This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Clore, G. L. Articles by Huntsinger, J. R. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

How the Object of Affect Guides its Impact

Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, USA, gclore{at}virginia.edu

Jeffrey R. Huntsinger

Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, USA

In this article, we examine how affect influences judgment and thought, but also how thought transforms affect. The general thesis is that the nature and impact of affective reactions depends largely on their objects. We view affect as a representation of value, and its consequences as dependent on its object or what it is about. Within a review of relevant literature and a discussion of the nature of emotion, we focus on the role of the object of affect in governing both the nature of emotional reactions and the impact of affect and emotion on cognition and action. Although emotion is always about the here and now, the capacity for abstract thought means that the human here and now includes imagination as well as perception. Indeed, the hopes and fears that dominate human lives often involve things only imagined.

Key Words: affect-as-information • emotional attribution • emotional intensity • emotional objects • nature of emotion • OCC model of emotion

Emotion Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 39-54 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1754073908097185


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?