James C. Mancuso (1992) Does "emotion" Refer to a Real-world Entity?. Psycoloquy: 3(09) Mood (8)

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PSYCOLOQUY (ISSN 1055-0143) is sponsored by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Psycoloquy 3(09): Does "emotion" Refer to a Real-world Entity?

DOES "EMOTION" REFER TO A REAL-WORLD ENTITY?
Commentary on Nesse on Mood

James C. Mancuso
Department of Psychology
University at Albany
Albany NY 12203

JCM61@ALBNYVMS.BITNET.

Abstract

We would profit from determining ways people istantiate the constructions of "mood" and "emotion" rather than attempting to develop a construction allowing confidence that we have created a correspondence to an external something.

Keywords

Mood, evolution, natural selection, fitness, emotion, adaptation, function, depression, psychology, psychiatry.
1. Do we profit from attempting to attach the terms "mood" and "emotion" to an extant world? Are we still at a point from which it takes great effort to regard "mood" and "emotion" as constructions that we [who, as scientists, are to be regarded as a subset of "persons"] impose on some kind of input? Would we not profit from attempting to determine the ways in which persons instantiate those constructions, rather that attempting to develop a construction which will allow confidence that we have created a correspondence to an external something?


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