Psychology I / Theories of Emotion
Practice question · Multiple choice

James-Lange, Cannon-Bard and Schachter-Singer all concern the same two ingredients - bodily arousal and felt emotion. Why do they nonetheless make different predictions rather than describing the same process in different words?

Hints
  1. Write each theory as an arrow diagram between arousal, cognition and felt emotion. Do the arrows differ?
  2. The suspension bridge study is evidence for one of them and against another. Which, and why?
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D. Because they disagree about the order and role of the ingredients.

Why

The three arrange the same vocabulary differently and the arrangements have consequences: James–Lange predicts distinct emotions need distinct bodily states, Cannon–Bard that neither causes the other, Schachter–Singer that arousal supplies how much and cognition which. Modern work suggests no single arrangement covers every case.

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