Emotion
Emotion is an evaluative response which is a
negative or positive feeling that typically
identified by physiological arousal, behavioural
Most of the debate within emotion has been
about at what point physiological arousal occurs.
Does it precede or follow emotional stimuli?
Paul Ekman argues that there are 6 standard
emotions: Disgust, Anger, Sadness, Surprise,
Happiness, Fear.
James-Lange Theory William James stated " we
feel sorry because cry, angry because we strike,
afraid because we tremble" suggesting that we
perceive first, then have a physiological
response, then experience emotion. Crucially, it
states that perception of the physiological
response is necessary and that we have different
responses for different emotions.
However, Cannon & Bard argue that the same
physiological responses are involved in many
emotions (e.g. racing heart is associated with
fear, anger and love). The physiological changes
are too slow to trigger sudden emotion.
Support: Ax (1953) Had participants take part in
an experiment using electric apparatus. In the
first condition, they were insulted by a technician
(eliciting anger). In the second, the apparatus
was said to be faulty (eliciting fear). These two
responses were differentiated by changes in
diastolic BP, heart rate, muscle tension,
respiratory rate etc. However, this is also
compatible with the other theories.
Hohmann (1966) WW2 soldiers suffered lesions
to the spinal chord, which caused a loss of
sensation below the level of injury. They could
not therefore detect emotions. The intensity of
these emotions decreased with the height of the
injury (towards the neck), supporting the notion
that physiological arousal is necessary for
emotion.
Cannon-Bard Theory Counters the James-Lange
theory and suggests that physiological responses
and emotion are independent. So perception of a
physiological response is not necessary and we
do not have different responses for different
emotions.
Schachter & Singer: Two Factor Theory On the
other hand, it is argued by Schacter and Singer
that physiological arousal tells us that we are
experiencing some emotion, and that our
cognitive label tells us what emotion we are
experiencing. Here, perception of a physiological
response precedes emotion and is necessary but
there is not a different response for different
emotions.
Physiological Responses are regulated by the
Autonomic Nervous System. This prepares the
body for action. The Sympathetic side prepares
for arousal and the Parasympathetic prepares for
calming...
Schachter & Singer (1962) Adrenaline
Injections Participants were injected with
adrenaline or saline (control). They were either
informed about the effects, misinformed or were
not given any emotion. They then interacted with
a stooge in a separate room whilst filling out a
questionnaire about happiness/anger who was
either euphoric or angry. The least likely to be
affected by the stooge were the adrenaline
informed, as they could explain their emotions as
related to the drug. The most likely were the
adrenaline uninformed, who had no justification
for their emotions. AI were always least affected,
suggested that cognitive appraisal of emotion is
important.
Emotion and Brain
Amygdala: Largely related to
fear (but not exclusively).
LeDoux recorded rats with amygdala lesions and
found that this prevented fear conditioning in
rats.
Whalen et al. (2004) Found a greater response
to fearful faces that angry/happy faces in the
amygdala. Even when only whites of eyes are
primed.
Prefrontal Cortex
Patient EVR (Damasio et al. 1985) Damage to
ventromedial PFC, virtually no emotional
reactions (thus emotional detachment), incapable
of making decisions but highly intelligent.
Suggests moderation of emotion in VMPFC.
