Emotion

Emotion aka affect: a process/response involving bodily arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience & feelings

• bodily arousal ex: fast heart rate

• expressive behavior ex: faster walking

• conscious feelings ex: feeling of fear

James-Lange Theory = Bodily arousal triggers feelings

Cannon-Bard Theory = Bodily arousal and feelings are separate but occur simultaneously

Two-factor Theory (Schachter-Singer)= An emotional experience involves the conscious interpretation of arousal

Spillover Effect = Arousal can spill over from one event to the next (ex: adrenaline from sporting event leads to riot)

Zajonc & Ledoux Theory = some emotional responses occur without thought

• some emotional responses occur by passing straight to the thalamus & amygdala and therefore don’t involve thought

  • ex: afraid by rustling, then think and realize just wind

• many emotional responses must pass through the prefrontal cortex first, so people develop thoughts before emotional responses

Lazarus Cognitive Mediational Theory = emotions arise after the appraisal of a stimulus, whether or not the appraisal is conscious

• Basic human emotions = happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust