James - Lange Theory of Emotions



James - Lange Theory of Emotions

Introduction

Emotion is subjective, complex experience accompanied by behavioral and biological changes. Emotion involved thinking, feeling, activation of nervous system, behavioral, and psychological changes such as facial expressions. In modern scientific use of the term, emotion has multiple references such as subjective experiences able to be expressed verbally, concomitant internal physiological changes and observable motor behavior (i.e., expressive facial gestures, motor and postural) Emotional processes are complex and there is no theoretical framework to collect all these aspects in an integrated way without falling into contradictions (Gross, 2011).

Various theories are issued from the early twentieth century psychology; we will mention the most important. Some theories complement each other, so it is interesting to consider these theories as significant contributions to a better understanding of this complicated term. We have difference theories regarding why and how people experience emotions. These include revolutionary theories, Cannon-Bard theory, James -Lange theory, cognitive appraisal, Schacter and singer's two factor theory. In this paper I am going discuss James-Lane theory in general and illustrate it with 3 examples from my personal life. The purpose of writing this paper is to let readers know about the importance of this theory.

Discussion

The theory of emotion, developed by James over a hundred years ago, and remains influential to this day. William James, an important figure in early American psychology suggested that emotions were the perception of bodily changes caused by a particular stimulus (Ellsworth, 1994). From this perspective the fear is evident because a given stimulus produces changes in body activity then perceived as an emotion. Almost simultaneously a physician from Denmark, Carl Lange, proposed a similar approach. Carl quoted: We owe all the emotional aspect of our mental life, our joys and sorrows, our happy and unhappy times, our ...