Exploring Affect: The Selected Writings of Silvan S Tomkins

by Silvan S. Tomkins , Edited by E. Virginia Demos , Foreword by Brewster Smith

• ISBN13: 9780521443715
• ISBN10: 0521443717
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-02-24
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Silvan Tomkins was one of the most influential theorists on emotion and emotional expression. Over a period of forty years--until his death in 1991--he developed a set of original, important ideas about the nature of affect and its relationship to cognition and personality. Tomkins dealt with fundamental questions in a fresh and provocative way, establishing affect as a separate, biological system, and providing compelling data on discrete affect expressions. Virginia Demos has undertaken the enormous task of compiling Professor Tomkins' papers and writing connective material for this volume, which brings together his works of four decades and makes them available at a more receptive time in the field. It is a rich compilation of insightful and relevant ideas appropriate for researchers and graduate students in personality and social psychology.

Table of Contents

Introduction M. Brewster Smith

1. Affect theory

2. Affect and ideology

3. The face of affect

4. Script theory: the differential magnification of affect

5. Human being theory: a foundation for the study of personality

6. A complete annotated bibliography of Silvan S. Tomkins' writings with a brief biography.