In this volume the editor brings together prominent scientists who have studied response expectancies--people's beliefs about their own emotional and physical reactions--in human function and dysfunction over the past decade and leading practitioners who have applied these findings to enhance the effectiveness of pharmacological and psychological treatments. In this book, they extend the understanding of how response expectancies account for symptom maintenance, motivation, and change in such diverse areas as asthma, substance abuse, sexual dysfunction, and smoking; they explain both positive and negative mood states and coping. Their surprising findings point to expectancy modification as a key to enhancing effectiveness of treatment and prevention across settings and theoretical orientations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved).

The mind is a powerful anticipatory device. It frequently makes predictions about the future, telling us not only how the world might or will be, but also how it should be - or better - how we would like it to be. This book explores anticipation-based emotions - the emotions associated with the interaction between 'what is' and 'what is not (yet)'.

Do our expectancies about ourselves and about others have any effect on our actual experiences? Over fifty years of research studies suggest not only that this is the case, but also that our expectancies can shape other people’s experience in different contexts. In some cases they can help, but other times they can do harm instead. Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Expectancies provides a theory, a research review, and a summary of the current knowledge on intra- and interpersonal expectancy effects and related phenomena. Based on extensive study, and written by eminent experts from some of the world’s leading academic institutions, the book presents the most recent knowledge on social and psychological mechanisms of forming both intra- and interpersonal expectancies. It also considers how expectancies are sustained and what their consequences are, as well as discussing the latest theoretical concepts and the most up-to-date research on expectancy effects. This book represents the first review of the phenomenon of interpersonal expectancies in over 20 years, and the only publication presenting a complementary view of both intra- and interpersonal expectancies. It aims to open up a discussion between researchers and theoreticians from both perspectives, and to promote an integrative approach that incorporates both.

Do our expectancies about ourselves and about others have any effect on our actual experiences? Over fifty years of research studies suggest not only that this is the case, but also that our expectancies can shape other people’s experience in different contexts. In some cases they can help, but other times they can do harm instead. Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Expectancies provides a theory, a research review, and a summary of the current knowledge on intra- and interpersonal expectancy effects and related phenomena. Based on extensive study, and written by eminent experts from some of the world’s leading academic institutions, the book presents the most recent knowledge on social and psychological mechanisms of forming both intra- and interpersonal expectancies. It also considers how expectancies are sustained and what their consequences are, as well as discussing the latest theoretical concepts and the most up-to-date research on expectancy effects. This book represents the first review of the phenomenon of interpersonal expectancies in over 20 years, and the only publication presenting a complementary view of both intra- and interpersonal expectancies. It aims to open up a discussion between researchers and theoreticians from both perspectives, and to promote an integrative approach that incorporates both.

The psychological theory of expectation that David Huron proposes in Sweet Anticipation grew out of the author's experimental efforts to understand how music evokes emotions. These efforts evolved into a general theory of expectation that will prove informative to readers interested in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology as well as those interested in music. The book describes a set of psychological mechanisms and illustrates how these mechanisms work in the case of music. All examples of notated music can be heard on the Web. Huron proposes that emotions evoked by expectation involve five functionally distinct response systems: reaction responses (which engage defensive reflexes); tension responses (where uncertainty leads to stress); prediction responses (which reward accurate prediction); imagination responses (which facilitate deferred gratification); and appraisal responses (which occur after conscious thought is engaged). For real-world events, these five response systems typically produce a complex mixture of feelings. The book identifies some of the aesthetic possibilities afforded by expectation, and shows how common musical devices (such as syncopation, cadence, meter, tonality, and climax) exploit the psychological opportunities. The theory also provides new insights into the physiological psychology of awe, laughter, and spine-tingling chills. Huron traces the psychology of expectations from the patterns of the physical/cultural world through imperfectly learned heuristics used to predict that world to the phenomenal qualia we experienced as we apprehend the world.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Scholars from psychology, neuroscience, economics, animal behavior, and evolution describe the latest research on the causes and consequences of overconsumption. Our drive to consume—our desire for food, clothing, smart phones, and megahomes—evolved from our ancestors' drive to survive. But the psychological and neural processes that originally evolved to guide mammals toward resources that are necessary but scarce may mislead us in modern conditions of material abundance. Such phenomena as obesity, financial bubbles, hoarding, and shopping sprees suggest a mismatch between our instinct to consume and our current environment. This volume brings together research from psychology, neuroscience, economics, marketing, animal behavior, and evolution to explore the causes and consequences of consumption. Contributors consider such topics as how animal food-storing informs human consumption; the downside of evolved “fast and frugal” rules for eating; how future discounting and the draw toward immediate rewards influence food consumption, addiction, and our ability to save; overconsumption as social display; and the policy implications of consumption science. Taken together, the chapters make the case for an emerging interdisciplinary science of consumption that reflects commonalities across species, domains, and fields of inquiry. By carefully comparing mechanisms that underlie seemingly disparate outcomes, we can achieve a unified understanding of consumption that could benefit both science and society.