Toward the Constitution of Emotional Feelings: Synergistic Lessons From Izard’s Differential Emotions Theory and Affective Neuroscience

Cal Izard has provided psychology a robust vision of human emotional feelings. He has addressed the full spectrum of emotional-developmental-cognitive complexities entailed in clarifying seemingly impenetrable mysteries: How do we experience emotions and how do they guide cognitive development? Izard’s developmental studies of infant minds integrate the primal evolutionary affective foundations of our nature with the diverse paths of nurture, and are framed in ways that can promote human thriving. His multilayered vision of our emotional nature resonates well with modern cross-species affective neuroscience perspectives.