An up-to-date discussion of a wide and representative range of areas in a field of growing interest. The international contributors, many of whom are established authorities in the field, discuss applications to clinical issues and emotion theory.

There is a long tradition of theory and research on emotions and social processes conducted within a biological framework. Emotions and social processes are intimately related, since emotions are a central feature of social interaction. The chapters in the first three parts of this volume demonstrate the wide range of approaches and problems in the biological psychology of emotions, followed by further chapters which examine the current state of research in those areas of social psychology in which psychophysiological methods or constructs are already prominent, or likely to play a role in contributing to a greater understanding of the subject.

The SAGE Library in Social and Personality Psychology Methods provides students and researchers with an understanding of the methods and techniques essential to conducting cutting-edge research. Each volume within the Library explains a specific topic and has been written by an active scholar (or scholars) with expertise in that particular methodological domain. Assuming no prior knowledge of the topic, the volumes are clear and accessible for all readers. In each volume, a topic is introduced, applications are discussed, and readers are led step by step through worked examples. In addition, advice about how to interpret and prepare results for publication are presented. Social Psychophysiology for Social and Personality Psychology provides methodological and technical information to help social psychologists make valid and valuable use of peripheral neurophysiological and endocrine measures of psychological constructs.

Originally published in 1988, the purpose of this book was to explore the interrelations among communication, social cognition and affect. The contributors, selected by the editors, were some of the best known in their fields and they significantly added to the knowledge of this interdisciplinary domain at the time. In late April 1986 the authors met at a conference centre at the University of Kentucky. They presented first drafts of their chapters and exchanged ideas. Out of these interactions came this book, which has a broad interest across several areas of psychology and communication. While answering a number of questions, the authors also posed others for future examination.

A growing literature, in humans and animals, documents linkages between social integration and affiliative relationships and a variety of health and disease outcomes, including mortality. The actual mechanisms through which these efforts occur are, however, not well understood. Emotion likely plays a central role in mediating connections between relational experiences, underlying neurobiological processes, and health outcomes. Many prior studies have focused on the size and proximity of social networks, thereby neglecting their emotional features. When studied, emotion in social relationships has also been heavily weighted on the side of negative and conflicting interactions, thus giving minimal attention to the possible protective benefits of enduring love, nurturing, and affection. This volume brings together, for the fist time, these differing lines of inquiry to advance understanding of how emotion in significant social relationships influences health. The collection integrates knowledge from those with expertise in mapping the nature of emotional experience in human relations with those who are linking social ties to health outcomes, and those who explicate underlying neurobiological mechanisms. A main message of the book is that full explication of how emotion, social relationships, and health are woven together demands multidisciplinary inquiry. To this end, the volume brings together leading experts from fields of affective science, clinical and social psychology, epidemiology, psychiatry, psychoneuroimmunology, psychoneuroendocrinology, and health to promote the above synthesis. Some address how to formulate, observe, and evaluate social interactions in clinical, laboratory, or daily life contexts. Others link emotional experience in significant social relationships to health outcomes or intervening biological parameters. Still others manipulate social environments or exposure to health challenge to assess impact on respiratory infections and immune function. Collectively, each contributes different pieces to the larger puzzle that connects emotion in social relationships to health. Recurrent themes include the importance of attending to: (1) both positive and negative emotional experience in significant social relationships and how they influence underlying mechanisms; (2) cumulative emotional experience--namely, the repeated, chronic nature of socioemotional experience (both positive and negative); (3) gender differences in how emotion in social relationships is experienced and how it effects underlying mechanisms involved in health outcomes; and (4) the need for multiple methodologies to advance the emotion, social relationships, and health agenda.

A study of the phenomenon of emotion contagion, or the communication of mood to others.

First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.