Preview

Four Theories of Emotion

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
605 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Four Theories of Emotion
The Four Theories of Emotion

The four main theories of emotion are interesting views of four scholarly psychologists. The theories are the James-Lange theory, the Cannon-Bard theory, the Schacter-Singer theory, and the Lazarus theory. Each of these four theories explains the order of events that occur when an emotion is present. Each theory is a hypothesis waiting to be tested out. Each of these theories is held by a psychologist(s). The psychologists no matter how far past our time they are experimented to give us the explanations we have today. Emotions aren’t something to play around with. They change us so quickly if we are real enough to let ourselves experience them. Everyone has their own interpretation of their emotions but what is concluded is the majority rule. The first of these theories is the James-Lange theory. Discovered separately by William James and Carl Lange. The James-Lange theory claims that an event first causes physiological arousal and also a physical response. It is not until then that the person interprets the physical response as an emotion. For example, we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, or afraid because we tremble. Basically what this is saying is that the physical aspects appear before the emotions are perceived. So until we physically respond to a situation we do not perceive or understand the emotions surrounding it. The second theory of emotion is the Cannon-Bard theory. This theory was originally developed by Walter Cannon and later expanded upon by physiologist Phillip Bard. The Cannon-Bard theory suggests the following chain of events: emotion-provoking stimuli are received by the senses and are then relayed simultaneously to the cerebral cortex, which provides the conscious mental experience of the emotion, and to the sympathetic nervous system, which produces the physiological state of arousal. Basically what this is saying, is that you experience both the physical aspect and the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Each of these theories have their own ideas of how our emotions are controlled and expressed and what things cause our emotions. The Darwin theory states that…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Psych 100B Studyguide

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages

    James-Lange Theory: Our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.…

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Phi 105 Comparison Paper

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There are many theories of emotion in biopsychology. These theories are based upon the Darwin, James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories. One other biopsychology theories of emotion is based upon the limbic system (Pinel, 2009).…

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are three significant theories of emotion that attempt to describe and explain the way we respond emotionally to stimuli. The first theory was created by William James and Carl Lange and is known as the James-Lange theory. They believed that our body responds first and then we interpret that response in an emotion. Alternatively, the second theory created by Walter Cannon and Philip Bard was called the Cannon-Bard theory and claimed that we have a bodily and emotional response simultaneously. Finally, we have the Schachter-Singer Cognitive Arousal Theory which was created by Stanley Schachter and Jerome E. Singer. They believed that before we feel an emotion, there is a physical arousal and a label of that arousal is created concurrently.…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Bio 101

    • 389 Words
    • 3 Pages

    2. _____________________ theory postulates that bodily reactions occur before the emotions and _____________________ theory postulates that both the bodily reactions and emotions occur at the same time.…

    • 389 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Vocab List

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages

    James-Lange Theory - The proposal that an emotion-provoking stimulus produces a physical response that, in turn, produces and emotion.…

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ted Talk

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Within the theories of emotion describes the concept of primary and secondary emotion. Primary emotion “mobilizes us, focuses our attention, and signal our state of mind to other” (CITATION 120). Primary emotion is typically what people feel first, such as the feelings of anger, fear, sadness, and joy. In the documentary, Melissa Moody’s primary emotions after her accident in her situation was most likely a combination of fear, anger, and sadness. She was most likely feeling anger because her sister-in-law just ran her over; sad, because she knew that her life would change; and fear, because she might not live through the injuries. After the situation, she starts to feel secondary emotions that “evolve as humans developed more sophisticated means of learning, controlling, and managing emotions to promote flexible cohesion in social groups” (CITATION 120). After the incident and after her divorce, her secondary emotion included anger and even contemplated suicide. However, after 6 months, she moved on and overcame these obstacles in living a happier life. Another situation presented by Dan Gilbert that is similar to Melissa’s is his example of a person winning the lottery vs. a person who is paraplegic. At first, people who won the lottery probably experience the primary emotion of extreme joy; people who are paraplegic could most likely have the primary…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In What Is an Emotion, William James contradicts popular belief. He claims that when faced with certain stimuli, our body reacts first and then we feel an emotion. For example, when we see a bear, many people would say that they would immediately feel afraid and run. However, James’ theory is the opposite; he claims that when we see the bear, our hearts begin to race, we tremble, and ultimately run away. We interpret these bodily changes as fear and that is when we are afraid. Overall, James’ theory is that our emotions are the results of our bodily reactions to exciting stimuli. Robert Solomon has his own theory of emotions and in What Love Is he focuses on the emotion of love. He describes it as being more than just a mere feeling of a…

