Emotion Theory

Psychophysiological Nature of the Emotional Response

From the cognitive perspective, emotion is not an ethereal entity, but a psychophysiological activation response.

This means that it involves tangible changes in body chemistry and physics simultaneously with mental processes.

When we experience an emotion, there are fluctuations in the organism: release of neurotransmitters, muscle tension, changes in respiratory rate, and feelings of liking or disliking that act to inhibit or disinhibit behavior.

It is not just "feeling something", it is a biological preparation for action before a stimulus.

Categorization and Universality of Emotions

There are academic debates about emotional classification. Evolutionary theory, initiated by Darwin, suggests the existence of four primary emotions shared with the animal kingdom (fear, anger, joy, sadness) for survival purposes.

Subsequently, researchers such as Paul Ekman expanded this catalog to seven emotions, demonstrating through cross-cultural studies that facial microexpressions are universal.

A gesture of surprise or disgust is biologically identical in a New York businessman and a member of a remote tribe in New Guinea, suggesting a common biological basis in human emotional experience.

The Cognitive Appraisal Mechanism (Primary and Secondary)

For a stimulus to generate an emotion, it must pass through an instantaneous cognitive filter, described by Lazarus.

The primary appraisal catalogs the event: Is it irrelevant? Is it positive? Or is it stressful (threat/harm)? Simultaneously, the secondary assessment occurs, which is a scan of one's resources: Do I have the capacity to handle this? Let's imagine someone hears a loud noise at night.

The primary assessment determines "danger/threat". Secondary assessment analyzes "do I have a phone to call the police or an alarm?".

If the threat is high and perceived resources are low, the resulting emotion is terror.

If resources are perceived to be high, the emotion may be caution or safety. The emotion is the result of this instantaneous mental mathematical calculation.

Summary

Emotion is a psychophysiological activation response that prepares the organism for action. It involves tangible chemical and physical changes; it is not simply an ethereal mental experience.

There are universal emotions with a biological basis, as Ekman demonstrated. Facial expressions of surprise or disgust are identical cross-culturally, suggesting a common biological substrate in the human species.

Cognitively, emotion results from an instantaneous calculation described by Lazarus: the primary appraisal detects the threat and the secondary appraisal scans one's coping resources.