Emotions Revealed by Paul Ekman, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 拢16.99, ISBN 029760757X
HERE Paul Ekman, doyen of contemporary emotion researchers, turns to the practical management of emotion in everyday life. The result is an outstanding example of popular scientific writing.
Ekman introduces his own research in two succinct, accurate and accessible chapters. The seven basic emotions 鈥� anger, disgust, contempt, sadness, happiness, fear and surprise 鈥� are marked by distinctive changes in the face, voice and physiological processes such as heart rate, which he calls 鈥渁ffect programs鈥�. They are presumably coordinated in one or more regions of the brain, but our understanding of their neural underpinnings is in its infancy 鈥� and the evidence for the very existence of the affect programs remains primarily behavioural.
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In the late 1960s, Ekman established that the affect programs can be observed in all human cultures. But unique elements can be added during development so that, for example, the anger program of an adult may contain elements distinctive of that individual or their culture. These variations are produced as automatically and involuntarily as the pan-cultural, evolved features of anger; Charles Darwin suggested clenched fists in Europeans as one example of such a variation.
Each basic emotion has evolved as a response to a vital 鈥渢heme鈥�. Anger, for instance, copes with the frustration of our plans, particularly by other people. But we have to interpret these general themes more specifically if the emotions are to function effectively. There are a few triggers that we interpret from birth as grounds for anger (try holding a baby鈥檚 limbs absolutely still for a few minutes) and other triggers that we are evolutionarily prepared to learn easily. But for the most part, an adult鈥檚 triggers reflect that individual鈥檚 experience. Identifying your own triggers, particularly those that produce dysfunctional emotions, is a key part of Ekman鈥檚 programme for emotional self-improvement.
He devotes most space to this with a crash course in recognising specific emotions, primarily in the human face. You can gauge your ability to identify emotion by taking his test before and after reading the book. Then you can follow his strikingly effective instructions for posing your own facial muscles to produce the feelings associated with particular emotions.
Throughout Emotions Revealed Ekman scrupulously distinguishes statements based on scientific studies from what is merely his own, informed opinion. But his ideas on emotional self-improvement are broadly in line with other work on emotional intelligence. Learning to recognise subtle signs of emotion in others allows us to interact with them more effectively. Learning to recognise the early stages of our own emotions and anticipating our special 鈥渉ot triggers鈥� helps us fight back against the tendency of emotions to become self-reinforcing, shaping our view of the world so that even the most dysfunctional response seems entirely reasonable. Reflecting on our hot triggers can also reduce their power, so long as we can maintain what Ekman calls 鈥渁ttentiveness鈥� 鈥� a heightened mode of self-awareness that he relates to traditional Buddhist ideas about emotion.
Although Ekman鈥檚 approach is thoroughly Darwinian, he does not accept all the ideas of well known evolutionary psychologists, such as David Buss. Jealousy, a favoured example in evolutionary psychology because of its obvious reproductive rationale (jealous males keep an eye on their partners, thus increasing their chances of paternity), is not a separate emotion 鈥渕odule鈥�, but a recurring pattern of human interaction in which the actors may experience several specific emotions. The deeper difference reflected here is that, despite criticism from evolutionary psychologists, Ekman does not postulate emotions that seem to make adaptive sense and for which there is indirect evidence, but insists that the list of emotions be data driven, with each emotion corresponding to a measurable psychological event. This should reassure anyone who wants to use his book as a guide to a more successful emotional life.