Pleasure: A Special Issue Of Cognition And Emotion (special Issues Of Cognition And Emotion)

Like 'mind' and 'consciousness', 'pleasure' was all but tabooed in psychology for much of the 20th Century. Like those concepts too, pleasure is difficult to define or to assess scientifically. Still, evidence has steadily accumulated that pleasure is involved in all aspects of psychology. The simplest sensory experience is tinged with pleasure or displeasure. Some (although not all) planning for the future involves maximizing pleasure. Pleasantness is the first factor of mood, which is known to influence various cognitive processes. In some theories, pleasure or displeasure lie at the heart of emotion. Articles in this Special Issue take up such issues as these as well as the neurophysiological substrate of pleasure, its role in planned behaviour, nonconscious pleasure, the lay concept of pleasure, and whether smiles and laughter are signs of pleasure. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 2 Copyright......Page 3 Contents......Page 4 Introduction: The return of pleasure......Page 5 REFERENCES......Page 9 The origin and function of pleasure......Page 10 REFERENCES......Page 22 What is an unconscious emotion? (The case for unconscious "liking")......Page 24 REFERENCES......Page 48 Pleasure and displeasure from the body: Perspectives from exercise......Page 56 REFERENCES......Page 77 Pleasure as a sign you can attend to something else: Placing positive feelings within a general model of affect......Page 84 CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND: BEHAVIOUR AND AFFECT......Page 85 Affect as an indicator of effectiveness in ongoing action......Page 86 Affect and action......Page 87 Consequences of construing affect as arising from a feedback process......Page 89 Cruise control model......Page 90 Coasting......Page 91 Coasting and multiple concerns......Page 92 Positive feelings and reprioritisation: Theory......Page 93 Evidence that positive affect promotes shifting to areas in need of repair......Page 95 Psychological resource models......Page 96 Positive affect broadens attention......Page 97 Cognitive benefits from positive affect......Page 98 Positive feelings in emotion-general theories......Page 99 REFERENCES......Page 100 The content and structure of laypeople’s concept of pleasure......Page 105 THE NATURE OF PLEASURE......Page 107 Category content......Page 109 Hierarchical structure......Page 111 OVERVIEW......Page 113 Results and discussion......Page 114 STUDY 2: GRADED STRUCTURE OF PLEASURE ANTECEDENTS......Page 117 STUDY 3: CATEGORY MEMBERSHIP AND ASSIGNMENT TO UNITARY AND DIFFERENTIATED PLEASURES......Page 118 Results and discussion......Page 120 Method......Page 123 Results and discussion......Page 125 STUDY 5: COMMON AND UNIQUE EMOTIONAL QUALITIES OF UNITARY AND DIFFERENTIATED PLEASURES......Page 126 Results and discussion......Page 128 GENERAL DISCUSSION......Page 130 REFERENCES......Page 136 Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion......Page 139 Awe in Religion......Page 140 Awe in sociology......Page 141 Awe in philosophy......Page 142 Awe in psychology......Page 143 A PROTOTYPE OF AWE: PERCEIVED VASTNESS AND ACCOMMODATION......Page 145 PRIMORDIAL AWE AND ITS ELABORATIONS......Page 148 Primordial awe: Awe towards power......Page 149 Extensions to non-powerful people......Page 150 Extensions to nature......Page 151 Extensions to the epiphanic experience......Page 152 A RESEARCH AGENDA......Page 153 REFERENCES......Page 154 Spontaneous facial expressions of happy bowlers and soccer fans......Page 157 Method......Page 159 Results......Page 160 HAPPY SOCCER FANS......Page 161 Results......Page 163 DISCUSSION......Page 164 REFERENCES......Page 167 Antiphonal laughter between friends and strangers......Page 169 Participants......Page 172 Design and procedure......Page 173 Laugh selection and behavioural coding......Page 174 Results......Page 175 DISCUSSION......Page 177 REFERENCES......Page 180 The pleasures of sex: An empirical investigation......Page 183 Participants......Page 185 Pleasure ratings of sexual activities......Page 186 Bivariate relationships......Page 188 DISCUSSION......Page 192 REFERENCES......Page 195 Subject Index......Page 197