They stipulate that descriptive mental features, such as novelty, are caused by a literal novelty-detector in your mind or brain (i.e., a process of the same name). These theories assume that “appraisals” are literal cognitive mechanisms that produce subjective evaluations, which, in turn, either cause or constitute emotions. This is a source of constant confusion in the science of emotion.Ĭlassical appraisal theories assume that a human brain evaluates object and events, and these evaluations trigger emotions. Some appraisal theories take a classical view of emotion, and others are more consistent with construction. My husband’s reaction to the same passage was “meh.” An appraisal theory approach would say that he and I had different “appraisals.” Īs I read this passage, I was sipping a glass of water that I promptly snorted out of my nose with laughter. I think God designed our mouths to die first to help us slowly transition to the grave. You can fix it as soon as you get up-you brush and use mouthwash - but there’s something about knowing you woke up with hot-mothball mouth that makes you feel old. No matter how diligent you are about brushing and flossing-which is never diligent enough for that show-off dental hygienist of yours-at some point you start waking up every day with a mouth that smells like a snail left in the sun. “We all mentally prepare ourselves for wrinkles, but wrinkles are not the problem. The psychologist Nico Frijda, an eminent appraisal theorist, describes it like this: “Input some event with its particular kind of meaning: out comes an emotion of a particular kind.' An exampleĬonsider this passage about growing old, from Tina Fey’s book Bossy Pants:

These theories assume that a human brain does not just respond to the objects and events in the world, like a reflex, but instead interprets those objects and events, and these interpretations have something to do with emotion. Another category of emotion theories is called appraisal theories. The two categories featured in How Emotions are Made are classical view theories and construction theories. Scientists attempt to bring order to this dizzying cornucopia of theories in the same way that all living creatures deal with variation: we form categories. Theories even disagree on which observations and measurements count as evidence for hypothesis testing.

On how various phenomena such as facial movements, physiological changes, and feelings should be treated.On how emotions are different from related concepts like mood, reward, and motivation.

On where to draw the boundaries for what counts as an emotion and what does not.In the details of how an emotion should be defined.A multitude of theories vary from one another in almost every way imaginable: Some versions of the classical view are designed to explain this variation e.g., classical appraisal theories (chapter 8) propose that a person has to evaluate the situation in a particular way to trigger anger.Ī perplexing situation persists in the science of emotion. Do all the test subjects get angry? No, they don’t.

Theories of emotion