The Oxford Handbook of Evolution and the Emotions

The last 20 years have witnessed tremendous growth in theoretical and empirical work on emotions, including groundbreaking work on anger, disgust, pride, shame, sexual jealousy, romantic love, and more. Such work has demonstrated that emotions pervade nearly all aspects of psychological life, and that emotions are key to survival and reproduction and are therefore prime targets of natural selection. Emotions have also been implicated in a variety of psychological disorders, from the obvious (depression, anxiety) to the much less so (schizoid personality disorder, borderline personality disorder).

In The Oxford Handbook of Evolution and the Emotions, Laith Al-Shawaf and Todd K. Shackelford have gathered a group of leading scholars in the field to present a centralized resource for researchers and students wishing to understand emotions from an evolutionary perspective. Together, the chapters provide a comprehensive overview of the literature, with a special focus on 1) conceptual foundations of evolutionary approaches to the emotions, 2) specific emotions, such as love, jealousy, anger, pride, disgust, shame, and others, 3) the importance of emotions in daily life, and 4) emotion disorders. The volume consists of four parts; the first part covers conceptual foundations of evolutionary approaches to the emotions (Evolution and the Emotions: Conceptual Foundations). The second part consists of specific emotions (Evolutionary Approaches to Specific Emotions). The third part focuses on the role of emotions in daily life, including spheres such as friendship, romantic relationships, morality, and politics (Evolutionary Approaches to Emotions in Daily Life). The fourth and final part consists of chapters on distinct emotion disorders (Evolutionary Approaches to Emotion Disorders).

Comprehensive and integrative in nature, this Handbook is as an essential resource for students and scholars from a diversity of fields wishing to build upon our theoretical and empirical understanding of the emotions.

Author: Laith Al-Shawaf, Todd K. Shackelford
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 05/28/2024
Pages: 1432
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 5.39lbs
Size: 10.25h x 7.34w x 2.34d
ISBN: 9780197544754

About the Author
Laith Al-Shawaf is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. Dr. Al-Shawaf has published over 50 scholarly papers, and his popular science essays have been translated into several languages. His empirical research is focused on emotions, with additional emphases on cross-cultural research, cognition, and individual differences. The Association for Psychological Science (APS) has named him a Rising Star, he has been a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, and he has won additional awards for both research and teaching.

Todd K. Shackelford is Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Dr. Shackelford has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and has also edited many Oxford Handbooks. Much of Dr. Shackelford's research addresses sexual conflict between men and women, notably infidelity in long-term relationships. Dr. Shackelford is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Society.