Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

Theories of Emotion357point: Sandy’s car started to slide out of control on a wet road. She felt fear as thecar began to skid, but it was only after the car was under control, a few momentslater, that her heart began to pound and her hands started to tremble. Cannoncorrectly noted that it can take several seconds for the physiological changes causedby activation of the sympathetic nervous system to take effect, but the subjectiveexperience of emotion is often virtually instantaneous.Third, artificially inducing physiological changes does not necessarily produce arelated emotional experience. In one early test of the James–Lange theory, Spanishpsychologist Gregorio Marañon (1924) injected several subjects with the hormoneepinephrine, more commonly known as adrenaline. Epinephrine activates the sympatheticnervous system. When asked how they felt, the subjects simply reported thephysical changes produced by the drug, saying, “My heart is beating very fast.”Some reported feeling “as if” they should be feeling an emotion, but they said theydid not feel the emotion itself: “I feel as if I were afraid.”James (1894) also proposed that if a person were cut off from feeling bodychanges, he would not experience true emotions. If he felt anything, he would experienceonly intellectualized, or “cold,” emotions. To test this hypothesis, Cannonand his colleagues (1927) disabled the sympathetic nervous system of cats. But thecats still reacted with catlike rage when barking dogs were present: They hissed,growled, and lifted one paw to defend themselves.What about humans? The sympathetic nervous system operates via the spinalcord. Thus, it made sense to James (1894) that people with spinal cord injurieswould experience a decrease in emotional intensity, because they would not beaware of physical arousal or other bodily changes.Once again, however, research has not supported the James–Lange theory. Forexample, Dutch psychologist Bob Bermond and his colleagues (1991) found thatindividuals with spinal cord injuries reported that their experience of fear, anger,grief, sentimentality, and joyfulness had either increased in intensity or wasunchanged since their injury. Other researchers have reported similar results (e.g.,Chwalisz & others, 1988; Cobos & others, 2004).James–Lange theory of emotionThe theory that emotions arise from theperception of body changes.“Is that one of the emotions people talkabout?”© The New Yorker Collection 2006 Charles Barsotti fromcartoonbank.com. All Right Reserved.Evidence Supporting the James–Lange TheoryOn the one hand, you’d think that the James–Lange theory of emotion should benothing more than a historical artifact at this point. Cannon’s critique certainlyseemed to demolish it. On the other hand, the brilliance of William James isreflected in the fact that researchers keep finding research support for key points inhis theory of emotion.For example, look back at the Focus on Neuroscience on page 351 describingthe PET-scan study by Antonio Damasio and his colleagues (2000). It showed thateach of the basic emotions produced a distinct pattern of brain activity, a findingthat lends support to the James–Lange theory. To generate a particular basic emotion,the participants were asked to recall an emotionally charged memory and thento signal the researcher when they began subjectively “feeling” the target emotion.The PET scans showed that areas of the brain’s somatosensory cortex, whichprocesses sensory information from the skin, muscles, and internal organs, wereactivated during emotional experiences. Interestingly, these internal changes wereregistered in the somatosensory cortex before the participants reported “feeling” theemotion. Along with demonstrating the importance of internal physiological feedbackin emotional experience, Damasio’s study supports another basic premise ofthe James–Lange theory: that physiological changes occur before we subjectivelyexperience an emotion.Other contemporary research has supported James’s contention that the perceptionof internal bodily signals is a fundamental ingredient in the subjective experienceof emotion (Dalgleish, 2004). For example, in a study by Hugo Critchley andhis colleagues (2004), participants who were highly sensitive to their own internalbody signals were more likely to experience anxiety and other negative emotionsthan people who were less sensitive.