Theories Of Emotion In Psychology
Emotions In Psychology
Life would be very different if we did not have emotions. In some ways it would be better, as we would not feel negative emotions such as anger or fear and so would never feel unhappy.
However without emotions we would also be unable to experience the good things in life such as love, joy and laughter and so would never feel happy.
So even though we may dislike experiencing certain emotions, emotions play a very important role because without them we would be nothing more than robots just existing without any pleasure or displeasure.
What Are Emotions?
The word “emotion” originates from the ancient Greeks, who believed that when someone shows a particular state such as happiness, they smile because their soul is coming out of their body.
As a result, the soul was believed to be making an “exit motion” which eventually became shorted to “e-motion” and then “emotion”.
The ancient Greeks may have been onto something with their description of the soul coming out of the body, because at the physiological level an emotion is defined as a disruption in the homeostatic baselines.
As a result of this disruption our heart rate, pulse and blood pressure can all change when we experience an emotion.
At the psychological level, this homeostatic disruption is generally experienced as increased levels of excitement or calmness, and depending on the emotion, these will be experienced as either pleasurable or unpleasurable.
We can therefore summarise the psychological dimensions of emotions into:
excitement-calm and pleasant-unpleasant.
The pleasant-unpleasant dimension of emotions is called a hedonic tone, which relates to an ancient philosophical doctrine called hedonism that states people are attracted to situations which are pleasant and repelled from situations which are unpleasant.
These two dimensions of emotions can be used to generate four categories of emotions:
Excitement-Pleasant
(happy, joy)
Excitement-Unpleasant
(anger, fear)
Calm-Pleasant
(relaxed, tranquil)
Calm-Unpleasant
(sad, depressed)
As you can see from the descriptions given above, each of these four categories can be used to describe all of the different types of emotions we feel.
Aspects Of Emotions
There are three aspects to all emotions :
• Cognitive
• Physiological
• Behavioural
Let’s take a quick look at each of these now.
Cognitive
The cognitive aspect of emotion involves the thoughts a person has when they are experiencing a particular emotion.
For example, you may be feeling happy and then say to yourself “what a wonderful day it is today”.
Physiological
The physiological aspect of emotion refers to the disruption of the homeostatic baselines that were discussed earlier.
For example, while you are experiencing the emotion of fear your heart rate and pulse begin to rise.
Behavioural
The behavioural aspect of emotion involves the actions people take when they are experiencing an emotion (how they behave).
For example, if you are feeling very happy you might hug the person next to you. Or if you are feeling afraid of something, you might run away from it.
The Aspects Of Emotions
As you can see from these descriptions, experiencing an emotion has an effect on the way you think, the functioning of your body and the way you behave.
Therefore by knowing what sort of emotional state a person is in, you may somewhat be able to predict what they are thinking and what they are likely to do.
Theories Of Emotion
There are three main theories of emotion which attempt to explain the emotional process :
• The James-Lange Theory
• The Cannon-Bard Theory
• The Cognitive Appraisal Theory
Note : Whilst there may not be one “right” theory, they are all helpful in understanding how we respond to emotions and how they affect us.
The James-Lange Theory
This theory states that emotion can be brought on by an action. For example, James said that if you were to see a bear in the forest and run away from it, the action of running will increase the amount of fear you feel.
The reason for this is because running increases arousal by making your heart rate and rate of respiration increase.
A good example of the James-Lange theory put into practice can be seen during emergency drills, such as fire drills.
When in a life threatening situation such as a fire, people are instructed to walk and not run. By walking, arousal is not increased as much as it would be when running which should allow people to remain calmer and experience less fear during the fire.
If however everyone began to run, the increased arousal that action would cause could very well result in widespread panic.
So overall what the James-Lange theory tells us, is that the actions we perform can intensify or downplay the emotions we feel.
If we are feeling afraid and act afraid we will increase our fear. If we feel afraid but act brave, then our fear will decrease.
Cannon-Bard Theory
The Cannon-Bard theory is also known as the thalamic theory, and centres on the brain’s thalamus and it’s role as a relay station.
When we receive information via our senses it arrives at the thalamus, where it is sent up to the cortex and down to the spinal cord.
What this means is that we become conscious of the cause of an emotion, at the same time physiological changes are occurring in our body as we prepare to deal with that emotion.
For example, if you see something which scares you, you recognise it as a threat or as dangerous at the same time your body is preparing to run away or defend itself. This saves you time in responding to dangerous situations.
Cognitive Appraisal Theory
The cognitive appraisal theory is also known as the “labelling of arousal hypothesis”, and states that how you “label” a particular state of arousal will determine what sort of emotion you will feel as a result.
For example, if you are climbing up a mountain and your heart starts beating faster, you might decide that you are feeling afraid and as a result will start to feel afraid.
If however you were to define that state of arousal as feeling excited instead of afraid, you would then begin to feel excitement rather than fear.
Summary
• Emotions give our life pleasant moments and unpleasant moments.
• An emotion is a disruption in the homeostatic baselines.
• Emotions can result in increased excitement or calmness, which can either be pleasurable or unpleasurable.
• The three aspects of emotions are cognitive (what you are thinking), physiological (what your body is doing) and behavioural (how you act).
• The James-Lange theory of emotion states that our actions can intensify an emotion.
• The Cannon-Bard theory states that our thalamus allows us to become conscious of an emotion at the same time our body prepares itself to deal with that emotion.
• The Cognitive-Appraisal theory states that how we label a particular state of arousal can determine the type of emotion we experience.
