Emotion Course

Lesson 1 • Major Theories of Emotion

Surveys foundational theories from James-Lange to appraisal models. Provides theoretical lenses used throughout the course.

Lesson 2 • Evolutionary Functions of Emotion

Explains adaptive roles emotions play in survival, social bonding, and decision-making. Grounds practical applications in evolutionary logic.

Lesson 3 • Biological Bases of Emotion

Examines neural structures, hormones, and autonomic responses underlying emotional states. Links physiology to subjective experience.

Lesson 4 • Defining Emotion and Affect

Distinguishes emotion, mood, feeling, and affect using current psychological models. Establishes precise vocabulary essential for all subsequent chapters.

Lesson 1 • Accuracy and Bias in Emotion Perception

Examines perceptual errors, stereotypes, and context effects that distort emotion reading. Teaches calibration strategies to improve accuracy.

Lesson 2 • Body Language and Posture

Identifies emotional meaning in gestures, posture, and proxemics. Completes the multimodal recognition toolkit.

Lesson 3 • Vocal and Prosodic Cues

Analyses pitch, tempo, tone, and rhythm as emotional indicators. Extends recognition skills beyond visual channels.

Lesson 4 • Self-Awareness of Internal States

Develops interoceptive awareness and accurate labelling of one's own emotions. Supports both self-management and empathic accuracy.

Lesson 1 • Individual Differences in Appraisal

Explores how personality, culture, and history shape appraisal tendencies. Explains why the same event produces different emotions in different people.

Lesson 2 • Automatic vs. Deliberate Appraisal

Distinguishes fast automatic appraisals from slower reflective ones. Explains why emotional reactions can precede conscious awareness.

Lesson 3 • Primary and Secondary Appraisal

Explains Lazarus's two-stage appraisal model linking events to emotional outcomes. Provides the analytical core for emotion generation.

Lesson 4 • Appraisal Dimensions and Emotion Types

Maps specific appraisal patterns to discrete emotions such as anger, fear, and pride. Enables precise emotion prediction from situational analysis.

Lesson 1 • Mindfulness-Based Regulation

Applies mindfulness principles to observe emotions without reactivity. Builds the non-judgemental awareness that supports flexible regulation.

Lesson 2 • Cognitive Reappraisal Techniques

Teaches reframing, distancing, and perspective-taking as antecedent-focused strategies. Demonstrates their superior long-term outcomes over suppression.

Lesson 3 • Behavioural and Somatic Strategies

Covers physical regulation tools including breathing, movement, and behavioural activation. Addresses the body-level component of emotion regulation.

Lesson 4 • Building a Personal Regulation Toolkit

Guides learners to audit their current habits and design a personal strategy set. Prepares them for the applied practice chapters ahead.

Lesson 5 • Suppression and Its Consequences

Examines expressive suppression, its short-term utility, and its psychological costs. Teaches when suppression is appropriate and when to avoid it.

Lesson 1 • Using Emotions to Enhance Performance

Explores how specific emotional states facilitate creativity, persistence, and analytical thinking. Teaches deliberate mood induction for task optimisation.

Lesson 2 • Managing Emotions in Relationships

Applies EI to influence, support, and co-regulate emotions in dyadic and group settings. Directly prepares learners for interpersonal and leadership applications.

Lesson 3 • Emotional Knowledge and Vocabulary

Expands the learner's emotional lexicon and understanding of emotion blends and transitions. Supports nuanced communication and accurate empathy.

Lesson 4 • The Four-Branch EI Model

Presents Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso's ability model as the course's EI framework. Distinguishes ability-based EI from trait-based self-report models.

Lesson 1 • Barriers to Empathic Accuracy

Identifies cognitive load, bias, and emotional overwhelm as empathy inhibitors. Teaches strategies to maintain accuracy under challenging conditions.

Lesson 2 • Emotional Contagion and Influence

Examines how emotions spread between individuals and through groups. Prepares learners to manage contagion effects in professional settings.

Lesson 3 • Types and Mechanisms of Empathy

Distinguishes affective, cognitive, and compassionate empathy and their neural bases. Establishes the conceptual map for empathy skill development.

Lesson 4 • Social Emotions and Moral Behaviour

Covers guilt, shame, pride, and embarrassment as socially constructed emotions. Links these emotions to ethical decision-making and prosocial behaviour.

Lesson 1 • Emotions in Leadership

Connects leader emotional competence to follower motivation, trust, and performance. Builds the emotional leadership behaviours most linked to outcomes.

Lesson 2 • Team Emotional Climate

Defines group emotional climate and its drivers, including leadership and norms. Teaches methods to assess and shift team emotional culture.

Lesson 3 • Conflict, Anger, and Negotiation

Analyses the role of anger, fear, and positive emotions in conflict and negotiation. Equips learners with emotion-informed conflict resolution skills.

Lesson 4 • Emotional Labour and Display Rules

Examines the management of emotional expression as a job requirement. Addresses surface acting, deep acting, and their effects on well-being.

Lesson 1 • Emotional Complexity and Ambivalence

Addresses holding contradictory emotions simultaneously and tolerating ambiguity. Develops the psychological flexibility required for advanced emotional mastery.

Lesson 2 • Strategic Emotional Influence

Teaches ethical use of emotional knowledge to motivate, persuade, and inspire. Distinguishes strategic influence from manipulation.

Lesson 3 • Emotion Regulation Under Extreme Stress

Applies regulation strategies to high-stakes, high-pressure scenarios. Builds robust skills that hold under conditions of fatigue and threat.

Lesson 4 • Designing Emotion-Informed Interventions

Guides learners to create structured programmes addressing emotional challenges in teams or organisations. Applies course knowledge to systemic design.