What's that? You hear a tapping noise coming from the window. It's pitch black out, your parents are asleep, and you just finished watching a scary movie. Your first thought is -- intruder! When you go to check it out, bat in hand, you realize it was just a branch hitting the window. Now imagine you hear the same sound but it was in the middle of the day and you knew your dad was outside doing yard work. You probably wouldn't even get up to check. So why would these two scenarios cause two completely different emotional reactions? The cognitive theory of emotion might offer an explanation.
- What is the definition of the cognitive theory of emotion?
- What does the cognitive theory of emotion emphasize?
- What is the cognitive arousal theory of emotion?
- What is the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion?
- What are some examples of cognitive theories of emotion?
Cognitive Theory of Emotion Definition
We all experience the world differently. We may take the same route to the same school at the same time as all our friends, and yet experience it in very different ways. The same is true for how we respond emotionally.
Emotion: a response that requires bodily arousal, expressed behaviors, and a conscious experience or feeling.
Several factors can be at play at any moment that can determine if we feel fear or excitement, joy or sadness, shame or confidence. Many psychologists have theorized what causes us to experience a specific emotion. In this article, we will look at how cognitive theories of emotion attempt to explain this phenomenon.
Cognitive Theory of Emotion: refers to a family of theories of emotion that suggests that emotional experiences must be accompanied by thinking or cognition.
The Cognitive Theory of Emotion Emphasizes
The cognitive theory of emotion is a blanket term that refers to theories of emotion that try to answer this question: "How do feelings and thinking interact?" Do our thoughts affect how we frame a situation emotionally? If so, what factors play the largest role in how we react? Maybe it's our culture, past experiences, or even the scary movie we watched last night.
Some theories of emotion highlight our physiological or bodily responses to emotion. The cognitive theory of emotion, however, emphasizes how much the cognitive process can impact how we feel and experience emotions.
Cognitive Processes: mental processes that include perception, thinking, sensation, and attention.
Fig 1 - Cognitive processes
In a sense, the cognitive theory of emotion suggests that these thoughts, along with noncognitive mental states, determine what emotion we feel in a given situation. They may also determine the intensity of the emotion. In this article, we will discuss two different cognitive theories of emotion: the cognitive arousal theory of emotion and the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion.
Cognitive Arousal Theory of Emotion
The cognitive arousal theory of emotion was originally formed by Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer, now formally known as the Schachter-Singer Cognitive Theory of Emotion. This theory is based on other biological theories of emotion such as the James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories of emotion. However, the biggest difference is that the Schachter-Singer cognitive theory of emotion is a two-factor theory.
Two-Factor Theory: states that emotions have two components: physical arousal and cognitive appraisal which occur together.
In other words, we must be both physically aroused and able to cognitively label our arousal in order for us to experience emotion. By "label", we mean that we consciously interpret our emotions based on the situation, others' reactions, and our past experiences through a process called attribution.
Attribution: the process of appropriately labeling the source of our arousal.
The environment can also play a large role in how we label our emotional responses.
Spillover Effect
Have you ever been around that friend who just kinda panics? In almost every situation, they can't help but freak out. You're usually pretty even-tempered, but you've noticed that sometimes, you would pick up on their anxious emotions. Schachter and Singer would call this phenomenon the spillover effect.
Spillover Effect: refers to our tendency to allow the emotions of other people around us to affect our own.
In Schachter & Singer (1962), 184 college males were injected with a hormone called epinephrine which triggers arousal. One group was told what to expect from the injection while another group was told the injection was to improve eyesight. They were then placed in a room with a confederate (a researcher disguised as a participant). Confederate would act either extremely happy, almost euphoric, or irritated and upset. Participants who were told what to expect didn't really think twice about it, but those who thought the drug was only supposed to improve eyesight interpreted their arousal based on the confederate's emotions in the room.
Another way to think of this cognitive theory of emotion is that arousal starts the engine of emotion while cognition steers the car.
Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Emotion
According to some psychologists such as Robert Zajonc and Joseph LeDoux, some emotional responses require no conscious thinking at all, specifically those required for survival such as fear. Zajonc and LeDoux suggested that this is why some of us immediately feel fear when we see a spider when we know it won't hurt us or make snap judgments about whether a person is trustworthy or not.
Fig 2 - Some emotions require no cognitive thinking like fear
Researcher, Richard Lazarus agreed with Zajonc and LeDoux's theory that some conscious thinking isn't required for all emotional responses. But he did believe that since most of our emotions are rather automatic and under the radar, perhaps there are cognitive processes that are occurring but they are simply too subtle for us to really notice. If we are aware enough to react to an emotional response, then there must be some level of mental function and cognitive appraisal.
Lazarus' cognitive appraisal theory of emotion suggests that, even if we are not consciously aware of it, emotional arousal occurs due to our cognitive appraisal of whether a situation is dangerous or harmless.
Lazarus' cognitive theory of emotion may even help explain why emotional reactions can differ across cultures. Something that symbolizes death in one culture may symbolize life in another. This can impact how we cognitively appraise a situation and thereby how we emotionally respond.
Cognitive Theory of Emotion Example
Let's take a look at a cognitive theory of emotion example using the example of the tree branch we used at the beginning of this article.
The Schachter-Singer cognitive theory of emotion:
You hear the tree branch tapping on the window.
Your heart starts racing and you can feel yourself trembling.
You label your rapid heart rate and trembling as a result of fear.
You feel fear.
Remember that environment and other factors can play a role in how we respond to certain stimuli. So when it was the middle of the day and you knew your dad was outside, you did not have the same physiological response and therefore did not label your emotion as fear but maybe surprise.
Lazarus Cognitive-Appraisal Theory of Emotion:
When you initially heard the tapping on the window, you appraised the situation as potentially dangerous, and so you felt fear the very moment you heard the sound. You had little time to even process that it could be an intruder. Then, when you cognitively appraised it was just the wind and the situation was harmless, your fear subsided.
Cognitive Theory of Emotion - Key takeaways
- The cognitive theory of emotion refers to a family of theories of emotion that suggests that emotional experiences must be accompanied by thinking or cognition.
- The cognitive theory of emotion is a blanket term that refers to theories of emotion that try to answer this question: "How do feelings and thinking interact?"
- The cognitive arousal theory of emotion was originally formed by Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer, now formally known as the Schachter-Singer Cognitive Theory of Emotion and features their two-factor theory.
- Researcher, Richard Lazarus agreed that some conscious thinking isn't required for all emotional responses. But he did believe that since most of our emotions are rather automatic and under the radar, perhaps there are cognitive processes that are occurring but they are simply too subtle for us to really notice.
- Using the tree branch example, the Schachter-Singer cognitive-arousal theory of emotion can be broken down as follows.
You hear the tree branch tapping on the window.
Your heart starts racing and you can feel yourself trembling.
You label your rapid heart rate and trembling as a result of fear.
You feel fear.
References
- Schachter, S., & Singer, J. (1962). Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. Psychological Review, 69(5), 379–399. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0046234
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