Emotion
The word emotion dates back to 1579, when it was adapted from the French word émouvoir, which means to stir up. The term emotion was introduced into academic discussion as a catch-all term for passions, sentiments and affections. The word emotion was coined in the early 1800s by Thomas Brown. It is around the 1830s that the modern concept of emotion first emerged for the English language. No one felt emotions before about 1830. Instead they felt other things like passions, accidents of the soul, or moral sentiments. They explained them very differently from how we understand emotions today. Some cross-cultural studies indicate that the categorization of emotion and classification of basic emotions such as anger and sadness are not universal. Boundaries and domains of these concepts are categorized differently by all cultures.
Evolutionary perspectives on emotion began in the mid-to-late 19th century with Charles Darwin's 1872 book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. In that work Darwin argued that emotional expressions have evolutionary origins and can serve adaptive and communicative functions. He pioneered the systematic study of nonverbal behaviour, concluding that expressions are universal across human cultures. Homologous forms of emotional expression occur in other animals. Darwin interpreted these similarities as evidence that emotional expression had been shaped by evolutionary processes such as natural selection. Contemporary views along the evolutionary psychology spectrum posit that both basic emotions and social emotions evolved to motivate behaviors that were adaptive in the ancestral environment. Paul D. MacLean claims that emotion competes with even more instinctive responses on one hand and the more abstract reasoning on the other hand.
Based on discoveries made through neural mapping of the limbic system, the neurobiological explanation of human emotion is that emotion is a pleasant or unpleasant mental state organized in the limbic system of the mammalian brain. Neurochemicals like dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin step-up or step-down the brain's activity level. These changes are visible in body movements, gestures and postures. Pioneering work by Paul Broca in 1878, James Papez in 1937, and Paul D. MacLean in 1952 suggested that emotion is related to a group of structures in the center of the brain called the limbic system. This includes the hypothalamus, cingulate cortex, hippocampi, and other structures. The amygdala plays an important role in coordinating behavioral input based on presented neurotransmitters that respond to threat stimuli. It can be referred to as a key structure to understand potential responses of behavior in danger-like situations in human and non-human mammals.
In his 1884 article William James argued that feelings and emotions were secondary to physiological phenomena. He proposed that the perception of what he called an exciting fact directly led to a physiological response known as emotion. The Danish psychologist Carl Lange also proposed a similar theory at around the same time, and therefore this theory became known as the James-Lange theory. As James wrote, we feel sad because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble. Walter Bradford Cannon agreed that physiological responses played a crucial role in emotions but did not believe that physiological responses alone could explain subjective emotional experiences. He argued that physiological responses were too slow and often imperceptible. Stanley Schachter formulated his theory on the earlier work of a Spanish physician, Gregorio Marañón, who injected patients with epinephrine and subsequently asked them how they felt. Schachter suggested that physiological reactions contributed to emotional experience by facilitating a focused cognitive appraisal of a given physiologically arousing event.
Many different disciplines have produced work on the emotions. In psychiatry, emotions are examined as part of the discipline's study and treatment of mental disorders in humans. Nursing studies emotions as part of its approach to the provision of holistic health care to humans. Psychology examines emotions from a scientific perspective by treating them as mental processes and behavior. They explore the underlying physiological and neurological processes. Social sciences often examine emotion for the role that it plays in human culture and social interactions. In sociology, emotions are examined for the role they play in human society, social patterns and interactions, and culture. Émile Durkheim wrote about collective effervescence or emotional energy that was experienced by members of totemic rituals in Australian Aboriginal society. He explained how the heightened state of emotional energy achieved during totemic rituals transported individuals above themselves giving them the sense that they were in the presence of a higher power.
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Common questions
When was the word emotion first used in English?
The word emotion dates back to 1579 when it was adapted from the French word émouvoir. The term was introduced into academic discussion as a catch-all for passions, sentiments and affections.
Who coined the modern concept of emotion around 1830?
Thomas Brown coined the word emotion in the early 1800s while the modern concept emerged around the 1830s for the English language. No one felt emotions before about 1830 but instead felt other things like passions or moral sentiments.
What did Charles Darwin argue about emotional expressions in his 1872 book?
Charles Darwin argued that emotional expressions have evolutionary origins and can serve adaptive and communicative functions in his 1872 book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. He concluded that expressions are universal across human cultures and occur in homologous forms in other animals.
Which brain structures does Paul D. MacLean associate with emotion in 1952?
Paul D. MacLean suggested in 1952 that emotion is related to a group of structures called the limbic system including the hypothalamus cingulate cortex and hippocampi. The amygdala plays an important role in coordinating behavioral input based on presented neurotransmitters that respond to threat stimuli.
How does the James-Lange theory explain the origin of feelings?
William James argued in his 1884 article that feelings and emotions were secondary to physiological phenomena where perception leads directly to a physiological response known as emotion. Carl Lange proposed a similar theory at around the same time so this became known as the James-Lange theory.