ABSTRACT

This chapter deals with an area of behavioral expression and performance variability that has a far more ancient pedigree than modes addressed in previous chapters. According to Webster, (McKechnie, 1983), “affect” is defined (in the psychological sense) as feelings or emotions. This chapter focuses on personality and emotions. The former term is defined (in the psychological sense) as the sum total of the physical, mental, emotional, and social characteristics of an individual, resulting in the organized pattern of behavioral characteristics of the individual. The term “emotion” is defined as an affective state of consciousness (as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states), usually accompanied by physiological changes as well as overt manifestations of behavioral expression. Well into the twentieth century, a text on psychology by one of the leading scientists in the field (Woodworth, 1938), devotes attention to personality and emotions, but no mention is made of cognition.