AQUINO, ELIZA MAE G.

AUGUST 9, 2019
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF / AR21FA1 PROF. JOE FAUSTINO

THEORY OF EMOTION:

The James-Lange Theory of Emotion

Proposed independently by psychologist William James and physiologist Carl Lange,

the James-Lange theory of emotion suggests that emotions occur as a result of
physiological reactions to events. In other words, this theory proposes that people have
a physiological response to environmental stimuli and that their interpretation of that
physical response then results in an emotional experience.

How Does the

James-Lange
Theory Work?

According to this
theory, witnessing
an external
stimulus leads to a
physiological
response. Your
emotional reaction
depends on upon
how you interpret
those physical
reactions.

Example

Suppose you are walking in the woods, and you see a grizzly bear. You begin to
tremble, and your heart begins to race. The James-Lange theory proposes that you will
interpret your physical reactions and conclude that you are frightened ("I am trembling.
Therefore I am afraid.")

William James explained, "My thesis, on the contrary, is that the bodily changes follow
directly the PERCEPTION of the exciting fact and that our feeling of the same changes
as they occur IS the emotion."

For another example, imagine that you are walking through a dark parking garage
toward your car. You notice a dark figure trailing behind you and your heart begins to
race. According to the James-Lange theory, you then interpret your physical reactions
to the stimulus as fear. Therefore, you feel frightened and rush to your car as quickly as
you can.

Both James and Lange believed that while it was possible to imagine experiencing an
emotion such as fear or anger, your imagined version of the emotion would be a flat
facsimile of the real feeling. Why? Because they felt that without the actual physiological
response that they believed precipitated the emotions, it would be impossible to
experience these emotions "on demand." In other words, the physical reaction needs to
be present in order to actually experience the real emotion.

Criticisms of the James-Lange Theory

The Cannon-Bard theory of emotion, proposed in the 1920s by Walter Cannon and
Philip Bard, directly challenges the James-Lange theory. Cannon and Bard's theory
instead suggests that our physiological reactions, such as crying and trembling, are
caused by our emotions.

While modern researchers largely discount the James-Lange theory, there are some
instances where physiological responses do lead to experiencing emotions. Developing
a panic disorder and specific phobias are two examples.

For example, a person may experience a physiological reaction such as becoming ill in
public, which then leads to an emotional response such as feeling anxious. If an
association is formed between the situation and the emotional state, the individual might
begin avoiding anything that might then trigger that particular emotion.

One major criticism of the theory was that neither James nor Lange based their ideas
upon anything that remotely resembled controlled experiments. Instead, the theory was
largely the result of introspection and correlational research. Both James and Lange did
present some clinical findings to support their theory. For example, Lange cited one
physician's observations that blood flow to the skull increased when a patient was
angry, which he interpreted as supporting his idea that a physical response to a stimuli
led to the experience of that emotion.

It was the later work of neuroscientists and experimental physiologists who

demonstrated further flaws with the James-Lange theory of emotions. For example,
researchers found that both animals and humans who had experienced major sensory
losses were still capable of experiencing emotions. According to both James and
Lange, physiological responses should be necessary to truly experience emotion.
However, researchers discovered that even those with muscle paralysis and lack of
sensation were able to still feel emotions such as joy, fear, and anger.

Another issue with the theory is that when tested by applying electrical stimulation,
applying stimulation to the same site does not lead to the same emotions every time. A
person may have the exact same physiological response to a stimulus, yet experience
an entirely different emotion. Factors such as the individual's existing mental state, cues
in the environment, and the reactions of other people can all play a role in the resulting
emotional response.

Support for the James-Lange Theory

While it seems as if the James-Lange theory should be nothing more than something
you might study for its historical significance, it maintains its relevance today because
researchers continue to find evidence that supports at least some parts of James's and
Lange's original ideas.

Some evidence in support of the theory:

PET scan studies have revealed that the basic emotions elicit distinct patterns of activity
in the brain.

