Lisa Feldman Barrett
Encyclopedia
Lisa Feldman Barrett is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology
at Northeastern University, where she focuses on the study of emotion
. She is director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory and is co-director of the Laboratory of Aging and Emotion at Massachusetts General Hospital
. Along with James Russell, she is the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Emotion Review.
Born in Toronto, Canada in 1963, Barrett obtained her Bachelor of Science in Psychology with Honors at the University of Toronto
. From there she completed a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Waterloo
, in Ontario, Canada, and a Clinical Internship at the University of Manitoba
Medical School. During her graduate training, Barrett developed her current hypothesis on emotion, the conceptual-act model of emotion
.
, having developed experience-sampling methods and open-source software to study emotional experience. Dr. Barrett and members at IASL study the nature of emotion broadly from social-psychological, psychophysiological, cognitive science, and neuroscience perspectives, and take inspiration from anthropology, philosophy, and linguistics. They also explore the role of emotion in vision and other psychological phenomena.
s approach, assuming that a stimulus evokes a discrete causal mechanism in the brain and body, producing a unique, response signature that can be readily recognized by others. In this perspective, emotions are innate, and all people are born with the capacity to feel the same core set of emotions. Barrett’s lab has conducted major reviews of the scientific literature showing that the majority of the existing research does not support the natural kind view. Her conceptual-act model of emotion
holds that emotions are not biological entities that form the building blocks of our experience. Instead, the model hypothesizes that emotions are constructed events that arise from the simultaneous combination of three more basic psychological primitives:
Core affect
Conceptualization (categorization)
Executive attention
In the model, these psychological ingredients not only combine to create "emotions," but also are general ingredients of the mind, important for creating "memories," "thoughts," "beliefs," "perceptions," "attitudes," "the self," and so on.
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
at Northeastern University, where she focuses on the study of emotion
Emotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
. She is director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory and is co-director of the Laboratory of Aging and Emotion at Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital and biomedical research facility in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts...
. Along with James Russell, she is the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Emotion Review.
Born in Toronto, Canada in 1963, Barrett obtained her Bachelor of Science in Psychology with Honors at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
. From there she completed a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Waterloo
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
, in Ontario, Canada, and a Clinical Internship at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
Medical School. During her graduate training, Barrett developed her current hypothesis on emotion, the conceptual-act model of emotion
Conceptual-act model of emotion
The conceptual-act model of emotion is a recent psychological constructivist view on the experience of emotion. This model was proposed by Lisa Feldman Barrett to rectify the "emotion paradox," which has perplexed emotion researchers for decades....
.
Honors and awards
- Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
, 2008 - Kavli Fellow in the Frontiers of Science Program, National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of SciencesThe National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, Frontiers of Science 2008 - NIH Director's Pioneer Award, 2007-2012.
- Career Trajectory Award, Society of Experimental Social PsychologySociety of Experimental Social PsychologyThe Society of Experimental Social Psychology is a scientific professional organization of social psychologists. SESP has over 700 members worldwide.-History:...
2006 - Elected Fellow, American Psychological AssociationAmerican Psychological AssociationThe American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
, 2005 - Elected Fellow, Society for Personality and Social PsychologySociety for Personality and Social PsychologyThe Society for Personality and Social Psychology is an academic society for personality and social psychologists with over 4500 members worldwide. SPSP serves as Division 8 of the American Psychological Association and publishes the journals Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and...
, 2005. - Elected fellow, Association for Psychological ScienceAssociation for Psychological ScienceThe Association for Psychological Science , previously the American Psychological Society, is a non-profit international organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in research, application, teaching, and the improvement of...
, 2003 - Independent Scientist Research (K02) Award, NIMHNational Institute of Mental HealthThe National Institute of Mental Health is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health...
2002-2007
Professional history
At the beginning of her career, Dr. Barrett's research focused on the structure of affectAffect (psychology)
Affect refers to the experience of feeling or emotion. Affect is a key part of the process of an organism's interaction with stimuli. The word also refers sometimes to affect display, which is "a facial, vocal, or gestural behavior that serves as an indicator of affect" .The affective domain...
