AP Psychology: Emotional Theories

2. Does your heart pound because you
are afraid…or are you afraid
because you feel your heart
pounding?
Theories of Emotion

3.  Experience of emotion is awareness of physiological
responses to emotion-arousing stimuli
James-Lange
Theory of Emotion
Fear
(emotion)
Pounding
heart
(arousal)
Sight of
oncoming
car
(perception of
stimulus)

4.  Emotion-arousing stimuli
simultaneously trigger:
 physiological responses
 subjective experience of
emotion
Cannon-Bard
Theory of Emotion
Sight of
oncoming
car
(perception of
stimulus)
Pounding
heart
(arousal)
Fear
(emotion)

5.  To experience
emotion one must:
 be physically aroused
 cognitively label the
arousal
Schachter’s Two-Factor Theory of
Emotion
Cognitive
label
“I’m afraid”
Fear
(emotion)
Sight of
oncoming
car
(perception of
stimulus)
Pounding
heart
(arousal)

6.  The brain’s shortcut for emotions
Cognition and Emotion

7. Two Routes to Emotion

8. Two Dimensions of Emotion
Positive
valence
Negative
valence
High
arousal
Low
arousal
pleasant
relaxation joy
sadness
fear
anger

9. Emotion and Physiology
Autonomic nervous system controls
physiological arousal
Sympathetic
division (arousing)
Pupils dilate
Decreases
Perspires
Increases
Accelerates
Inhibits
Secrete stress
hormones
Parasympathetic
division (calming)
Pupils contract
Increases
Dries
Decreases
Slows
Activates
Decreases
secretion of
stress
hormones
EYES
SALIVATION
SKIN
RESPIRATION
HEART
DIGESTION
ADRENAL
GLANDS

10.  Performance
peaks at lower
levels of
arousal for
difficult tasks,
and at higher
levels for easy
or well-learned
tasks
Arousal and Performance