These same studies showed that the brain's somatosensory cortex, an area of the brain
associated with processing sensory information from the muscles, skin, and organs,
became active during emotional responses.

Studies also suggest that the perception of internal physical states plays a role in how
people experience emotions. One study, for example, found that participants who were
more sensitive to their body's physical signals also experienced more negative emotions
such as anxiety.

A Word From Verywell

Emotions make up such a huge part of our lives so it is not surprising that researchers
have devoted so much effort toward understanding the how and why behind our
emotional responses. The James-Lange theory of emotion represents just one of the
earliest theories. While the theories have been criticized and altered considerably over
the years, James's and Lange's ideas continue to exert an influence today.

The theory has been modified over time and competing theories of emotion such as the
Cannon-Bard theory of emotion and Schacter's two-factor theory of emotion have also
been introduced. Today, many researchers would instead suggest that rather than our
emotions being the result of physical reactions as James and Lange suggested, our
emotional experiences are instead modified by both physiological reactions along with
other information.

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

The Cannon-Bard theory of emotion, also known as the Thalamic theory of emotion, is a
physiological explanation of emotion developed by Walter Cannon and Philip Bard.
Cannon-Bard theory states that we feel emotions and experience physiological
reactions such as sweating, trembling, and muscle tension simultaneously.

How the Cannon-Bard Theory Works

More specifically, it is suggested that emotions

result when the thalamus sends a message to
the brain in response to a stimulus, resulting in
a physiological reaction.

For example: I see an oncoming car--> I am

afraid, and I begin to tremble.

According to the Cannon-Bard theory of

emotion, we react to a stimulus and experience
the associated emotion at the same time.

For example, imagine that you are walking to

your car through a darkened parking garage.
You hear the sounds of footsteps trailing behind
you, and spot a shadowy figure slowly following
you as you make your way to your car.
According to the Cannon-Bard theory of
emotion, you will experience feelings of fear and
physical reaction at the same time. You will
begin to feel fearful, and your heart will begin to race. You rush to your car, lock the
doors behind you and rush out of the parking garage to head home.

The Cannon-Bard theory differs from other theories of emotion such as the James-
Lange theory of emotion, which argues that physiological responses occur first and
result and are the cause of emotions.

How the Cannon-Bard Theory Differs From Other Theories of Emotion

The James-Lange theory was the dominant theory of emotion at the time, but Harvard
physiologist Walter Cannon and his doctoral student Philip Bard felt that the theory did
not accurately reflect how emotional experiences take place.
William James’s theory suggested that people first experience a physiological reaction
in response to a stimulus in the environment. People then experience some sort of
physiological reaction to this stimulus which is then labeled as an emotion. For example,
if you encounter a growling dog, you might begin to breathe rapidly and tremble. James-
Lange theory would then suggest that you would label those feelings as fear.

Cannon's work instead suggested that emotions could be experienced even when the
body does not reveal a physiological reaction. In other cases, he noted, physiological
reactions to different emotions can be extremely similar. People experience sweating, a
racing heartbeat and increased respiration in response to fear, excitement, and anger.
These emotions are very different, but the physiological responses are the same.

Cannon and Bard instead suggested that the experience of emotion was not dependent
upon interpreting the body's physiological reactions. Instead, they believed that the
emotion and the physical response occur simultaneously and that one was not
dependent upon the other.

Cannon-Bard theory was formulated as a reaction to the James-Lange theory of

emotion. Where James-Lange theory represented a physiological explanation for
emotions, the Cannon-Bard theory represents and neurobiological approach. Another
more recent theory is the Schacter-Singer theory of emotion (also known as two-factor)
theory, which takes a cognitive approach to explain emotion.

The Schacter-Singer theory draws on elements of both James-Lange theory and

Cannon-Bard theory, proposing that physiological arousal occurs first but that such
reactions are often similar for different emotions. The theory suggests that the
physiological reactions must be cognitively labeled and interpreted as a particular
emotion. The theory emphasizes the role that cognition and elements of the situation
play in the experience of emotion.

The Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

Cognitive theories of emotion began to emerge during the 1960s, as part of what is
often referred to as the "cognitive revolution" in psychology. One of the earliest cognitive
theories of emotion was one proposed by Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer, known
as the two-factor theory of emotion.

What Is the Two-Factor Theory?

Like the James-Lange theory of emotion, and in contrast to the Cannon-Bard theory of
emotion, Schachter and Singer felt that physical arousal played a primary in emotions.
However, they suggested that this arousal was the same for a wide variety of emotions,
so physical arousal alone could not be responsible for emotional responses.
The two-factor theory of emotion focuses on the interaction between physical arousal
and how we cognitively label that arousal. In other words, simply feeling arousal is not
enough; we also must identify the arousal in order to feel the emotion.

So, imagine you are

alone in a dark
parking lot walking
toward your car. A
strange man suddenly
emerges from a
nearby row of trees
and rapidly
approaches. The
sequence that
follows, according to
the two-factor theory,
would be much like
this:

1. I see a strange man walking toward me.

2. My heart is racing and I am trembling.
3. My rapid heart rate and trembling are caused by fear.
4. I am frightened!

The process begins with the stimulus (the strange man), which is followed by the
physical arousal (rapid heartbeat and trembling). Added to this is the cognitive label
(associating the physical reactions to fear), which is immediately followed by the
conscious experience of the emotion (fear).

The immediate environment plays an important role in how physical responses are
identified and labeled. In the example above, the dark, lonely setting and the sudden
presence of an ominous stranger contributes to the identification of the emotion as fear.
What would happen if you were walking toward your car on a bright sunny day and an
elderly woman began to approach you? Rather than feeling fear, you might interpret
your physical response as something like curiosity or concern if the woman seemed to
be in need of assistance.

Schachter and Singer’s Experiment

In a 1962 experiment, Schachter and Singer put their theory to the test. A group of 184
male participants was injected with epinephrine, a hormone that produces arousal
including increased heartbeat, trembling, and rapid breathing. All of the participants
were told that they were being injected with a new drug to test their eyesight. However,
one group of participants was informed of the possible side-effects that the injection
might cause while the other group of participants was not.

Participants were then placed in a room with another participant who was actually a
confederate in the experiment. The confederate either acted in one of two ways:
euphoric or angry. Participants who had not been informed about the effects of the
injection were more likely to feel either happier or angrier than those who had been
informed. Those who were in a room with the euphoric confederate were more likely to
interpret the side effects of the drug as happiness, while those exposed to the angry
confederate were more likely to interpret their feelings as anger.

Schacter and Singer had hypothesized that if people experienced an emotion for which
they had no explanation, they would then label these feelings using their feelings at the
moment. The results of the experiment suggested that participants who had no
explanation for their feelings were more likely to be susceptible to the emotional
influences of the confederate.

Criticism of Two-Factor Theory

While Schachter and Singer's research spawned a great deal of further research, their
theory has also been subject to criticism. Other researchers have only partially
supported the findings of the original study and have at times shown contradictory
results.

In replications by Marshall and Zimbardo, the researchers found that participants were
no more likely to act euphoric when exposed to a euphoric confederate than when they
were exposed to a neutral confederate. In another study by Maslach, hypnotic
suggestion was used to induce arousal rather than injecting epinephrine. The results
suggested that unexplained physical arousal was more likely to generate negative
emotions no matter which type of confederate condition they were exposed to.

Other criticisms of the two-factor theory:

 Sometimes emotions are experienced before we think about them.

 Other researchers have supported James-Lange's initial suggestion that there
are actual physiological differences between emotions.

REFERENCES:
 https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-james-lange-theory-of-emotion-
2795305
 https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-cannon-bard-theory-2794965
 https://www.verywellmind.com/the-two-factor-theory-of-emotion-2795718