"Feelings" of emotion (theories)

Question 1

James-Lange Theory

Answer 1

1. environmental event elicits physiological reactions ->
2. brain is aware of these physiological reactions thru sensory feedback-> 
3. perception of these physiological responses constitutes our experience of feelings or “feelings of emotion”

Question 2

Cannon-Bard Theory

Answer 2

1. environmental event elicits both feelings of emotions in the brain and physiological reactions
2. the two proceed in parallel and, while both constitute emotional experience, they have no causal relationship with each other

Question 3

“Modern” view

Answer 3

1. the environmental events, physiological reactions and brain based feelings of emotion are all interactive and affect each other

Question 4

Research findings Carlson cites as support of James-Lange

Answer 4

1. higher level of spinal cord injury (and thus less sensory input from body) associated with patients’ report of less intense emotions
   - however, all this descriptive data could just reflect decreased intensity of emotion feelings because the physical component is not experienced
   - same results would be expected for other two models
   - does not prove that emotions are merely the product of our observations of physiological states
2. s’s asked to make facial movements typical of facial emotional expression but did not specifically ask s’s to smile, frown etc.
   - facial movements associated with different emotions altered and movement differently