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Emotion, or affect, is a complex, subjective experience accompanied by biological and behavioral changes. Emotion involves feeling, thinking, activation of the nervous system, physiological changes, and behavioral changes such as facial expressions.
Internal and External Factors
Emotions are shaped by a combination of internal and external factors, which interact to influence how emotions are experienced, expressed, and regulated.
Internal factors include physiological processes, genetic predispositions, and cognitive appraisals. The autonomic nervous system plays a key role in the physiological arousal associated with emotions, such as increased heart rate during fear or excitement. Hormones like adrenaline and cortisol further amplify emotional responses, particularly in stressful situations. Cognitive processes also contribute, as individuals interpret situations and assign meaning to their emotions.
External factors refer to environmental stimuli, social interactions, and cultural norms that shape emotional experiences. Situational triggers, such as a heartwarming movie or a heated argument, can elicit specific emotions. Social interactions, such as encouragement from friends or criticism from peers, further influence how emotions are expressed or suppressed. Cultural norms also play a significant role in shaping emotional behavior by establishing display rules – guidelines for how emotions should be expressed in a given culture.
Physiological versus Cognitive Experiences
The experience of emotion involves both physiological responses and cognitive processes, which interact to create the complex feelings we recognize as emotions. While physiological experiences are rooted in the body’s automatic responses, cognitive experiences involve interpretation, labeling, and contextual understanding of these responses.
The physiological component of emotion refers to the body’s automatic reactions to stimuli, which are regulated by the autonomic nervous system. For example, when faced with a threat, the sympathetic nervous system triggers a “fight-or-flight” response, leading to increased heart rate, rapid breathing, and adrenaline release. These physical changes prepare the body to respond to the situation and are universal across individuals. This physiological arousal is often the first step in experiencing emotion and is considered the foundation of emotional responses in theories like the James-Lange theory, which argues that emotions arise as a result of these bodily changes.
The cognitive component, on the other hand, involves the mental processes that interpret and label physiological arousal. The Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory emphasizes the importance of cognition in emotion, suggesting that the same physiological response (e.g., increased heart rate) could be interpreted as fear, excitement, or anger depending on the situation and context. Similarly, the cognitive appraisal theory suggests that emotions depend on how individuals evaluate a situation, placing cognition before the emotional experience. For example, a student might appraise a challenging exam as either a threat (leading to anxiety) or an opportunity (leading to motivation).
The interaction between physiological and cognitive experiences highlights the complexity of emotion. Physiological changes provide the raw data of emotional experience, while cognitive processes assign meaning and shape the subjective experience of emotion.
Different theories exist regarding how and why people experience emotion. These include the James-Lange theory, the Cannon-Bard theory, the Schacter-Singer Two-Factor Theory, cognitive appraisal, and the facial feedback hypothesis.
The James-Lange Theory
In the 1880s, two theorists, psychologist William James and physiologist Carl Lange, independently proposed an idea that challenged commonsense beliefs about emotion. This idea, which came to be known as the James-Lange theory, is that people experience emotion because they perceive their bodies’ physiological responses to external events. According to this theory, the body reacts first – with sweating, for instance, or an increased heart rate – and the brain interprets these physical changes as an emotional experience.
The Cannon-Bard Theory
The physiologist Walter Cannon disagreed with the James-Lange theory, posing three main arguments against it:
- People can experience physiological arousal without experiencing emotion, such as when they have been running. (The racing heart in this case is not an indication of fear.)
- Physiological reactions happen too slowly to cause experiences of emotion, which occur very rapidly. For example, when someone is in a dark alley alone, a sudden sound usually provokes an immediate experience of fear, while the physical “symptoms” of fear generally follow that feeling.
- People can experience very different emotions even when they have the same pattern of physiological arousal. For example, a person may have a racing heart and rapid breathing both when he is angry and when he is afraid.
Cannon proposed his own theory of emotion in the 1920s, which was extended by another physiologist, Philip Bard, in the 1930s. The resulting Cannon-Bard theory states that the experience of emotion happens at the same time that physiological arousal happens. Neither one causes the other. The brain gets a message that causes the experience of emotion at the same time that the autonomic nervous system gets a message that causes physiological arousal.
Schachter-Singer’s Two-Factor Theory
In the 1960s, Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer proposed a different theory (Schachter-Singer’s Two-Factor Theory) to explain emotion. They said that people’s experience of emotion depends on two factors: physiological arousal and the cognitive interpretation of that arousal. When people perceive physiological symptoms of arousal, they look for an environmental explanation of this arousal. The label people give an emotion depends on what they find in their environment.
Example: If a person finds herself near an angry mob of people when she is physiologically aroused, she might label that arousal as “anger.” On the other hand, if she experiences the same pattern of physiological arousal at a music concert, she might label the arousal as “excitement.”
Schachter and Singer agree with the James-Lange theory that people infer emotions when they experience physiological arousal. But they also agree with the Cannon-Bard theory that the same pattern of physiological arousal can give rise to different emotions.
Cognitive Appraisal
The psychologist Richard Lazarus’s research has shown that people’s experience of emotion depends on the way they appraise or evaluate the events around them.
