One of the greatest puzzles of human nature concerns the poorly understood interplay between affect and cognition—the rational and emotional ways of dealing with the social world around us. Affect is a ubiquitous and powerful phenomenon in our lives, yet research on human affectivity has been neglected until quite recently. This article reviews traditional and contemporary approaches to this issue, and recent theoretical and empirical work exploring the links between affect and cognition is considered. The major achievements and shortcomings of this now-thriving research area are discussed, and the future prospects of psychological research on human affectivity are considered.
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