In this volume, Zautra illustrates how experience with difficult or stressful emotional situations can, contrary to popular belief, be beneficial; for example, our ability to adapt to stress can be improved by experiencing difficult moments of emotional intensity. Zautra masterfully integrates research and theory on emotion and stress, identifying a unique and important role for stressful life events. He offers new insights into how stress and emotions can influence health and illness and demonstrates the wide applicability of this perspective across domains of love and marriage, work, aging, and community. By reviewing research on chronic pain, depression, child abuse, and addiction, Zautra also provides new insights into clinical problems.

1. The Nature of Emotional Experiences 2. Emotions in Two Dimensions 3. Stress and the Eyes of the Beholder 4. The Effects of Stress on the Experience of Emotions 5. Positive Emotions and Mental Health: Are We Chasing the Rainbow? 6. The Role of Positive Emotions in Health 7. Emotional Intelligences 8. Attention and Pain: The Role of Emotions 9. Depression and Anxiety: Two Frequent Disturbances of Emotion under Stress 10. Addiction and Emotions 11. Emotions Abused 12. Marriage and Other Close Relationships: A Two-Dimensional Look 13. The Quality of Emotional Life at Work 14. The Preservation of Quality of Emotional Life as We Age 15. The Emotional Community 16. Some Conclusions Notes References Index

Alex J. Zautra , Professor of Clinical and Health Psychology, Arizona State University

"Written for both educated lay people and professionals, Emotions, Stress, and Health will be particularly exciting to researchers and practitioners since it provides a conceptually clean and consistent summary of the approach. There simply is no comparable book on the market; since this 'two-dimensional' model is at the cutting-edge of emotion research, Zautra's exciting book has no competitors."-Metapsychology Online Review