This emotional reaction would be separate and independent of the physiological arousal, even though they co-occur.ĭoes smiling make you happy? Alternatively, does being happy make you smile? The facial feedback hypothesis proposes that your facial expression can actually affect your emotional experience (Adelman & Zajonc, 1989 Boiger & Mesquita, 2012 Buck, 1980 Capella, 1993 Soussignan, 2001 Strack, Martin, & Stepper, 1988). So, when you see the venomous snake, you feel fear at exactly the same time that your body mounts its fight or flight response. According to this view, physiological arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously, yet independently (Lang, 1994). Thus, the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion was developed. Other theorists, however, doubted that the physiological arousal that occurs with different types of emotions is distinct enough to result in the wide variety of emotions that we experience. Furthermore, different arousal patterns would be associated with different feelings. According to the James-Lange theory of emotion, you would only experience a feeling of fear after this physiological arousal had taken place. If you were to encounter some threat in your environment, like a venomous snake in your backyard, your sympathetic nervous system would initiate significant physiological arousal, which would make your heart race and increase your respiration rate. Recall what you have learned about the sympathetic nervous system and our fight or flight response when threatened. The James-Lange theoryof emotion asserts that emotions arise from physiological arousal. Over time, several different theories of emotion, shown in Figure EM.21, have been proposed to explain how the various components of emotion interact with one another. Therefore, different people may have different emotional experiences even when faced with similar circumstances. Together, these are the components of emotion, and our experiences, backgrounds, and cultures inform our emotions. Our emotional states are combinations of physiological arousal, psychological appraisal, and subjective experiences. This section closes with a discussion of the ubiquitous nature of facial expressions of emotion and our abilities to recognize those expressions in others. This section will outline some of the most well-known theories explaining our emotional experience and provide insight into the biological bases of emotion. (credit a: modification of work by Kerry Ceszyk credit b: modification of work by Kerry Ceszyk) Here we will focus on emotion, and you will learn more about mood in the chapter that covers psychological disorders.įigure EM.20 Toddlers can cycle through emotions quickly, being (a) extremely happy one moment and (b) extremely sad the next. Mood states may not be consciously recognized and do not carry the intentionality that is associated with emotion (Beedie, Terry, Lane, & Devonport, 2011). Mood, on the other hand, refers to a prolonged, less intense, affective state that does not occur in response to something we experience. Emotions are often thought to be consciously experienced and intentional. Typically, the word emotion indicates a subjective, affective state that is relatively intense and that occurs in response to something we experience ( Figure EM.20). The words emotion and mood are sometimes used interchangeably, but psychologists use these words to refer to two different things. The emotional response is comprised of three components: physiological changes, behavioural/expressive changes, and subjective changes (described in more detail in the tricky topic below). Depending on how we appraise the event, we get a different emotional response.

This antecedent event prompts our appraisal, which is the step where we try to make sense of the event. Generally, in the emotional process, we have some kind of antecedent event and this triggers the emotion. However, as discussed later in the chapter, the exact order in which the components occur is not clear, and some parts may happen at the same time. Emotions result from the combination of subjective experience, expression, cognitive appraisal, and physiological responses (Levenson, Carstensen, Friesen, & Ekman, 1991). An emotion is a subjective state of being that we often describe as our feelings. Understand the ubiquitous nature of producing and recognizing emotional expressionĪs we move through our daily lives, we experience a variety of emotions.Describe the role that limbic structures play in emotional processing.By the end of this section, you will be able to:

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