Theories of Emotion

Theories of Emotion

There are many theories of emotion; James-Lange and Cannon-Bard are two of the most common theories of emotion. William James (1842 – 1910) believed a physiological event or situation causes emotions. Something in the environment can cause an emotional reaction. Bodily functions follow the perception of a fact and the feeling of those changes is the emotion (Palencik, 2007). Emotion occurs when individuals perceive an event a certain way, based on the individual’s background (social and biological influences). Emotion can also occur when a situation provokes the emotion. For instance, a fire can cause fear, resulting in behavior that elicits survival skills. “Consciousness of bodily disturbance almost always involves emotion in and for itself this consciousness is not emotional at all” (Palencik, 2007, p. 770). The body reacts to external stimuli to provoke motivation to meet a need.

Carl Lange elaborated on James’ theory of emotion to include that prior to experiencing an emotion, individuals must first must experience the bodily response to a specific emotion (faster heartbeat, sweaty palms, rapid breathing). An association is often made between experiences and emotions which may cause instincts to develop in certain situations.

Walter Cannon and Philip Bard further elaborated on the James-Lange theory about emotion. They concluded that “experience of an emotion does not depend on input from the body and how it is responding; both the experience of the emotion and the bodily response occur at the same time independently of each other” (Sato, 2010, para. 3).

Individuals suffering from an unknown cause will often perceive an event in such a way as to cause the negative emotion to resurface from the unconsciousness because a need was not satisfied during childhood and development.