Introduction to (and Theories of) Emotion

What are emotions? Everyone knows what emotions are, right? There those things you feel when you are sad, or anxious, or angry… or are they sadness, anxiety and anger themselves? What are emotions? Well…

Defining emotion We have no universally accepted definition of emotions, and that has historically made it hard to research. A useful definition, and one that we’ll be using, of emotion is “a relatively brief episode of synchronized evaluative physiological, behavioral, and subjective responses”. In other words, it’s when our body and behavior sync up in response to things, as well as some “subjective” responses which vary from person to person.

Emotion is different from... The term emotion is usually distinguished from, (but related to) the following: Feeling: the subjective experience associated with an emotion Mood: an emotional state that is general and extended in time Affect: encompasses feelings and moods and categorizes the emotion (positive or negative affect)

What are the functions of Emotion? Increase, decrease or regulate arousal Direct perception and attention Influence learning and memory Organize and motivate behavior Communicate with others

Theories of Emotional Experience James-Lange Theory(1890s): Evaluation of a stimulus causes physical reaction that is experienced as a specific emotion. For example, a person sees a spider that he/she regards is dangerous. According to James-Lange Theory, the person would then begin to shake and then experience the shaking behavior as fear: “I feel afraid because I am shaking.” Another example: After being threatened, we noticed our heart racing, and interpret that as us being afraid.

Theories of Emotional Experience Cannon-Bard Theory(1920s): An emotion arousing experience simultaneously triggers the physiological responses and the subjective experience of emotion. For example, let’s turn back to the spider. According to Cannon-Bard, the dangerous spider would make us shake and feel afraid at the same time. Our heart races and we feel afraid at the same time (simultaneously).

Two-Factor Theory, otherwise known as Schachter-Singer Theory (1960s): Physiological arousal can relate to different cues and alone is not enough to determine emotion (heart can race from excitement or fear). Therefore, situational cues and what one is thinking at the moment determine which emotion is experienced. (Crying at funeral vs Crying at being marriage proposal) Spider 3: Spider is bad. We see spider, shake in fear, and appraise fear: “I label my shaking as fear because this spider is dangerous”.