PSYA01H3 Chapter 8: PSYA01 STUDY NOTES Chapter 8.docx
Document Summary
Multidimensional scaling to create a map of emotional experiences. Valence, how positive or negative the experience is. Arousal, how active or passive the experience is. Any definition of emotion must contain two things. The fact that emotional experiences are always good or bad. The fact that these experiences are associated with characteristic levels of bodily arousal. Emotion: a positive or negative experience that is associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity. For william james, each unique emotional experience was the result of a unique pattern of physiological responses, and he suggested that without all the heart pounding and muscle clenching, there would be no experience of emotion at all. James-lange theory: a theory which asserts that stimuli trigger activity in the autonomic nervous system, which in turn produces an emotional experience in the brain. Emotional experience is the consequence and not the cause of our physiological reactions to objects and events in the world.
