Physiological Influences on Emotions

Have you ever felt a knot in your stomach when you were anxious? Have you ever blushed when you were embarrassed? Have you ever felt a surge of phys- ical energy when you were angry or frightened? In each case, you experienced a physiological reaction to something.

Some early theorists of emotion believed that physiological changes are caused by external phenomenon. This theory is called the organismic view of emotions. For example, early theorists of emotions believed that the knot in your stomach is a direct response to a low score on an exam and blushing is a direct response to a comment someone made that called attention to you.

Organismic View of Emotions
This view of emotions was originally advanced by philosopher William James (1890) and his colleague Carl Lange (1922). The organismic view, also called the James­Lange view, proposes that when some event occurs, we respond physiologically, and only after that do we experience emotions. This perspective assumes emotions are reflexes that follow from physiological arousal. In other words, in this view emotions are both the product and the expression of what happens in our bodies.

James wrote that emotional expression begins with a perception of something—perhaps seeing a gift with your name on it or noticing that someone with a weapon is running toward you. Following the perception, James believed we experience changes in our bodies: We smile on seeing the gift; adrenaline surges when we are approached by someone with a weapon. Finally, said James, we experience emotion: We feel joy at the gift, fear at the aggressor. James wrote that emotional expression begins with a perception of something—perhaps seeing a gift with your name on it or noticing that someone with a weapon is running toward you. Following the perception, James believed we experience changes in our bodies: We smile on seeing the gift; adrenaline surges when we are approached by someone with a weapon. Finally, said James, we experience emotion: We feel joy at the gift, fear at the aggressor.

The organismic view of emotions regards emotions as instinctual. They are impulses that arise reflexively in response to physiological arousal caused by some external stimulus. James specifically claimed that there is none of what he called “intellectual mind stuff” (Finkelstein, 1980) that shapes our perceptions of stimuli and, by extension, our emotions. For James and others who shared his view, emotions result from physiological factors that are instinctual and beyond our con- scious analysis or control. Since the time of James, the organ- ismic view of emotions has been shown to be seriously flawed. More recent research demonstrates that physiological reactions are neither as instinctual nor as subject to conscious control as James assumed (Ekman & Davidson, 1994; Frijda. 1986).

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