The James-Lange Theory, And The Cannon-Bard

Happiness, sadness, anger, and excitement are emotions people have felt at least once in their lives. The question about why people feel emotions is a debated topic among psychologists for a while as there are many debates on what emotions are. There are three major theories that have been developed over the last one hundred years: the Facial Feedback Theory, the James-Lange Theory, and the Cannon-Bard Theory. The theories and are still discussed today.

Smiling is associated with happiness, while frowning is associated with being sad. Other emotions have a specific facial movement that corresponds with it. Charles Darwin and William James both felt that facial movements greatly influenced emotions and helped people of various cultures

One must be frightened, or at least that’s what the James-Lange Theory states. The James-Lange theory was officially developed in 1922 by the two men. First, William James, in 1890, came to his conclusion that bodily reactions form the basis of experiencing emotions. Carl Lange came to the same conclusion around the same time and their individual theories were combined. The basis of their theory explains how bodily reactions and emotions coincide with one another. When being chased by a bear, it makes sense to be afraid and to have a racing heart, but that physiological response may also indicate anger, or being physically exhausted. According to James, the theory is commonsense, which at first glance it seems to be, but psychologists disagree and deny the theory. Psychologists who disagree say the James-Lange Theory of Emotion is backwards - you do not do something then feel a feeling, instead you feel an emotion then act on what feeling. After there was a wide spread of disagreement, a new theory was created, which is the Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion. At the time, the theory appeared the be correct and was widely believed but shortly after, it was disproven and rejected among