Here I will post several different theories on the basics of emotions. As of yet we have not discovered sold proof of any of these theories to be true or untrue and as such we can not determine for sure wither any of these are the full explanation of emotions. So I will provide a place for all the different theories all in one place Theories Of Emotions Theories about emotions stretch back at least as far as the Ancient Greek Stoics, as well as Plato and Aristotle. We also see sophisticated theories in the works of philosophers such as René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza and David Hume. Later theories of emotions tend to be informed by advances in empirical research. Often theories are not mutually exclusive and many researchers incorporate multiple perspectives in their work. Somatic theories Somatic theories of emotion claim that bodily responses rather than judgments are essential to emotions. The first modern version of such theories comes from William James in the 1880s. The theory lost favor in the 20th Century, but has regained popularity more recently due largely to theorists such as John Cacioppo, António Damásio, Joseph E. LeDoux and Robert Zajonc who are able to appeal to neurological evidence. James-Lange theory William James, in the article 'What is an Emotion?' (Mind, 9, 1884: 188-205), argued that emotional experience is largely due to the experience of bodily changes. The Danish psychologist Carl Lange also proposed a similar theory at around the same time, so this position is known as the James-Lange theory. This theory and its derivatives state that a changed situation leads to a changed bodily state. As James says 'the perception of bodily changes as they occur IS the emotion.' James further claims that 'we feel sad because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and neither we cry, strike, nor tremble because we are sorry, angry, or fearful, as the case may be.' This theory is supported by experiments in which by manipulating the bodily state, a desired emotion is induced. Such experiments also have therapeutic implications (e.g. in laughter therapy, dance therapy). The James-Lange theory is often misunderstood because it seems counter-intuitive. Most people believe that emotions give rise to emotion-specific actions: i.e. "I'm crying because I'm sad," or "I ran away because I was scared." The James-Lange theory, conversely, asserts that first we react to a situation (running away and crying happen before the emotion), and then we interpret our actions into an emotional response. In this way, emotions serve to explain and organize our own actions to us. Neurobiological theories Based on discoveries made through neural mapping of the limbic system, the neurobiological explanation of human emotion is that emotion is a pleasant or unpleasant mental state organized in the limbic system of the mammalian brain. If distinguished from reactive responses of reptiles, emotions would then be mammalian elaborations of general vertebrate arousal patterns, in which neurochemicals (e.g., dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin) step-up or step-down the brain's activity level, as visible in body movements, gestures, and postures. In mammals, primates, and human beings, feelings are displayed as emotion cues. For example, the human emotion of love is proposed to have evolved from paleocircuits of the mammalian brain (specifically, modules of the cingulated gyrus) designed for the care, feeding, and grooming of offspring. Paleocircuits are neural platforms for bodily expression configured millions of years before the advent of cortical circuits for speech. They consist of pre-configured pathways or networks of nerve cells in the fore-brain, brain stem and spinal cord. They evolved prior to the earliest mammalian ancestors, as far back as the jaw-less fishes, to control motor function. Presumably, before the mammalian brain, life in the non-verbal world was automatic, preconscious, and predictable. The motor centers of reptiles react to sensory cues of vision, sound, touch, chemical, gravity, and motion with pre-set body movements and programmed postures. With the arrival of night-active mammals, circa 180 million years ago, smell replaced vision as the dominant sense, and a different way of responding arose from the olfactory sense, which is proposed to have developed into mammalian emotion and emotional memory. In the Jurassic Period, the mammalian brain invested heavily in olfaction to succeed at night as reptiles slept — one explanation for why olfactory lobes in mammalian brains are proportionally larger than in the reptiles. These odor pathways gradually formed the neural blueprint for what was later to become our limbic brain. Emotions are thought to be related to activity in brain areas that direct our attention, motivate our behavior, and determine the significance of what is going on around us. Pioneering work by Broca (1878), Papez (1937), and MacLean (1952) suggested that emotion is related to a group of structures in the center of the brain called the limbic system, which includes the hypothalamus, cingulate cortex, hippocampi, and other structures. More recent research has shown that some of these limbic structures are not as directly related to emotion as others are, while some non-limbic structures have been found to be of greater emotional relevance. Neurobiological Theories of Emotion: Prefrontal Cortex There is ample evidence that the left prefrontal cortex is activated by stimuli that cause positive approach. If attractive stimuli can selectively activate a region of the brain, then logically the converse should hold, that selective activation of that region of the brain should cause a stimulus to be judged more positively. This was demonstrated for moderately attractive visual stimuli and replicated and