, having developed experience-sampling methods and open-source software to study emotional experience. Dr. Barrett and members at IASL study the nature of emotion broadly from social-psychological, psychophysiological, cognitive science, and neuroscience perspectives, and take inspiration from anthropology, philosophy, and linguistics. They also explore the role of emotion in vision and other psychological phenomena.
Emotion views
Previous views on emotion take a natural kindNatural kind
In philosophy, a natural kind is a "natural" grouping, not an artificial one. Or, it is something that a set of things has in common which distinguishes it from other things as a real set rather than as a group of things arbitrarily lumped together by a person or group of people.If any natural...
s approach, assuming that a stimulus evokes a discrete causal mechanism in the brain and body, producing a unique, response signature that can be readily recognized by others. In this perspective, emotions are innate, and all people are born with the capacity to feel the same core set of emotions. Barrett’s lab has conducted major reviews of the scientific literature showing that the majority of the existing research does not support the natural kind view. Her conceptual-act model of emotion
Conceptual-act model of emotion
The conceptual-act model of emotion is a recent psychological constructivist view on the experience of emotion. This model was proposed by Lisa Feldman Barrett to rectify the "emotion paradox," which has perplexed emotion researchers for decades....
holds that emotions are not biological entities that form the building blocks of our experience. Instead, the model hypothesizes that emotions are constructed events that arise from the simultaneous combination of three more basic psychological primitives:
Core affect
- An omnipresent, neurophysiological state described by two properties, hedonic valenceValence (psychology)Valence, as used in psychology, especially in discussing emotions, means the intrinsic attractiveness or aversiveness of an event, object, or situation. However, the term is also used to characterize and categorize specific emotions. For example, the emotions popularly referred to as "negative",...
and arousal, that can be consciously accessed.
Conceptualization (categorization)
- The ability to automatically make meaning of sensory stimulation (from the world and/or the body) by bringing stored, situation-specific representations of categories (e.g., "anger") to bear.
Executive attention
- Controlled attention, also referred to as "goal-directed," "top-down" or "endogenous" attention, that maintains or enhances the activation of some representations while suppressing others.
In the model, these psychological ingredients not only combine to create "emotions," but also are general ingredients of the mind, important for creating "memories," "thoughts," "beliefs," "perceptions," "attitudes," "the self," and so on.
Selected publications
- Barrett, L. F., & Bar, M. (2009). See it with feeling: Affective predictions in the human brain. Royal Society Phil Trans B, 364, 1325-1334.
- Barrett, L. F., & Bliss-Moreau, E. (2009). Affect as a psychological primitive. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 167-218.
- Barrett, L. F., Lindquist, K., Bliss-Moreau, E., Duncan, S., Gendron, M., Mize, J., & Brennan, L. (2007). Of mice and men: Natural kinds of emotion in the mammalian brain? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2, 297-312
- Barrett, L. F., Lindquist, K., & Gendron, M. (2007). Language as a context for emotion perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 11, 327-332.
- Barrett, L. F. (2006). Emotions as natural kinds? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 28-58.
- Barrett, L. F. (2006). Solving the emotion paradox: Categorization and the experience of emotion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 20-46.
- Barrett, L. F., & Barrett, D. J.Daniel J. BarrettDaniel J. Barrett is a writer, software engineer, and musician. He is best known for his technology books, his work with progressive rock band Gentle Giant, and the imaginary computer game BLAZEMONGER.-Writing:...
(2001). Computerized experience-sampling: How technology facilitates the study of conscious experience. Social Science Computer Review, 19, 175-185. - Feldman, L. A. (1995b). Valence focus and arousal focus: Individual differences in the structure of affective experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 153-166
See also
- Affective neuroscienceAffective neuroscienceAffective neuroscience is the study of the neural mechanisms of emotion. This interdisciplinary field combines neuroscience with the psychological study of personality, emotion, and mood.-Brain areas related to emotion:...
- Conceptual-act model of emotionConceptual-act model of emotionThe conceptual-act model of emotion is a recent psychological constructivist view on the experience of emotion. This model was proposed by Lisa Feldman Barrett to rectify the "emotion paradox," which has perplexed emotion researchers for decades....
- Sapir–Whorf hypothesisSapir–Whorf hypothesisThe principle of linguistic relativity holds that the structure of a language affects the ways in which its speakers are able to conceptualize their world, i.e. their world view...