Theories of emotion

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Theories of emotion
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STIMULUS ??? EMOTION
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• What is the right sequence?
• ELICITING EVENT
• EXPRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR
• SUBJECTIVE STATE
• ANS ACTIVITY
• COGNITIVE APPRAISAL

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• W. James theory
• ELICITING EVENT EMOTION REACTION
  ???
• (e.g., bear) (fear)
  (escape)
• ELICITING EVENT REACTION EMOTION
• (e.g., bear) (escape)
  (fear)
• FEEDBACK THEORY
• Emotions are caused by feedback of physiological
  reactions in the brain. As the physiological
  reactions caused by eliciting events are
  different, emotions differ too.
• ELICITING EVENT - REACTION/ANS ACTIVITY -
  FEEDBACK - EMOTION (subjective state)

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• Schachtera-Singera theory
• ANS ACTIVITY - ELICITING EVENT - COGNITIVE
  INTERPRETATION - EMOTION (subjective state)
• Naming physiological activity, interpretation of
  our state produces emotional reaction.
• The arousal motivates us to explain the cause
  and nature of the arousal.
• Different individuals may experience different
  emotions in response to the same stimulus or
  event.
• (experiment epinenephrine or saline solution
  injection, euphoric or angry confederate of the
  researcher)

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• Appraisal theories (e.g., Lazarus)
• ELICITING EVENT - COGNITIVE APPRAISAL - EMOTION
  (ANS activity, expressive behaviour, subjective
  state)
• The meaning of eliciting event must be evaluated
  to cause emotional reaction.
• Critical dimensions of evaluation
• - pleasantness
• - novelty
• - goal relevance

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• Zajonc theory
• ELICITING EVENT - UNCONSCIOUS AFFECT -
• EMOTIONAL REACTION
• Affect primacy theory
• Affect is a simple categorization of events
  into positive or negative category.
• Affect precedes cognition. Emotion may be
  produced without our awareness of eliciting
  events.
• (mere exposure effect, suboptimal affective
  priming)