Individual differences in emotion components and dynamics: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

Contemporary emotion theories have come to conceptualise emotions as multicomponential and dynamic processes that do not necessarily cohere in fixed packages and continuously change over time. In this introduction to the Special Issue, we give a brief overview of what led to this conceptualisation of emotions, and propose how it can provide the key to our understanding of individual differences in emotional responding.

Keywords:

• Emotion
• Individual differences
• Emotion components
• Emotion dynamics
• Personality

Acknowledgements

This Special Issue results from a symposium on “Emotions and Individual differences”, which was held at the University of Leuven between 30 May and 1 June 2007 and was sponsored by the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO) and KULeuven Research Council Grant GOA/05/04. The first author of this contribution is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO).