Fear causes fleeing and thereby saves lives: this exemplifies a popular and common sense
but increasingly untenable view that the direct causation of behavior is the primary function�…

Although the experience of negative emotions is generally associated with negative
behaviors and outcomes, researchers have largely overlooked the possibility that negative�…

Emotions are foremost self-regulating processes that permit rapid responses and
adaptations to situations of personal concern. They have biological bases and are shaped�…

What do negative emotions do for people? We present a framework that defines the function
of emotions as the degree to which discrete emotions result in better outcomes in particular�…

Emotions have long been recognized as powerful influences on human judgments and
behavior, yet their function or purpose in our lives has been debated throughout intellectual�…

Humans are multipurpose beings functioning in an uncertain world. We are often faced with
complex situations in which we are striving to achieve multiple goals simultaneously�…

In the standard decision-making paradigm, people choose between alternative courses of
action to maximize the desirability of experienced outcomes. Outcomes are assumed to be�…

According to an instrumental approach to emotion regulation (M. Tamir, in press), people
may not always prefer to feel pleasant emotions and avoid unpleasant ones. Instead, they�…

The past decade and a half has witnessed a renewed interest in the study of affective
processes. James Gross' process model of emotion regulation has provided a theoretical�…

According to expectancy-value models of self-regulation, people are motivated to act in
ways they expect to be useful to them. For instance, people are motivated to run when they�…