Judging Passions Moral Emotions in Persons and Groups

For researchers and graduate and undergraduate students in social psychology, sociology, philosophy, and politics, Giner-Sorolla (social psychology, U. of Kent, UK) uses a functional conflict theory of emotions to illustrate how the emotions of disgust, anger, shame, and guilt serve different functions to encourage moral behavior in groups, while also leading to malfunctions. After outlining her theory, she considers emotions as a component of morality and how they and morality relate to groups, drawing on the conflict between each emotion's functions and clashes that occur when the same emotion has multiple purposes, and relating each emotion to morality, groups, and the four functions of her theory. She also considers emotions linked to moral positivity (admiration, gratitude, elevation, sympathy, pity, and pride) and two specific applications of her theory: the judgment of sexual behavior and the effectiveness of apologetic statements made between groups. Psychology Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group. Annotation �穢2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)