Motivation and Emotion 379JAMES-LANGE THEORY OF EMOTION William James (1884, 1890, 1894), who was
also the founder of the functionalist perspective in the early history of psychology,
to Learning Objective 1.1, disagreed with the common-sense viewpoint.
He believed that the order of the components of emotions was quite different. At
nearly the same time, a physiologist and psychologist in Denmark, Carl Lange (1885),
came up with an explanation of emotion so similar to that of James that the two
names are used together to refer to the theory—the James-Lange theory of emotion.
(See Figure 9. 9 .)
Figure 9.9 James-Lange Theory of Emotion
In the James-Lange theory of emotion, a stimulus leads to bodily arousal first, which is then interpreted
as an emotion.
Stimulus First response Second responseFEARJames-Lange
theory
“I’m afraid
because I’m shaking.”Snarling dogANS arousal,
changes in body Conscious fearJames-Lange theory of emotion
theory in which a physiological
reaction leads to the labeling of an
emotion.Cannon-Bard theory of emotion
theory in which the physiological reac-
tion and the emotion are assumed to
occur at the same time.In this theory, a stimulus of some sort (for example, the large snarling dog) pro-
duces a physiological reaction. This reaction, which is the arousal of the “fight-or-flight”
sympathetic nervous system (wanting to run), produces bodily sensations such as
increased heart rate, dry mouth, and rapid breathing. James and Lange believed that
the physical arousal led to the labeling of the emotion (fear). Simply put, “I am afraid
because I am aroused,” “I am embarrassed because my face is red,” “I am nervous
because my stomach is fluttering,” and “I am in love because my heart rate increases
when I look at her (or him).”
What about people who have spinal cord injuries that prevent the sympathetic
nervous system from functioning? Although James-Lange would predict that these
people should show decreased emotion because the arousal that causes emotion is no
longer there, this does not in fact happen. Several studies of people with spinal cord
injuries report that these people are capable of experiencing the same emotions after
their injury as before, sometimes even more intensely (Bermond et al., 1991; Chwalisz
et al., 1988).
CANNON-BARD THEORY OF EMOTION Physiologists Walter Cannon (1927) and Philip
Bard (1934) theorized that the emotion and the physiological arousal occur more or less
at the same time. Cannon, an expert in sympathetic arousal mechanisms, did not feel
that the physical changes caused by various emotions were distinct enough to allow
them to be perceived as different emotions. Bard expanded on this idea by stating that
the sensory information that comes into the brain is sent simultaneously (by the thal-
amus) to both the cortex and the organs of the sympathetic nervous system. The fear
and the bodily reactions are, therefore, experienced at the same time—not one after the
other. “I’m afraid and running and aroused!” (See Figure 9.10.)
This theory, known as the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion, also had its critics.
Lashley (1938) stated that the thalamus would have to be pretty sophisticated to make
sense of all the possible human emotions and relay them to the proper areas of the cortex
and body. It would seem that other areas of the brain must be involved in processing emo-
tional reactions. The studies of people with spinal cord injuries, which appear to suggest
that emotions can be experienced without feedback from the sympathetic organs to the