APHD :: Keith Oatley :: Applied Psychology and Human Development at OISE

Keith Oatley

phone: (416) 978-1021
email: koatley@oise.utoronto.ca

Department: Centre for Applied Cognitive Science

Research Overview

Dr. Oatley's main research is on emotions, including the experience of emotions in everyday settings, using emotion diaries. He also does research on the psychiatric epidemiology of depression and other emotional disorders, and the relation of these disorders to life events and social support. In addition, Oatley works on the psychology of fiction, including readers’ emotional and other responses to short stories, as well as on cognitive theories of writing and reading literary texts.

In applied practice, he is intersted in applications of theory and evidence on emotions to clinical psychology and psychiatry; applications of psychological theory to the teaching of English and comparative literature.

Teaching Overview

Dr. Oatley's specialty courses include:

HDP3230: Understanding Narrative
EDU5531: Teaching Literature: The Perspectives of Writer and Reader

Representative Publications

Oatley, K., & Bolton, W. (1985). A social-cognitive theory of depression in reaction to life events. Psychological Review, 92, 372-388.

Oatley, K. (1992). Best laid schemes: The psychology of emotions. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Oatley, K., & Jenkins, J. M. (1996). Understanding emotions. Cambridge, MA, & Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Oatley, K. (1999). Why fiction may be twice as true as fact: Fiction as cognitive and emotional simulation. Review of General Psychology, 3, 101-117.