extended to include negative stimuli. Two neurobiological models of emotion in the prefrontal cortex made opposing predictions. The Valence Model predicted that anger, a negative emotion, would activate the right prefrontal cortex. The Direction Model predicted that anger, an approach emotion, would activate the left prefrontal cortex. The second model was supported. This still left open the question of whether the opposite of approach in the prefrontal cortex is better described as moving away (Direction Model), as unmoving but with strength and resistance (Movement Model), or as unmoving with passive yielding (Action Tendency Model). Support for the Action Tendency Model (passivity related to right prefrontal activity) comes from research on shyness and research on behavioral inhibition. Research that tested the competing hypotheses generated by all four models also supported the Action Tendency Model. Cognitive theories There are some theories on emotions arguing that cognitive activity in the form of judgments, evaluations, or thoughts is necessary in order for an emotion to occur. This, argued by Richard Lazarus, is necessary to capture the fact that emotions are about something or have intentionality. Such cognitive activity may be conscious or unconscious and may or may not take the form of conceptual processing. An influential theory here is that of Lazarus. A prominent philosophical exponent is Robert C. Solomon (e.g. The Passions, Emotions and the Meaning of Life, 1993). The theory proposed by Nico Frijda where appraisal leads to action tendencies is another example. It has also been suggested that emotions (affect heuristics, feelings and gut-feeling reactions) are often used as shortcuts to process information and influence behavior. Perceptual theory A recent hybrid of the somatic and cognitive theories of emotion is the perceptual theory. This theory is neo-Jamesian in arguing that bodily responses are central to emotions, yet it emphasizes the meaningfulness of emotions or the idea that emotions are about something, as is recognized by cognitive theories. The novel claim of this theory is that conceptually based cognition is unnecessary for such meaning. Rather the bodily changes themselves perceive the meaningful content of the emotion because of being causally triggered by certain situations. In this respect, emotions are held to be analogous to faculties such as vision or touch, which provide information about the relation between the subject and the world in various ways. A sophisticated defense of this view is found in philosopher Jesse Prinz's book Gut Reactions and psychologist James Laird's book Feelings. Affective Events Theory This a communication-based theory developed by Howard M. Weiss and Russell Cropanzano (1996), that looks at the causes, structures, and consequences of emotional experience (especially in work contexts.) This theory suggests that emotions are influenced and caused by events which in turn influence attitudes and behaviors. This theoretical frame also emphasizes time in that human beings experience what they call emotion episodes - a “series of emotional states extended over time and organized around an underlying theme”. This theory has been utilized by numerous researchers to better understand emotion from a communicative lens, and was reviewed further by Howard M. Weiss and Daniel J. Beal in their article, Reflections on Affective Events Theory published in Research on Emotion in Organizations in 2005. Well that is all I have on it right now. Comment, discuss and reflect on this and your emotions and beliefs. Share your thoughts!
I posted it here for a reason. That being it deserves to be in the Art section as I meant it to be discussed along with how this affects your art. Your emotions provide the basis of your art, and as such I meant them to be discussed here. I wish you to share other theories of Emotion that you think that was missing. I was going to add all that but it wouldn't let me as there is a 10000 letter limit.
K, I was just curious. I can see the correlation to the subject of the arts, but I wanted to make sure
I read most of it in one shot, then the rest of it a few minutes later. You can double post in this situation, if there is a lot of info, and you can't add it all cause of word limit, you are allowed to make another post. Most of my poems are based on my feelings for someone. Even if the poem isn't directly about her, she still holds semblance in most of them. I haven't written a dark poem in a long time, and I have personally found myself being a lot more "easy going" then I used to be. I'm sure you guys have noticed both of these in me lately too, or at least the first one. I think emotions are brought by stimulus, then your reaction to said stimulus is based on the emotion it brings up about you. Instead of you being that way because of what you're doing, that just sounds stupid to me.
Indeed that I have noticed a dark flare in the darkone. (PUN!) No but on the serious and melancholy side (TITS OR GTFO) emotions are the one thing that forms our poems and art. This is the one, indisputable fact of my time. And that is Emotion is real.
Just read it, didnt really get the last alinea of the prefrontal cortex paragraph i am not really sure if i support the first theory or not, there have been plenty of cases where i was very scared, yet didnt show it from the outside by either trembling or running.(That doesnt include the other way around, i do know that certain actions can create emotions, but i am not sure if emotions can or cant lead to the actions) But if we are also talking about stuff like release of adrenaline, then this theory become a lot more valid for me
I did not read the post, but I know most of the information anyway. I think Shacter's theory of emotion is closest but it still need's some work.
