The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Aesthetics and the Arts Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology Series

The psychology of aesthetics and the arts is dedicated to the study of our experiences of the visual arts, music, literature, film, performances, architecture and design; our experiences of beauty and ugliness; our preferences and dislikes; and our everyday perceptions of things in our world. The Cambridge Handbook of the Psychology of Aesthetics and the Arts is a foundational volume presenting an overview of the key concepts and theories of the discipline where readers can learn about the questions that are being asked and become acquainted with the perspectives and methodologies used to address them. The psychology of aesthetics and the arts is one of the oldest areas of psychology but it is also one of the fastest growing and most exciting areas. This is a comprehensive and authoritative handbook featuring essays from some of the most respected scholars in the field.

Part I. Concepts, Theories and Methods: 1. Introduction by the editors Jeffrey K. Smith and Pablo P. L. Tinio; 2. Empirical aesthetics: hindsight and foresight Oshin Vartanian; 3. Philosophy of art and empirical aesthetics: resistance and rapprochement William P. Seeley; 4. Theoretical foundations for an empirical aesthetics Gerald C. Cupchik; 5. Aesthetics assessment Aaron Kozbelt and James C. Kaufman; Part II. Perspectives and Approaches to Art and Aesthetics: 6. Beyond perception: information processing approaches to art appreciation Helmut Leder; 7. Psychodynamics and the arts Pavel Machotka; 8. Evolutionary approaches to art and aesthetics Marcos Nadal and Gerardo Gómez-Puerto; 9. The walls do speak: psychological aesthetics and the museum experience Pablo P. L. Tinio, Jeffrey K. Smith and Lisa F. Smith; Part III. Objects and Media: 10. Empirical investigation of the elements of composition in paintings: a painting as stimulus Paul J. Locher; 11. 'Mute, motionless, variegated rectangles': aesthetics and photography I. C. McManus and Katharina Stöver; 12. Aesthetic responses to design: a battle of impulses Paul Hekkert; 13. From music perception to an integrative framework for the psychology of aesthetics Stefan Koelsch; 14. Theater and dance: another pathway to understanding human nature Thalia R. Goldstein and Rebecca Yasskin; 15. Arts education, academic achievement and cognitive ability Swathi Swaminathan and E. Glenn Schellenberg; 16. Aesthetics and the built environment: no painting or musical piece can compare Andréa Livi Smith; 17. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest one of all? Influencing factors and effects of facial attractiveness Gernot Gerger and Helmut Leder; 18. An aesthetics of literary fiction David Carr; Part IV. Contemporary Issues and Debates: 19. Neuroaesthetics: descriptive and experimental approaches Anjan Chatterjee; 20. How emotions shape aesthetic experiences Stefano Mastandrea; 21. Unusual aesthetic states Emily C. Nusbaum and Paul J. Silvia; 22. Personality and aesthetic experiences Viren Swami and Adrian Furnham; 23. Hokusai and Fuji: cognition, convention and pictorial invention in Japanese pictorial arts David Bell; Part V. Pulling it All Together: 24. And all that jazz: rigour and relevance in the psychology of aesthetics and the arts Pablo P. L. Tinio and Jeffrey K. Smith.

Pablo P. L. Tinio is Associate Professor at Montclair State University, New Jersey.
Jeffrey K. Smith is Professor and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Education at the University of Otago, New Zealand.