective of an integrated nervous system. fax: +1 540 231 3652
Brain Research Reviews 26, 83–86. **Corresponding author at: Geneva Motivation Lab, FPSE,
Friedman, B.H., 2010. Feelings and the body: the Jamesian perspective on auto- Department of Psychology, University of Geneva,
nomic specificity of emotion. Biological Psychology 84, 383–393.
Frijda, N., 2010. Impulsive action and motivation. Biological Psychology 84, 570–
Boulevard du Pont d’Arve 40, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
579. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (B.H Friedman)
Harmon-Jones, E., Gable, P.A., Peterson, C.K., 2010. The role of asymmetric frontal [email protected] (S.D Kreibig)
cortical activity in emotion-related phenomena: a review and update. Biological
Psychology 84, 451–462.
Hess, U., Bourgeois, P., 2010. You smile–I smile: emotion expression in social Received 27 January 2010
interaction. Biological Psychology 84, 514–520. Available online 8 February 2010

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