    • 394 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Physiological theories suggest that responses within the body are responsible for emotions. Your emotional reaction is dependent upon how you interpret those physical reactions. Neurological theories states that the activity within the brain leads to emotional responses.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Perceptual view of emotions is also also called appraisal theory and asserts that subjective perceptions shape what external phenomena mean to us. These events have no meaning and they only gain meaning if we attribute significance to them.…

    • 1917 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The work on three basic emotions Fear, rage, and love stimmed thru relationship between visual and tactile emotions were studied by Watson and J.B.Morgan,(Watson, 1928), the two psychologist studied children that when shown or touched something they feared would suddenly catch their breath, and when shown love the response was smiles and laughter, but when mad angry, turned to rage, the child would scream and shout and throw temper tantrums.…

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Reptilian Brain

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Thus, every intense emotion has a physiological counterpart in the body -- a "body felt sensation" that corresponds to an emotional feeling -- giving rise to the so-called "mind/body" paradigm. When you are happy, sad, or calm, you are physiologically very different, and the related body felt sensation varies accordingly. For our purposes, we shall consider that an "emotion" has two parts: 1) vivid imagery that is processed by the limbic system, and 2) an accompanying "body felt sensation" that is engendered by the reptilian brain. Perhaps the simplest example of how this works is to consider a romantic emotion, which conjures up vivid imagery supplied by the limbic system, which is accompanied by unique body felt sensations, courtesy of the reptilian brain. Among other things, numerous biofeedback studies have poignantly demonstrated this connection between the mind and the…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ekmannn’s study suggests that cognitive factors affect our emotions after the biological factors do. The study’s aim was to find a relationship between the physical state and emotions. The participants were given different emotions, which they had to represent with their facial expressions and hold them for about 10 seconds. The participants physiological systems were measured after that and the results were that participants that picked different emotions had different responses in their physiological system. The participants that picked emotions such as anger had for example a higher increase of temperature in their bodies than the participants that did not have anger and picked an emotion such as sadness. Therefore what was found from this experiment was that emotions can be measured by the changes in their physiological system.…

    • 869 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Interpersonal Speech

    • 1834 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Emotions, at times I can not help feel that they can be caused by others. On the surface, if you witness a person’s reaction to a message received from another person, depending on the content of the message it can incite feelings of happiness or sadness causing one to believe what they just witnessed was a form of cause and affect. However, I believe this is not true because ones reaction to a message may be influenced by the content of it, but the emotions displayed because of the message comes from ones own personal self Emotions are labels we use to describe our feelings and the physiological, non-verbal, cognitive and verbal expression components of emotions help solidify the approach that we cause our own feelings by interpreting an event in one way or another (J. Whitton, personal communications, March 24, 2010).…

    • 1834 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Facial Feedback Theory

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It is reported by a group of theories that our feelings of emotions, come from our brain system. When the brain experiences stimulation, it activates organs in the body including those such as the heart and skeletal muscles, including those of the human face. When we see something that scares us, the brain tells us that there is a threat to our lives. The experience of fear sends a message for our heart to beat faster and our face expresses fear. The facial feedback theory says that once the brain detects changes in the face, the individual undergoes emotional feelings. The visceral feedback theory (e.g., feedback from the heart to the brain). Experiencing an emotion, requires two basic elements: visceral arousal and an environmental situation to which one can attribute the visceral change. For example, when one…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays