Izard’s claim that the term emotion works well as an adjective is closer to B. F. Skinner’s position than is acknowledged. Based on Izard’s survey of scientists, I argue that the lack of consensus on emotion as a unitary construct could be considered to represent the dissolution of emotions. Given that something similar has happened in biology with the dissolution of the unitary gene construct, this development in psychology may not be as problematic as it initially sounds.
Falk, R. ( 2000). The gene-A concept in transition. In P. J. Breuton, R. Falk & H. J. Reinberger (Eds.), The concept of the gene in development and evolution (pp. 317-348). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2.
Fogle, T. ( 2000). The dissolution of protein coding genes in molecular biology. In P. J. Breuton, R. Falk & H. J. Reinberger (Eds.), The concept of the gene in development and evolution (pp. 3-25). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3.
Griffiths, P.E., & Stotz, K. ( 2006). Genes in the postgenomic era. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, 27, 499-521.
4.
Izard, C.E. ( 2010). The many meanings/aspects of emotion: Definitions, functions, activation, and regulation. Emotion Review, 2, 363-370.
5.
Ortony, A., & Turner, T.J. ( 1990). What’s basic about basic emotions? Psychological Review, 97, 315-331.
6.
Portin, P. ( 2009). The elusive concept of the gene. Hereditas , 146, 112-117.
7.
Skinner, B.F. ( 1976). About behaviorism. New York: Vintage Books.
8.
Zachar, P. ( 2000). Psychological concepts and biological psychiatry: A philosophical analysis. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
9.
Zachar, P. ( 2006). The classification of emotion and scientific realism . Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 26, 120-138.