PSY 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Walter Bradford Cannon, Autonomic Nervous System, Sympathetic Nervous System

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Deborah Landry

Document Summary

Of all the species, humans seem the most emotional. They exist not to give us interesting experiences but to enhance our survival. Both negative and positive emotions are adaptive. Emotion a response of the whole organism, involving: (1) physiological arousal (ex: heart pounding), (2) expressive behaviours (ex: quickened pace), and (3) conscious experience (ex: a sense of fear, and later joy). Does cognition always precede emotion? (first thinking about danger, and then emotional reaction?) James and lange proposed an idea that was diametrically opposed the common sense-view (common sense tells us that we cry because we are sad, we lash out because we are anger, etc. Walter cannon and bard thought this theory was implausible. experience of emotion. (the emotion-triggering stimulus is routed simultaneously to the brain"s cortex, causing the subjective awareness of emotion, and to the sympathetic nervous system, causing the body"s arousal).