Thought and Feeling: Cognitive Alteration of Feeling States

Description

Recently there has been growing awareness and acceptance of the proposition that people do not exist in a world of physically defined forces and events, but in a world defined by their own perceptions, cognitions, conclusions, and imaginations. We respond and react not to some objectively defined set of stimuli, but to our own apperceptions of stimuli that we define subjectively. The original essays in this volume center on one aspect of this process of attribution: The extent to which the perception of events and causes results in the determination, modification, or alteration of emotions, feelings, and affective states. This book is divided into five sections, each of which elucidates and extends these theoretical conceptions. Part 1 provides a historical background and analytical framework for the rest of the book. Part 2 presents chapters dealing with the sorts of internal cues which may give rise to a feeling state. Part 3 presents a chapter discussing the evaluative needs aroused by the internal cues. Part 4 is concerned with the process of explanation triggered by the evaluative needs. Part 5 deals with various external cues and how they are used to label the internal feeling state. There is a concluding discussion of the cognitive alteration of feeling states. The authors deal with aggression, boredom, obesity, the control of pain, and delusional systems. This volume is of continuing importance to clinical and experimental psychologists as well as social psychologists. Each of the authors takes the theoretical concept of cognition and relates it to research in biofeedback, physiology, social psychology, altered states of consciousness, etc. Thus, the book bridges the gap between cognitive theory and the use of that theory in applied research. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Contributors I. INTRODUCTION 1. Historical Background NOTE REFERENCES 2. Elements of Schachter's Cognitive Theory of Emotional States THE NATURE OF INTERNAL CUES THE PROCESS OF EXPLAINING INTERNAL CUES THE EFFECTS OF EXTERNAL CUES REFERENCES II. THE NATURE OF INTERNAL CUES 3. Influence of Future Choice Importance and Arousal Upon the Halo Effect METHOD RESULTS DISCUSSION NOTES 4. Individual Differences in Self-Attribution of Emotion METHOD RESULTS DISCUSSION NOTES REFERENCES 5. Cognitive Manipulation of GSR Extinction: Analogues for Conditioning Therapies METHOD RESULTS DISCUSSION NOTES 6. Cognitive Manipulation of Boredom METHOD DISCUSSION NOTES REFERENCES III . EVALUATIVE NEEDS 7. Delusional Thinking and Cognitive Disorder EVIDENCE OF THOUGHT DISORDER EVIDENCE OF PERCEPTUAL DISORDER THE DEVELOPMENT OF DELUSIONS ANALOGS IN NORMAL EXPERIENCE REPORTS BY PATIENTS PSYCHODYNAMIC EXPLANATIONS AND BIOLOGY NOTES REFERENCES IV. THE PROCESS OF EXPLAINING INTERNAL CUES 8. Opportunity for Information Search and the Effect of False Heart Rate Feedback METHOD RESULTS DISCUSSION NOTE REFERENCES 9. Persistent Effects of Information about Internal Reactions: Ineffectiveness of Debriefing METHOD RESULTS DISCUSSION NOTES REFERENCES V. THE EFFECTS OF EXTERNAL CUES 10. Cognition, Affect, and Psychopathology SPECIFIC CONDITIONS FOR INSTIGATION OF AFFECTS COGNITION IN PSYCHOPATHOLOGICAL DISORDERS IMPLICATIONS AND SPECULATIONS NOTE REFERENCES 11. Cognition and Self-Control: Cognitive Control of Painful Sensory Input METHOD RESULTS DISCUSSION NOTES REFERENCES 12. Self-Persuasion and Fear Reduction from Escape Behavior METHOD RESULTS DISCUSSION NOTES REFERENCES 13. Perceived Anger Level, Instigating Agent, and Aggression METHOD RESULTS DISCUSSION NOTES REFERENCES 14. Cognitive and Social Determinants of Food Intake EXPERIMENT I EXPERIMENT II Experiment III DISCUSSION NOTES REFERENCES VI. DISCUSSION 15. Cognitive Alteration of Feeling States: NONCOGNITIVE RESPONSE CLASSES DO ATTRIBUTIONS MEDIATE BEHAVIOR? STRATEGY OF FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS NOTE REFERENCES Index