ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

College of health science

General psychology Individual Assignment
Section: 06
Set by: BERNABAS MULUGETA ………….ID Number: UGR/1060/13

Submitted to: Mr. Endrias

Submission Date: August 27, 2021
 Introduction

The proposition that emotions are caused by bodily sensations. It was first propounded by the US
psychologist William James (1842-1910) in the journal Mind in 1884 and most famously expounded
in his Principles of Psychology (1890). The Danish psychologist Carl (Georg) Lange (1834-1900)
independently put forward a somewhat similar theory in his book 0m Sindsbevägelser in 1885,
although Lange's theory places no emphasis on emotion as a mental state, equating emotion with
the bodily (especially visceral) events themselves.

In the following pages we will try to see what the James-Lange theory of emotions means deeply,
how it was formulated, what it had went through and its final influence to the modern world.

# Definition

First proposed by American psychologist James and independently developed by Danish psychologist
Lange, the James-Lange theory of emotion states that the immediate, primary cause of an emotion is
physical. Bodily changes and physiological processes, which occur as a result of environmental
stimuli, evoke certain feelings in the conscious mind. In this sense, emotions are bodily sensations or
processes variously combined.

# Description

The James-Lange theory can be illustrated by the following anecdotes. A child sees her father walk
into the room carrying her toys. She begins to grin, her heart beats a little faster, her pupils dilate,
and she runs toward him. These bodily changes represent the emotion of excitement. In a different
instance, a man walking down a deserted street at midnight hears footsteps behind him. He looks
back and sees a large figure approaching. The man con- vets his walk into a run, he breathes more
rapidly, his nostrils flare, his eyes widen, and adrenaline flows through his veins. These bodily
changes represent the emotion of fear. The emotions that these two individuals experience are
different, of course, but the way each one responds physiologically plays an important part in both
situations. The girl felt excitement because she smiled and charged ahead, the man felt afraid
because he ran away, and not conversely.

# History of the Theory

William James was the first psychologist to delineate the imperative role of physiological changes in
emotional experience. For James, "The bodily changes follow directly the perception of the exiting
fact and that of feeling of the same changes as they occur is the emotion". Before his revolutionary
1884 publication, "What Is an Emotion?” the scientific community widely believed that the reaction
to a stimulus was cognitive, and that the bodily changes that resulted were primarily reactions to a
thought. Only a year after James's work on this topic was published, Carl Lange independently
published an article stating similar views on the importance of the physiological mechanisms of
emotions. Thus, the hypothesis of emotion became known as the James-Lange theory. Before this
theory gained credence, an emotion was assumed to begin when a person interpreted an emotion-
inciting stimulus, which was then followed by a bodily reaction. As an alternative, the James-Lange
theory proposed that after the stimulus is interpreted, a bodily reaction occurs, which is followed by
an emotional response. In James's words, "quick as a flash, the reflex currents pass down through
their pre-ordained channels, alter the condition of muscle, skin and viscous; and the alterations,
paper- ceived like the original object, in many specific portions of the cortex, combine with it in
consciousness and trans- form it from an object simply-apprehended into an object-emotionally felt"
[5, p. 203]. Though only a small modification in the order of events, this proposition changed the
face of the field of psychology. Many research studies have demonstrated how emotions are
induced after the body makes corresponding muscle changes. Today it is not uncommon for the
instructor of an introductory course in psychology to conduct a demonstration in which half of the
class members are asked to hold a pencil in their mouth sideways, like a dog with a bone, and half
are asked to hold a pencil in their mouth long ways, like a straw; while all class members rate how
funny they find a set of cartoons. Students who engaged the muscles used to smile invariably find
the cartoons funnier than students who engaged the muscles used to frown.

# James-Lange Theory Criticism

One major criticism of the theory was that neither James nor Lange based their ideas upon anything
that remotely resembled controlled experiments; instead, the theory was largely the result of
introspection and correlational research. Both James and Lange did present some clinical findings to
support their theory.

For example, Lange cited one physician's observations that blood flow to the skull increased when a
patient was angry, which he interpreted as supporting his idea that a physical response to a stimuli
led to the experience of that emotion. It was the later work of neuroscientists and experimental
physiologists who demonstrated further flaws with the James-Lange theory of emotions. For
example, researchers found that both animals and humans who had experienced major sensory
losses were still capable of experiencing emotions. According to both James and Lange, physiological
responses should be necessary to truly experience emotion. However, researchers discovered that
even those with muscle paralysis and lack of sensation were able to still feel emotions such as joy,
fear, and anger. Another issue with the theory is that when tested by applying electrical stimulation,
applying stimulation to the same site does not lead to the same emotions every time. A person may
have the exact same physiological response to a stimulus, yet experience an entirely different
emotion, Factors such as the individual's existing mental state, cues in the environment, and the
reactions of other people can all play a role in the resulting emotional response.

# Support for the James-Lange Theory

While it seems as if the James-Lange theory should be nothing more than something you might
study for its historical significance, it maintains its relevance today because researchers continue to
find evidence that supports at least some parts of James's and Lange's original ideas. The
introduction of new technology allowed psychology to get a better understanding of how the brain
and body respond during an emotional reaction. One classic study published in 1990 provided some
support for the James-Lange theory, finding that when people were asked to make facial expressions
for different emotions, they also displayed slight differences in their psychological reactions such as
heart rate and skin temperature. Some other evidence in support of the theory includes brain scan
studies that have revealed that basic emotions elicit distinct patterns of activity in neural networks in
the brain. Studies also suggest that the perception of internal physical states plays a role in how
people experience emotions. One study, for example, found that participants who were more
sensitive to their body's physical signals also experienced more negative emotions such as anxiety.

# Summary

James argues that the sequence of events in experiencing emotion is: "Emotion stimulus →

Physiological Response Pattern → Affective Experience".

The theory itself emphasizes how

Physiological arousal, with the exclusion of emotional behavior is the determiner of emotional
feelings. The theory has been criticized and modified over the course of time, as one of several
competing theories of emotion. Modern theorists have built on its ideas by proposing that the
experience of emotion is modulated by both physiological feedback and other information, rather
than consisting solely of bodily changes, as James suggested. Psychologist Tim Dalgleish states that
most modern affective neuroscientists would support such a viewpoint. In 2002, a research paper on
the autonomic nervous system stated that the theory has been

"Hard to disprove”. While the theories have been criticized and altered

Considerably over the years as mentioned in the above, James's and Lange's ideas continue to exert
an influence today. The theory has been

Modified over time and competing theories of emotion such as the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion
and Schechter’s two- factor theory of emotion have also been introduced.
Today, many researchers would instead suggest that rather than our emotions being the result of
physical reactions as

James and Lange suggested, our emotional experiences are instead modified by both physiological
reactions along with other information.

# References

1. Ellsworth, P. C. (1994). William James and emotion: Is a century of 3. Fame worth a century of
misunderstanding? Psychological Review, 101, 2.

2. Laird, J. D., & Bresler, C. (1990). William James and the mechanisms of emotional experience.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16, 4

3. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100017783

4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James–Lange theory

Oxford Reference
(https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100017783)

James-Lange theory

"James-Lange theory" published on by null.