The anatomy of boredom /
"The Anatomy of Boredom offers a comprehensive examination of boredom-a ubiquitous, important, yet often misunderstood dimension of human existence. It explores boredom's elaborate history, provides a systematic presentation of the diverse literature on the subject, examines boredom's...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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New York, NY :
Oxford University Press,
[2025]
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| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | "The Anatomy of Boredom offers a comprehensive examination of boredom-a ubiquitous, important, yet often misunderstood dimension of human existence. It explores boredom's elaborate history, provides a systematic presentation of the diverse literature on the subject, examines boredom's social grounds and consequences, and considers its future implications-all in the service of advancing a novel theoretical model of the workings of boredom that illuminates both boredom's complex nature and its diverse psychological, behavioral, and social effects. Specifically, the book argues for a functional theory of boredom, one that understands and individuates boredom in terms of its role in our mental, behavioral, and social existence. Boredom, the book posits, is the painful realization of suboptimal cognitive engagement, and as such, a powerful mechanism for regulating cognition and behavior. The functional articulation of boredom offers several important advantages over alternative theories of boredom: it provides a parsimonious and productive synthesis of existing research; it connects the present of boredom to its past; and finally, it permits us to extend our knowledge of boredom and to apply it to relatively unexplored domains, such as boredom's relationship to the good life, self-regulation and self-control, poverty and capitalism, advancements in AI, animal emotions, and even aesthetics and art appreciation. The study of boredom is thus revealed to be more than just an analysis of a complex and important affective experience; it is also shown to be a perspicacious investigation into the complexities of human (and even non-human) existence"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (unpaged) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780197564363 0197564364 9780197564356 0197564356 9780197564349 0197564348 |