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The construction of emotional experience requires the integration of implicit and explicit emotional processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2012

Markus Quirin
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychology, University of Osnabrueck, 49074 Osnabrueck, Germany. mquirin@uos.dehttp://www.motivationlab.uni-osnabrueck.de
Richard D. Lane
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85724-5002. lane@email.arizona.eduhttp://www.psychiatry.arizona.edu/faculty/richard-d-lane-md-phd

Abstract

Although we agree that a constructivist approach to emotional experience makes sense, we propose that implicit (visceromotor and somatomotor) emotional processes are dissociable from explicit (attention and reflection) emotional processes, and that the conscious experience of emotion requires an integration of the two. Assessments of implicit emotion and emotional awareness can be helpful in the neuroscientific investigation of emotion.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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