Toward a General Theory of Emotion

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Toward a General Theory of Emotion

• Professor Gerald C. Cupchik
• Department of Psychology
• University of Toronto
• Lecture Available at
• www.utsc.utoronto.ca/cupchik

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Emotions - are fundamental phenomena
in-the-world. - occur in situations involving
real or imagined episodes. Emotional
Experiences - take place in a context and are
multilayered Perceptual, Cognitive, Affective,
Bodily Goethe Describe different aspects of
phenomenon and indicate contexts which affect
them or within which they occur.
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- Avoid Reductionism! - Dont assume that
accounting for emotions in terms of bodily
responses solves the problem. - Consider
dimension of Abstract Concrete - Abstract
Thought and seeing relations. - Concrete Bodily
responses in brain and viscera.
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General Principle - You always see the world in
an affective way. Cognition Emotion or
cognition affection complementarity You
cant have one without the other. The question
becomes How do mind and body affect each
other? What kind of mental process goes with
what kind of bodily process?
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Situational Themes
Adaptation to needs or
challenges Is it real?
Search for Meaning Is it true?
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Motivational Psychology and
the Action Model 1. Life theme ADAPTATION 2.
Historical context (i) 18th Century
Enlightenment emphasis on covariation of
rational judgment and feelings are decisions
wise? (ii) Darwins world Adapt to challenges
and resolve needs. (iii) 20th Century
Behaviourism (emphasis on bodily states drives)
and Cognitivism (emphasis on strategic planning).
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3. Fundamental assumptions (i) Presumes
separation of mind and body. (ii) No emotion
here please its irrational and gets in the way
it must be filtered out and reduced to
generalized arousal!
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Formula The model is really about thoughts and
feelings. Emotion (a) Cognition (b)
Arousal (a) planning and executive functioning
mind - thoughts enabling us to analyze world -
respond to categories of stimuli that resolve need
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(b) feeling dimension of bodily arousal which
provides energy and facilitates problem focus. -
feelings of pleasure and excitement that reflect
impact of our worlds and purity of bodily
resonance. Feelings are the shadow of cognition!
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Psychology of Emotion and
the Experience Model 1. Life theme Search for
emotional meaning in life. 2. Historical
context (i) 18th Century Romanticism and shift
from passion to emotion with increasing
secularization of society and emergence of
self. (ii) Goethes emphasis whole systems
evolving over time. (iii) Jamesian emphasis
emotional experiences shaped by feedback from
viscera and facial/bodily expression.
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(iv) Psychodynamic emphasis power of situated
personal meanings that shape subject matter of
emotional experiences. (v) Phenomenological
emphasis distortions in time, space, sensation,
causality, and social connection that shape form
of subjective experience.
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3. Fundamental assumptions and principles (i)
Presumes interrelation of mind and body in
emotional experiences that evolve over time.
(ii) Spontaneous (fast) and unreflective
response to symbolically perceived meanings in
social world. (iii) Symptomatic expression of
physical and dysfunctional responses to
situations the fundamental meaning of which elude
the person.
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(iv) Humanistic valuation of an effort after
holistic reconciliation of mind and body through
exploration of hidden meanings. (v) Feelings
provide the form of an emotional experience.
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Summary of Basic Processes
Action Model Mechanistic homeostatic process
Experience Model Vitalistic Self-sustaining
multileveled system
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Basic Principles
Action Model Matching if you have a need, you
are sensitized to stimuli that will satisfy it.
Experience Model Coherence you preserve essence
of personally meaningful situations at all level
of reaction sensory, cognitive, bodily,
experiential. When situations merge with meaning
of situation, you have an emotion.
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Action Model Living the dimension of bodily
response in terms of pleasure and excitation.
Experience Model Living the personal search for
being-in-the-world.