Introductions to emotions - Textbooks

Prentice Hall

A favorite of mine for more than two decades has been Randy Cornelius' book. I have used it as a part of teaching undergrad and grad courses in Canada, UK, Germany, and in Austria. If there is only one book to start what emotion research was and is all about, this is it - for me at least. As the book starts to be difficult to get, used might be the way to go. I just hope Randy can be convinced to do a second and updated edition - we did talk about it a couple of times!

Cornelius, R.R. (1996). The Science of Emotion: Research and Tradition in the Psychology of Emotion. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

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More recent and certainly a good read is Psychology of Emotion by Paula Niedenthal and her colleague Francois Ric. This one has a less historical approach and might satisfy some readers more than the Cornelius book. The second edition (first ed in 2006) is from 2017

Niedenthal, P.M. & Ric, F. (2017). The Psychology of Emotion (2nd ed.). New York: Psychology Press.

Psychology Press

Wiley

Now in its fourth edition, Understanding Emotions, by Dacher Keltner, Keith Oatley, and Jennifer Jenkins, is a solid introduction to emotion theories and research with interesting sections on developmental and clinical aspects of emotions as well. They also talk about aspects of moral emotions, about compassion, or gratitude.

Keltner, D., Oatley, K., & Jenkins, J.M. (2018). Understanding emotions (4th ed.). Wiley.