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13.1: Introduction

Last updated

Feb 28, 2025
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- 13: Emotion and Mood
- 13.2: Foundational and Contemporary Theories of Emotion

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Body outlines with color coding to reveal blood flow concentrations in different regions, categorized according to emotion. — Figure 13.1 Image credit: Mummenmaa et al., 2014. "Bodily maps of emotions." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111 (2) 646-651; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1321664111. (c) National Academy of Sciences.

Meet the Author

Cedric L. Williams, PhD

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Living organisms are exposed daily to a wide array of stimuli from the external environment. These external events have an incredible amount of power in heightening the activity of internal cognitive, physiological and behavioral reactions. When joined together, these three changes represent what is loosely referred to as “the emotions” that ultimately dictate the responses we exert on the environment. In essence, emotions are complex instinctive feelings produced by synthesizing environmental cues and external stimuli that alert an organism that some action may be required of them. A more comprehensive definition of emotions was provided by Klaus R. Scherer (2009) which states:

Emotions are elicited when something relevant happens to the organism, having a direct bearing on its needs, goals, values and general well-being. Relevance is determined by the appraisal of events on a number of criteria, in particular the novelty or unexpectedness of a stimulus or event, its intrinsic pleasantness or unpleasantness and its motivational consistency, i.e. its conduciveness to satisfy a need, reach a goal, or uphold a value or its ‘obstructiveness’ to achieving any of those.

The scenarios depicted in Figure 13.2 permit you to directly experience how external stimuli, scenes or scenarios are potent initiators of internal mechanisms that regulate our thought, mood and physiological disposition. The collection of images also permits you to witness the subtle, yet immediate, impact that external events may produce on your own private and very personal internal processes associated with emotion.

A collage of images of people and animals meant to evoke anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness — Figure 13.2 Introduction to emotions Do these images make you feel something? External stimuli, scenes or scenarios are potent initiators of internal mechanisms that regulate our thought, mood and physiological disposition. Image credits: Anger left: By Matthew T Rader, MatthewTRader.com. CC CY SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...pril,_2009.jpg; Anger middle: By Thayne Tuason. Cropped. CC BY SA 4.0 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F..._with_sign.jpg; Anger right: By Pierre Marshall. Cropped. CC BY SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...April_2021.jpg; Fear left: By Sgt. Richard Blumenstein. Public Domain commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...-RU378-856.jpg; Fear middle: By Vengolis. Own work. CC BY-SA 4.0 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...ider_8512a.jpg; Fear right: Ianare Sevi. CC BY SA 3.0 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...ensis_yawn.jpg; Disgust left: By Eric Molina. CC BY 2.0 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...on_cropped.jpg; Disgust middle: By Muhammad Mahdi Karim, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde...?curid=3077940 ; Disgust right: By Bobinson K B. disgust - Kathakali - on politics & demo crazy !. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/37936363@N00/3640777025; Happiness left: By Claire mono. the moment of happiness. CC BY 2.0. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F..._happiness.jpg; Happiness middle: By Hashem Al-Nasser from Dhahran, KSA - Taste of Happiness, CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde...curid=10381020; Happiness right: By Rasheedhrasheed, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde...curid=77134378; Sadness left: By Anthony Quintano - https://www.flickr.com/photos/228822...4/49785046732/, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde...curid=89765253; Sadness middle: By Office of Joyce Beatty - twitter.com/RepBeatty/status...79242638499841, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde...curid=94241887; Sadness right: By Alextredz, https://www.tredz.co.uk/. CC BY SA 4.0 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...c_accident.jpg

This chapter will guide you along a journey to understand the complexity of perceptual processes that allow stimuli from our immediate environment to impact physiological body states, cognition, mood and the behaviors that are initiated to respond adaptively to dynamic changes in the environment.

This chapter will present a comprehensive understanding of the global nature and broad category of factors involved in the development of emotions. We will first explore prominent theories that explain, through diverse viewpoints, the sequence of perceptual, neural and physiological processes that are thought to produce emotions. Following this theoretical framework is a discussion of the six categories of basic emotions, the external conditions associated with eliciting each, and the types of behavioral responses belonging to each classification. Once you have gained a foundation for understanding the impact of external stimuli in eliciting overt behavioral changes, the chapter will then take a deeper look at the internal mediators (i.e. neural and circuit levels in the brain) that play a dual role in: first registering within the brain the array of stimuli encountered externally, and second, forming internal computations of their significance to generate the appropriate physiological and interoceptive changes that are the basis for the labels and categories used to define individual emotions. We will conclude the chapter with discussions on the translational aspects of this field of study and the application of findings to understanding the etiology of mood and emotional disorders and the contemporary approaches to treat these conditions.

Cedric L. Williams, PhD

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