Theories of Emotion
Stimulus: You see a snake coiled up under my car.
Theory
Sequence
Definition
Theorists
James-Lange
theory
1. You see the snake;
2. you experience physiological
arousal and you jump back;
3. you feel fearful
William James
and Carl Lange
Facial feedback
hypothesis
1. You see the snake;
2. your facial expression of fear
sends signals to the brain;
3. you feel fearful
Two-factor
theory
1. You see the snake;
2. you experience physiological
arousal and you decide your
arousal is caused by fear;
3. you feel fearful
1. You see the snake;
2. you conclude the snake is
harmless, and
3. you feel relieved
OR
2. you conclude the snake is
poisonous, and
3. you feel fearful
Feedback from your physiological
arousal and from the muscles
involved in your behavior causes
your subjective feeling of
fearfulness.
Information about a stimulus is
relayed simultaneously to the
cerebral cortex and the sympathetic
nervous system, triggering the
conscious experience of emotion
and physiological arousal at the
same time.
Emotion is the interaction of
physiological arousal and the
cognitive label that we use to
explain the arousal.
Cognitive-
mediational
theory
Emotions result from the cognitive
appraisal of a situation's effect on
personal well-being. Physiological
arousal follows initial cognitive
appraisal.
Walter Cannon
and Philip Bard
Stanley Schachter
and Jerome
Singer
Richard Lazarus
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