Exploring the Mind | How Do Our Thoughts and Our Feelings Affect Each Other? Theories of Human Emotion

In this talk I will trace the way scientific thinking about the relation between cognition and emotion has changed from Darwin to the present. Some questions that researchers have struggled with are 1) Are emotions adaptive or maladaptive? 2) How do thinking and feeling influence each other? 3) How many emotions are there? 4) Are human emotions universal or culturally variable?

About the speaker: Phoebe C. Ellsworth is a professor of Psychology (emerita) at the University of Michigan. She is interested in how emotions are produced by people’s perceptions of their situation and its relevance to their well-being, and in how individuals and cultures differ in their emotional experience. She received her PhD in Psychology from Stanford University. She is a member of the American Academy or Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Science.

Note that this talk is free and open to the public and will take place at the Ann Arbor District Library's Downtown Branch.