Transcript
Imagine you are walking alone late at night and hear footsteps behind you. Think about your emotional reaction to this situation. Consider the major theories of emotion: James-Lange theory, Cannon-Bard theory, and Schacter-Singer theory. From the perspective of these major theories of emotion, describe how each would predict the sequence of events that would occur as you experience a reaction to this situation.
As I am walking alone late at night, I perceive noises of footsteps following behind me. From various perspectives my emotional reaction to this situation would differ. Through the theories of emotion, James-Lange, Connon-Bard, and Schacter-Singer, the seven primary emotions of happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, disgust, fear, and contempt, could be displayed in a multitude of ways.
If my emotional reaction were based off of the perspective of the James-Lange theory, my emotions would result from my interpretation of my bodily reaction to stimuli. As I hear the footsteps tracing mine, my body would not react impulsively and run away. The James-Lange theory suggests that my mind would link the noise of the footsteps, the stimulus, to my bodily reactions. As a result, my heart pounding and my body sweating would cause my mind to conclude that I am scared and have fear of what is behind me.
On the other hand, the Cannon-Bard theory proposes that emotional reactions happen almost instantaneously. Walking alone in the dark and hearing footsteps creeping up behind you is an example of an emotion-provoking event. Using the Cannon-Bard theory, this type of event would lead simultaneously to an emotion and bodily reactions. The sequence of events that would take place immediately after hearing the first couple of footsteps would be an emotion of fear and then my body would start to run away.
The last perspective was a theory created by Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer called the two-factor theory. This theory is based off of the fact that two psychological events are required to produce an emotion. As I am walking, as I hear the footsteps behind me, I would become physiologically aroused. The reasoning behind this is that my body is preparing itself to “put up a fight.” After my body recognizes it is aroused, my brain would attempt to figure out the source of the arousal. To figure out the source of the footsteps, my body may turn around and discover what is behind me, with the emotion of fear of course.
