Chapter 11 - Caveats and future directions

Summary

This chapter discusses limits to our current understanding and provides directions for future research. I first consider issues pertaining to evolutionary arguments about emotions and the separability of affective reactions and inferential processes. Next I make a case for expanding the repertoire of emotional expressions in future research. I discuss the importance of going beyond valence, draw attention to the concepts of mixed and dynamic emotional expressions, stress the importance of emotional intensity, and consider the distinction between incidental and integral emotions. Then I call attention to temporal issues in the study of the social effects of emotions, including longer-term effects of emotional expressions, the frequency of emotional expressions, feedback loops and reciprocal emotional influence, and the social effects of anticipated emotions. I then call for greater attention to the social context within which emotional expressions occur, including the role of culture. I argue that the interpersonal approach to emotions is highly relevant to the fields of clinical and developmental psychology, political science, sports science, and criminology, and I call for more research in these areas. I conclude by arguing that emotions constitute the only real world language and that the social-communicative functions of emotions are their primary raison d'être.