Becky House Theories of Emotion Emotion is defined as a complex psychological state that involves a subjective experience, a physiological response,

and a behavioral or expressive response. Out of the four main theories of motion two of them are the James-Lange theory and the Two-factor theory. Most people would think that their actions reflect their emotions, such as you run away from something and your heart pounded because you are afraid. William James disagreed with this idea and took on a whole different view point. Carl Lange was a Danish psychologist who shared similar view points with James, together the James-Lange Theory of Emotion was proposed. In the James-Lange Theory Emotion, emotion is defined as the theory that emotions arise from the perception of body changes. So instead of your heart pounding because you are afraid, you are afraid because your heart started pounding. James believed that emotion followed a sequence of perceiving a stimulus, physiological and behavioral changes occur, that we experience as an emotion. Many people tried to disprove this theory by doing a great deal of research. Walter Cannon was a famous American physiologist who challenged the James-Lange theory. Cannon was able to point out the faults in the James-Lange theory, but it was Schachter and Singer that proposed the Two-Factor theory of emotion. The two-factor theory of emotion says that emotional experience requires the interaction of two separate factors: physiological arousal and a cognitive label for that arousal. So back to the pounding heart

example, this theory states that your heart pounds because you are afraid, and that your pounding heart is caused by being afraid. Personally I believe that the two-factor theory of emotion best explains emotion because it seems to make more sense. There is little evidence to support the James-Lange theory and a lot of points that disprove it. Walter Cannon was able to do a good job at disproving the James-Lange theory. Like pointing out that our reaction to a stimulus is often faster than our physiological reaction. When I think of my emotions I believe that I feel afraid before my body has time to react. The two-factor theory may have little support but Cannon made a point by saying that it takes a few seconds for the physiological changes to take effect. He also stated that our body reactions are similar for many emotions.