Review by Choice Review
Psychologists have excelled in the study of simple rat behavior, in part because the behavior is simple. But when behaviorism declined and psychologists became interested in more complex constructs, the research as well as the concepts became very complex very quickly. In The Ascent of Affect, Leys (emer., Johns Hopkins Univ.) fascinatingly elucidates the research and theory on the emotions that people display and experience. She discusses the evolution of ideas on emotion, blending philosophical and psychological arguments and counterarguments about the nature of emotions that, after half a century, still defy explanation. There is no shortage of models, with each successive theory identifying the problems of its predecessors and trying to correct them. Some problems are methodological, so psychologists develop complex laboratory approaches to reconcile discrepancies, but the concept of emotion does not keep still. Rather, it wiggles in ways that force researchers to blend social, mental, and neurological ideas to capture the depth of people's emotional lives. This complex book should make students of emotion happy--even if they have not yet solved the mystery of what that emotion really is. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Bernard C. Beins, Ithaca College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
