Emotions theory
- The central role of emotion in the cognitive system is illustrated by the fact that emotion
occupies a “privileged status” in the human brain; the majority of psychological mechanisms are
either necessary for emotion as such, or influenced by emotion or involved in regulating
emotions.
- most central psychological process
- most exclamatory behaviour
- something that is going to explain why somebody is behaving in a certain way.
- A dedicated part of the brain is given to emotion.
- most psychological processes either produce an emotion, are affected by emotion, or regulate
emotions.
- Every psychological process is a part of emotion; it is also a part of cognition. Therefore, both
emotion and cognition are integrated.
- Research on emotion focuses on the processes. Mechanism is the which are the systems that
is involved in the regulation of these emotions.
- Scientific theories of the Emotions:-
Emotional sequence debate:-
- James-Lang theory of emotions (peripheralist approach):-
- ~ core idea: the elicitation of a particular emotion is determined by the perception of a specific
peripheral arousal pattern. i.e., we experience fear because we are trembling.
- ~ explains body reaction PRECEDING emotions.
- ~ bodily responses may be slower in some cases
- ~ Laid the foundation for the Somatic Marker Hypothesis theory, Facial Feedback by James
Lang
- applicable to emotions which accompany a “specific physical reaction” and not all emotions
Cannon-Bard theory
- Centralist Approach
- the triggering of a specific emotion as being determined by processing a stimulus in the
“central” nervous system, with the peripheral arousal pattern being neither specific nor causal.
- The moment you perceive a stimulus, it leads to the activation of certain regions in the cerebral
cortex (executive function), particularly in your thalamus (relay station for sensory input). The
thalamus sends the message to two different areas — the ANS (starting to experience the
neurological changes), and the amygdala to experience the emotional feeling/processing.
Systems in emotional feelings get activated; we are talking about the limbic system.
- stimulus -> activation in the brain (particularly the thalamus) -> emotions, as well as
physiological arousal.
- This theory was developed as a core criticism of James Lang's theory.
- If you remove the bodily feedback, it does not eliminate emotion. He observed that similar
diffuse visceral reactions occur with a number of emotions as well as in non-emotional states
(i.e., digestion or fever); he also reported that suppressing visceral afferents did not suppress
emotions
Both of these theories ask the questions:-
- Is the emotion body-driven and brain-driven?
- What is the role of cognition in emotion?
Schachter-Singer theory of emotions (two-factor)
- Physiological arousal, and a cognition regarding the acknowledgement of the said
physiological arousal.
- It is cognition which determines whether the physiological state of arousal will be labeled as
“anger”, “joy”, “fear”, or “other.”
- emotion comes because of physiological arousal + a cognitive label to that arousal.\
- When a person does not have information likely to explain why he/she is physically stimulated,
he/she relies on information available from the situation and context in order to make sense of
their physiological arousal (which in this experiment was triggered by an injection of
Epinephrine). When the person is not in a particular state of physiological arousal (without an
injection of Epinephrine) or where he/she has an adequate explanation for it (information on the
consequences of the injection of Epinephrine), they will not look for factors in the environment
that explain this arousal.
- Limitations:
- ~ emphasis on conscious experience
- ~ some emotions fade away too quickly for them to even be labelled.
- ~ not all emotions require some sort of conscious cognition
- ~ does not explain the emotion-triggering process
Lazarus appraisal theory
- Emotion depends upon the cognitive appraisal or evaluation of the situation. emotions stem
from the mutual influence of a person and their environment
- different types of appraisal:
- ~ primary appraisal- is this relevant to me? if it's not, then no emotion will occur. If it is, then it
will lead to benign emotion.
- ~ secondary appraisal: Can I cope with this? Start evaluating the resources you have, if you
can control the situation. A stimulus that is going to elicit a response from you. Emotion is
goal-directed as well as adaptive.
Re-appraisal is a process allowing modifications to the primary and/ or secondary appraisal
while the interaction between the individual and their environment occurs.
Key differences between two factor theory vs appraisal theory.
Two-factor theory says that arousal+label is important(arousal-> cognition-> emotion). Lazarus
says that it does not talk about appraisal at all.
Two-factor says that the body is essential in the role of emotion. Appraisal theory does not
believe that.
Lazarus' theory talks about relevance.
In two-factor, the context is labelling the arousal, but in Lazarus, it is driving the meaning
through it.
Difficulty explaining automatic emotion or unconscious emotions.