Psychology of feelings and emotions: I. Theory of feelings.

Abstract

8) has recently reopened the topic, but without taking any definite stand. * Newman, Perkins and Wheeler almost convinced themselves of this point, but not quite. * Obviously only the reflex responses can be shown to occur in mild anesthesia, etc., which situations have bothered Newman, Perkins and Wheeler. The individual was unable to make a verbal (i^., 'conscious') report.

Reconstructing the Past: A Century of Ideas About Emotion in Psychology

“…They began by arguing that affective responses (described as conscious feelings of valence and arousal) exist and can be objectively verified in studies of physiology and behavior, foreshadowing a similar point made by Russell (2003) and Barrett (2006b). Harlow and Stagner (1932, 1933) went on to argue that emotions occur when these conscious affective states are combined with a conscious representation of the stimulus or stimulating situation, making emotion an intentional state. They wrote: “the specific emotions can only be differentiated in terms of the perception of the stimulus and its meanings” (1932, p. 572), and that…”

“…Their primary source of evidence was the consistent observation that stereotyped expressions of emotion (whether in the body, face, or behavior) could not be empirically identified. Harlow and Stagner (1932) wrote, “ emotions, as patterns of response, do not exist ” (p. 572, italics in the original). The variety of views during this entire period can be grouped into psychological constructionist, behaviorist, and appraisal examples.…”

“…Nonetheless, Cannon's writing was important to the basic emotion approach for several reasons. First, he proposed (mistakenly) that emotion was localized to a specific location in the central nervous system (as did many others during this time; for a review, see Harlow & Stagner, 1932). Following in Cannon's footsteps, the search for a neuroanatomical locus of emotion was later taken up by Papez (1937), MacLean (1949), and in more modern works by Panksepp (1998), LeDoux (2000) and others.…”

“…Taking a similar (but perhaps more extreme) psychological constructionist view to Harlow and Stagner, Knight Dunlap (1932) argued that emotion words do not signify psychological entities. Given the variability in bodily responses within a category of emotion, Dunlap wrote:…”

Variety is the spice of life: A psychological construction approach to understanding variability in emotion

“…During the late nineteenth century (Spencer, 1855; Sully, 1892; Wundt, 1897) and mid-twentieth century (Brenner, 1974; Duffy, 1934, 1941; Dunlap, 1932; Harlow & Stagner, 1932, 1933; Hunt, 1941; Mandler, 1975; Ruckmick, 1936; Schachter, 1959), many psychological constructionist models of emotion were proposed, all of them inspired by the observation of variability in emotional responding and the failure of basic emotion approaches to account for this variability. In addition, most emphasise the processes by which internal sensory or affective states become meaningful—an emotion emerges when a person's internal state is understood in some way as related to or caused by the external surroundings.…”