Routledge Emotion and Reasoning (Current Issues in Thinking and Reasoning)

The interaction between emotion and cognition is a fundamental issue which has only recently been reintroduced as a legitimate object of study in experimental psychology. This book examines the significant impact that affective processes have on reasoning, and demonstrates how emotional reasoning cannot simply be equated with faulty reasoning. Emotion and Reasoning presents contributions from leading researchers from a variety of disciplines, including experimental cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, clinical neuropsychology, and experimental psychopathology. The opening chapters consider how emotions affect reasoning processes in individuals living with psychopathology. A second section focuses upon experimental investigations of emotion and basic reasoning processes, and a final section explores the physiological bases of emotion-reasoning interaction. Together, the chapters in this volume provide a multidisciplinary overview of key topics on emotion and reasoning, and a survey of recent research in this area. Emotion and Reasoning will be of great interest to advanced students, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of cognitive psychology, clinical psychology, and affective neuroscience. Review ‘Isabelle Blanchette has called this her ‘dream book’ and rightly so. This is a fascinating volume that sheds new light on the age-old dichotomy between emotion and reasoning. It debunks the popular notion that emotions always undermine our rationality and shows a much more nuanced view on how and when emotions affect our reasoning. Blanchette’s expertise is reflected in the outstanding group of authors contributing to this volume, providing excellent state of the art overviews. This book is a must for students and scholars in both the field of cognition and emotion.’ - Agneta H. Fischer, Professor in Emotion and Affective Processes, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands ‘Emotions can influence reasoning in a myriad ways, good, bad, and just plain perplexing. This milestone book documents a great many of these influences, in clinical as well as non-clinical populations, on the basis of biological as well as behavioral measures. Anyone interested in emotion and rationality would do well to peruse this book.’ – Jean-François Bonnefon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France ‘This outstanding collection of papers demonstrates how recent research undermines the unquestioned view that emotion simply impairs "proper" reasoning. The result is a nuanced view of how emotion influences cognition via a multitude of pathways, some of which actually enhance reasoning.’ – Luiz Pessoa, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, USA ‘Does emotion lead to faulty reasoning? The simple and undisputed answer to this question was, for centuries, yes. This exciting volume shows that such a simple answer is wrong. Indeed, as the authoritative cast of contributors to this volume convincingly demonstrates, the influence of emotion on reasoning is much more complicated, nuanced and interesting. This exciting volume is a must read for psychologist, philosophers, and anyone interested in a cutting-edge answer to the age old question of how emotion impacts reasoning.’ - Jeffrey R. Huntsinger, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, USA About the Author Isabelle Blanchette is Professeure Titulaire at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canada. Her research examines the interaction between affective and cognitive processes, with a particular focus on the influence of emotion on reasoning, and the influence of cognitive processes on emotional learning.