What Causes Emotions And Behavior Of Humans And Lower Animals

Emotions are interesting because everyone feels them, most people do not know how emotions take their curse and arguably no one really knows how emotions function. There are many theories aimed precisely at defining emotions and how they work but there is a lot of work to be done. An article posted in the New York Time’s website about a week ago explains a wonderful aspect about emotions and how people can utilize emotions to benefit their lives.

We are exposed to various emotions everyday, whether it is at work, at school, on the street, or even at home. An emotion could be described as an individual’s reaction to an event, in which that individual is aware of his/her own feeling. There are two types of emotions, positive and negative. Positive emotions could include feelings such as love, joy, and bliss. Negative emotions could include feelings like fear, anger, and anxiety. Social psychologists are under the impression that negative emotions are stronger than positive emotions. Emotions have physiological as well as mental components. This means that there is some form of arousal and thinking involved. Now that we know a little about emotions, one might ask, what are the basic

Identify which theory of emotion you think is the most valid. What makes this theory more valid to you than the others? Identify which theory of emotion you think is least valid. What makes this theory less valid? Your response should be at least 300 hundred words. The four major theories of emotion: James-Lange, Cannon-Bard Facial-feedback and Schechter’s two-factor; emphasize different sequences or aspects of the three elements of emotion cognitions, arousal and expression. The Cannon-Bard theory is most valid in my opinion, the theory holds that all emotions are physiologically similar and arousal, cognitions, and expression occur simultaneously. Arousal is not necessary in this theory. Both Cannon and Bard propose the Thalamus gland in the brain sends signals to the cerebral cortex and the ANS; in return the messages to the cortex produce the cognitive experience of emotion. In contrast, the Facial-feedback theory is the main culprit of our emotions, I do not agree with this theory; I believe facial expressions are a result of what we are feeling inside within our emotions. The face is what we can associate to a specific feeling or emotion. That is how we can tell when someone is feeling sad, or is afraid. I believe each theory holds a bit of truth, but to which one is completely right I s not possible. They are theories and they can be tested and tried and the most positive and negative reports concluded, but they can never be proven. Out of these four theories,

The four major theories of emotion are the James-Lange theory, the Cannon-Bard theory, the Schacter-Singer theory, and the Lazarus theory. The James-Lange theory claims that an event first causes physiological arousal and also a physical response.  It is not until then that the person interprets the physical response as an emotion. The Cannon-Bard theory states that emotion -provoking stimuli are received by the senses and are then relayed simultaneously to the cerebral cortex, which provides the conscious mental experience of the emotion, and to the sympathetic nervous system, which produces the physiological state of arousal. The Schacter-Singer theory states that for an emotion to occur there must first be a physiological arousal, and second there must be an explanation for the arousal. The Lazarus theory is the theory that an emotion-provoking stimulus triggers a cognitive appraisal, which is followed by the emotion and physiological arousal. The most valid theory of emotion is the Cannon-Bard theory. He says that being afraid of something not only constitutes emotional fear, but it also brings about a rapid heartbeat. Concurring with the Cannon-Bard theory, we have a many different nerve systems within the human body that can be triggered simultaneously. This theory is more valid then the rest simply because of the adrenaline that is release into your body when excited or in the mist of eminent danger. The

Christakis and Fowler state that emotions themselves contain several elements. Emotions contain a conscious element, meaning people are aware of what they’re feeling. They have a physical aspect; emotions are tied to an individuals’ health. They also have a neurological affect; altering activity and blood flow levels in the brain. Finally, emotions contain a visual aspect; they can be expressed in facial expressions and body language.

The human brain contains specific neurochemical systems that create feelings in us. Over many studies, scientists

It’s different than “feelings”, “A state, elicited by a strongly motivational (i.e. “reinforcing”) event or by anticipation of such an event, that produces a coordinated set of adaptive responses.

The passions such as Descartes understood them correspond roughly to the sentiments now called emotions, but there exist several important distinctions between the two. The principle of these is that passions, as is suggested by the word’s etymology, are by nature suffered and endured, and are therefore the result of an external cause acting upon a subject.[4] In contrast, modern psychology considers emotions to be a sensation which occurs inside a subject and therefore is produced by the subject

Cannon-Bard Theory is a physiological explanation of emotion stating that we feel emotions and experience physiological reactions such as sweating, trembling and muscle tension. For example you are on a camping trip with your family and you go off to find a place to use the bathroom and you see a huge grizzly bear and you feel afraid and you tense in readiness to run away as fast as you can.

Because experiments could not be performed on internal, and therefore, unobservable events, Watson believed that inner processes have no role in science (Schultz & Schultz, 2017, p. 315). Watson did not completely dismiss emotions, however, he just did not believe science could explain them (Schultz & Schultz, 2017, p. 315). Watson did observe emotional reactions and believed that three emotions were innate in human beings, “fear, rage, and love” (Hergenhahn & Henley, 2014, p. 390). All emotions stem from the three innate emotions. Infants, Watson observed, inherently fear loud noises and the sensation of falling; they also become angry when their movement is restricted, and they

According to the researchers, the views of James on emotion is that our bodily changes are altered by awareness of the situation or event, causing the feeling from those changes is the emotion. Next, during an experiment, Cannon concluded that the emotional states were all distinguished by having excitement in the sympathetic nervous system. He concluded that physical changes were not determinators for different

However, Cannon – Brad theory argues against the initial idea by James – Lange and claims that emotion and our body experience work independently from each other and neither of them is caused by the other. “This means that our brain cannot just rely on our bodily responses to know which emotion we are experiencing… Both the experience of the emotion and the bodily response occur at the same time independently of each other.” (Sato, 2010)

Researchers have debated about the phenomenon with emotions. Debates on this topic have and will continue to for many more years. Researchers have attempted to understand why one has emotions and came up with the five different theories. The first theory is the James-Lange theory, which argues that an event can cause physiological arousal first and, it can be interpret this as an arousal. Second theory is the Cannon-Bard theory that argues that all humans experience a physiological arousal and an emotional one at the same time. It still does not give any attention to the role of the thoughts or an outward

Chapter 1 explains the work of a Harvard psychologist named William James. William published the article “What is an Emotion?” in a philosophical journal entitled Mind in 1884. His paper is an argument for the primacy and necessity of bodily systems in producing emotional feelings. James-Lange theory states that physiological arousal instigates the experience of emotion. A Harvard physiologist, Walter Cannon, roundly criticized James’ theory, claiming that, according to the Cannon Bard theory, physiological changes follow emotional expression.

When talking about emotion it seems a fairly simple topic and immediately "feeling" words come to mind; sad, happy, and confused. These are basic emotions and easy to understand. What isn't so simple about emotions is their process and how they form and work. Emotions are reactions to sensory information like sight, smell, taste, touch and sound (Tracing Emotion’s Pathways 94). However, it is not that simple; an emotional reaction or response is made aware of and understood by a part of the brain called the sensory cortex. These emotional responses or reactions to sensory stimuli are processed by a part of the brain called the amygdala (What’s An Emotion). The amygdala is a huge asset to the cognitive factors of emotions because in processing emotions you become able to understand, recognize, and control them. So then how do emotions evoke a physiological reaction such as tearing up when one feels sad, laughing with joy, and trembling with fear? These physiological reactions that one may experience come from the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is, “a collection of fibers that extend throughout