GEN1000 Perspectives on General Education
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This module examines how scientists understand and explain one of the most important mental phenomena, emotions. In addition to answering what emotion is, the humanistic and social impacts of these scientific understandings of emotion will be explored. Based on their specific trainings and methodologies, evolutionists, psychologists, neurologists, sociologists, and philosophers analyze emotions under different conceptual frameworks, and conduct experiments on it with distinctive procedures and apparatuses. The relative strengths and weaknesses of these scientific approaches are illustrated in details. The power of interdisciplinary research in modern science is also explored.
Upon completion of this module, students should be able to:
a. examine the nature and specific methodologies of various scientific approaches
b. comprehend the nature of emotion from various scientific approaches, and be able to identify and criticize key issues in the study of emotion
c. explain and evaluate the relative strengths and weakness of different scientific approaches and their humanistic and social impacts
d. examine the beauty and significance of interdisciplinary study in modern science
1. What is a scientific approach?
1.1 Scientific explanation
1.2 Scientific methods
1.3 Science and pseudo science
2. An evolutionary approach
2.1 Methodology of evolutionists
2.2 Are there basic emotions?
2.3 Darwin’s theory of natural selection
2.4 Ekman’s study on universal facial expression
2.5 The humanistic and social impact of the approach
3. A psychological approach
3.1 Methodology of psychologists
3.2 Emotion and cognition
3.3 Schachter and Singer’s experiment
3.4 Zajonc/Lazarous debate
3.5 Klaus Scherer’s appraisal theory
3.6 The humanistic and social impact of the approach
4. A neurological approach
4.1 Methodology of neurologists
4.2 Emotion and rationality
4.3 LeDoux’s study on amygdala
4.4 Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis
4.5 The humanistic and social impact of the approach
5. A sociological approach
5.1 Methodology of sociologists
5.2 Social construction of emotions
5.3 Averill’s theory of transitory social roles
5.4 Lutz’s field study on fago in Ifaluks
5.5 The humanistic and social impact of the approach
6. A philosophical approach
6.1 Methodology of philosophers
6.2 Emotion, mood, and feeling
6.3 Existentialism
6.4 Functionalism
6.5 The humanistic and social impact of the approach
1. Short reflective questions assignment (20%)
2. Group discussion and oral presentation (30%)
3. Test (50%)
1. Brain Story [Video]. (6 episodes, 2000). England: BBC production.
2. Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
3. Darwin, C. (2007). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. London; New York : Penguin.
4. Ekman, P. (2003). Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feeling to Improve Communication and Emotional Life (1st ed.). New York: Times Books.
5. Goldie, P. (2000). The Emotions: A Philosophical Exploration. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
6. Griffiths, P. E. (1997). What Emotions Really Are: The Problem of Psychological Categories. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
7. * Jarrard, R. D. (2001). Scientific Methods. Retrieved from http://emotionalcompetency.com/sci/sm_all.pdf
8. James, W. (1890). The Principles of Psychology. Volume 1 and 2. New York: Dover Publications.
9. LeDoux, J. (1996). The Emotional Brain – The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life. New York : Simon & Schuster Paperbacks
10. Lutz, C. (1988). Unnatural emotions: Everyday sentiments on a Micronesian atoll and their challenge to Western theory. Chicago: University of Chicago press.
11. Prinz, J. (2004). Gut Reactions: A Perceptual Theory of Emotion. New York: Oxford University Press.
12. Robinson, J. (2005). Deeper than Reason: Emotion and its Role in Literature, Music, and Art. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press.
13. Sartre, J. P. (1994). Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions. (P. Mairet trans.). London: Routledge.
14. Schachter, S., & Singer, J. (1962). Cognitive, Social, and Physiological Determinants of Emotional State. Psychological Review, 69, 379–399.
15. Scherer, K. R., Schorr, A. & Johnstone, T. (Eds.) (2001). “Appraisal considered as a process of multi-level sequential checking”. Appraisal processes in emotion: Theory, Methods, Research (pp. 92-120). New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
16. Sizer, L. (2000). Toward a computational theory of mood. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 51, 743-769.
17. * Solomon, R. (2003). What is an Emotion? Classic and Contemporary Readings (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, USA.
18. 黃沐恩 (2019). 情動於中。中文大學出版社
