James-Lange Theory of Emotion

In Class

During class, we studied about various theories of emotions. One of the most important concepts was the James-Lange theory of emotion. According to this theory, the sequence of of the process of emotion is event --> physical response --> emotional recognition. In other words, because of our body's physical response, we then only know the emotion that we are feeling.

Some may argue that we experience the emotion before our body reacts to the event. The most classical example that I like to use is the butterflies in our stomach. For instance, in situation A, Mary is a friend of John. One day, Mary is talking to John and she has butterflies in her stomach. She concludes that she likes John. In situation B, Mary is a friend of John but she likes him too. Whenever she talks to him, she always has butterflies in her stomach. The question is, which situation is true?

 The knowledge issue about having a physical response first is that what if our physical response is not based not the particular event although we think it is? For example, in situation A, Mary could be having butterflies in her stomach NOT because of John but because of her piano performance that is going to take place shortly after. She had mistaken her physical response as her liking towards John.

In general, both situations A and B are possible and have happened among people. As long as they believe that their emotion is true, then they will act towards it. If their emotion does not seem to be what they think of before, then they will change the course of their life back to the way it is.