Example: If Tracy is driving on a winding road by the edge of a high cliff, she may be concerned about the danger of the road. Her passenger, on the other hand, thinks about the beauty of the view. Tracy will probably feel frightened, while her passenger may feel exhilarated.
The Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Some researchers have proposed that the brain uses feedback from facial muscles to recognize emotions that are being experienced. This idea is known as the facial feedback hypothesis. It follows from this hypothesis that making the facial expression corresponding to a particular emotion can make a person feel that emotion. Research testing the facial feedback hypothesis has produced mixed results, with some studies supporting the idea that facial expressions can enhance emotional experiences and others finding limited effects.
Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions
The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, proposed by psychologist Barbara Fredrickson, explains how positive and negative emotions influence thinking, behavior, and awareness. According to this theory, positive emotions – such as joy, gratitude, and love – expand an individual’s awareness and encourage exploration, creativity, and new ways of thinking and acting. This “broadening” effect enhances problem-solving, builds social connections, and fosters personal growth. For instance, feeling happy might inspire someone to take on a new challenge, form new relationships, or explore unfamiliar ideas.
In contrast, negative emotions, such as fear, anger, or sadness, tend to have a “narrowing” effect on awareness and behavior. These emotions often arise in situations perceived as threatening or stressful, prompting individuals to focus on immediate survival-related tasks while limiting broader thinking or creativity. For example, fear might cause someone to concentrate solely on escaping a danger, reducing their ability to consider alternative solutions or opportunities.
Social Norms and Experiences
The expression of emotions is influenced by social norms and individual experiences, which shape how emotions are displayed and interpreted in different contexts. Social norms provide guidelines for acceptable emotional expressions, varying across cultures, social groups, and situations. For example, some cultures may encourage open displays of emotion, such as crying or laughing, while others may emphasize emotional restraint to maintain social harmony. Similarly, personal experiences, such as upbringing and relationships, play a role in how people learn to express and regulate their emotions.
The Universality of Emotional Expression
Research on emotional expression has explored whether emotions are universally experienced and expressed across cultures. Early studies, such as those by psychologist Paul Ekman, identified six basic emotions – anger, disgust, sadness, happiness, surprise, and fear – that appear to be universally recognized through facial expressions. Ekman’s research involved showing photographs of facial expressions to people from diverse cultures, including isolated communities, and found high agreement in identifying these emotions. This suggested that these emotions and their expressions may be biologically hardwired and common to all humans.
However, more recent research has challenged the idea of universality, highlighting cultural differences in how emotions are expressed and interpreted. For example, while people in many cultures recognize a smile as a sign of happiness, the intensity, frequency, or appropriateness of smiling can vary widely. Additionally, emotions like shame, pride, or jealousy are not as consistently recognized across cultures, suggesting that cultural and social factors influence emotional expression.
Display Rules
Display rules are culturally-specific norms that dictate how, when, and where emotions should be expressed. These rules influence not only the outward display of emotions but also how emotions are interpreted by others. For example, in some cultures, it may be considered inappropriate to express anger in public, while in others, showing frustration openly may be more acceptable. These rules are learned through socialization and play a key role in regulating emotional expression within specific cultural, social, and situational contexts.
Elicitors of emotion, or the events or stimuli that trigger emotional responses, can also vary across cultures. For instance, an act of disrespect may elicit anger in one culture but indifference in another, depending on the cultural emphasis on honor or social hierarchy. Similarly, what triggers happiness or pride may differ based on cultural values, such as individual achievement versus collective success.
Beyond cultural differences, display rules and elicitors are also influenced by factors such as gender, age, and socioeconomic status. Gender norms, for example, often prescribe that women should display emotions like sadness or joy more freely, while men may be encouraged to suppress vulnerable emotions such as fear or sadness and instead express anger or pride. Age also plays a role, as children are typically socialized to conform to culturally-appropriate emotional displays as they mature. Socioeconomic class can further shape emotional norms as individuals from lower socioeconomic classes are more likely to face stress from financial or basic survival concerns.
Facial Expressions Are Innate
Both people who can see, and people who have been blind since birth, have similar facial expressions of emotions. This observation suggests that facial expressions are innate, since blind people could not have learned these expressions by observing others.
Differences Among Cultures
Although many emotions and expressions of emotions are universal, some differences exist among cultures:
Categories of emotions: People in different cultures categorize emotions differently. Some languages have labels for emotions that are not labeled in other languages.
Examples: Tahitians do not have a word for sadness. Germans have a word, schadenfreude, indicating joy at someone else’s misfortune, that has no equivalent in English.
Prioritization of emotions: Different cultures consider different emotions to be primary.
Example: Shame is considered a key emotion in some non-Western cultures, but it is less likely to be considered a primary emotion in many Western cultures.
Power of cultural norms: Cultural norms determine how and when to show emotions that are not actually felt. Acting out an emotion that is not felt is called emotion work.
Example: In some cultures, it is appropriate for people who attend a funeral to show extreme grief. In others, it is appropriate to appear stoic.
