Chapter 5: Conceptual Disambiguation

There is need for definitional clarity when using psychological concepts in tourism research. The same term used in ‘folk psychology’, or behavioural or cognitive psychology can have quite different definitions and associated paradigmatic assumptions. This chapter argues that an understanding of mainstream cognitive psychology is needed when using concepts that are within its explanatory scope. Emotion is one such concept that has been extensively studied in cognitive psychology. The chapter discusses emotion and related terms such as feelings, novelty, unexpectedness and surprise to provide conceptual clarity. This will benefit researchers studying psychology of tourism emotions, tourism behaviour and decision-making.