Does Language Do More Than Communicate Emotion?

Overview

Journal Curr Dir Psychol Sci

Specialty Psychology

Date 2015 May 19

PMID 25983400

Citations 43

Authors

Kristen A Lindquist

Ajay B Satpute

Maria Gendron

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Language can certainly communicate emotions, but growing research suggests that language also helps constitute emotion by cohering sensations into specific perceptions of "anger," "disgust," "fear," etc. The powerful role of language in emotion is predicted by a approach, which suggests that emotions occur when sensations are categorized using emotion category knowledge supported by language. We discuss the accumulating evidence from social cognitive, neuropsychological, cross-cultural, and neuroimaging studies that emotion words go beyond communication to help constitute emotional perceptions, and perhaps even emotional experiences. We look forward to current directions in research on emotional intelligence, emotion regulation, and psychotherapy.

Citing Articles

How language shapes emotional facial expression perception: an ERP study on the role of emotion word type.

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Exploring the Interplay Between Self-Identity, Affective Style, Emotion Regulation, and Anxiety: Based on Bayesian Network Model.

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Language-specific representation of emotion-concept knowledge causally supports emotion inference.

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Editorial: Words and emotions.

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Neural Representations of Emotions in Visual, Auditory, and Modality-Independent Regions Reflect Idiosyncratic Conceptual Knowledge.

Gao C, Oh S, Yang X, Stanley J, Shinkareva S Hum Brain Mapp. 2024; 45(14):e70040.

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