Summary
Contents
This book provides a clear, focused road map to the study of the body in society. It defines, explains and applies core topics relating to the human body demonstrating how we approach it as a social phenomenon.
Each concept: Includes an easy to understand definition; Provides real-world examples; Gives suggestions for further reading; Is carefully cross-referenced to other related concepts
Written to meet the needs of the modern student this book offers the basic materials, tools and guidance needed study and write about the body.
Emotion
Emotion
Definition The physical characteristics of emotion can be described in terms of biochemical or hormonal flows. For example, an autonomic reaction such as a ‘fight or flight’ response involves the release of hormones from the adrenal glands. They might also be understood in psychological terms as ‘affects’, that is, outward expressions of diagnostic mental states. However, our more intuitive and common understanding of emotions, and the one we are concerned with here, is as embodied phenomena at a social rather than a biological or biomedical level. So when we are faced with someone experiencing a fight or flight response we are unlikely to think, ‘that person is producing excess cortisol’, and much more likely to intuit on the basis of their facial expression, tone ...