Perry Benson Essays (525 words) - Psychology, Neuroscience, Brain

Perry Benson Journal #5 11/2/2017 James-Lange Theory of Emotion, Sympathetic Nervous System (FoFR) American psychologist William James and Danish psychologist Carl Lange were both curious to propose an independent theory linking the mental and physical aspects of emotion (Baumeister, Bushman pg 188.) The James- Lange theory is one of the earliest theories of emotion within the time- frame of modern psychology. To extrapolate this point further, generally the James-Lange theory of emotion suggests that the bodily processes of emotion come first, and the mind's perception of these reactions then create further subjective feelings of emotion (Baumeister, Bushman pg, 189.) When something happens, your body and your brain perceive the events in front of you, and then these physiological events form the basis for how you feel. The sympathetic nervous system is an extension of our brain connected to the autonomic nervous system, which contains adrenergic fibers depressing secretion, decreases tone of and contractility of smooth muscle, and increases the heart rate (Baumesiter, Bushman pg, 194.) The sympathetic nervous system also houses the innate ability of the flight or fight response. This state of mind is triggered by frightening events or when we fear we are in danger. This altered state leads to the many changes in our body, including muscle tension and a rapid heart beat. James-Lange Theory of Emotion - Friends Unfortunately I could not find a direct link to the video containing the specific part of friends that refers directly to the James-Lange theory, but I will do my best to explain it in full. In the episode I watched, a scene appears where Rachel, is overly worried about her newborn baby because she accidentally locked her into an apartment. The apartment itself posed no hazard to the child, no windows were open, all kitchen appliances were of, and the baby was sleeping in her crib. However, Rachel being a worried mother, starts misconstruing impossibilities in her head of all these different, and very unlikely events, that could happen which would result in her baby being harmed. This specific scene could be branched back to the James-Lange theory in one specific way, Rachel is putting the situation first, perceiving the possibilities of what could go wrong, then experiencing emotional shock from the situations she has created in her head. This pathway of thinking directly follows the James- Lange theory (Baumeister, Bushman pg, 189.) Response ? Cognitive Processing ? Emotional Stimulus Sympathetic Nervous System (FoFR) - Friends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2z2pCMu3xg In the video shown above Phoebe, who has taken up the arts a new hobby, brings home two very creepy and scary looking paintings/models. Rachel seeing this as an opportunity to play a prank on Joey decides to have fun with the paintings. She opens his door whilst hes sleeping and very eerily peeks the painting through the door, mimicking some sort of animation and successfully scaring Joey. As we can see in the video, in the moment Joey felt that he was in danger and thus started exhibiting signs of the "flight or fight response." Jumping up and screaming were amongst the visible effects from this altered state of mind, it's also likely that his heart speed increased and his body muscles were contracting. They are also other likely symptoms of the sympathetic nervous system as well. (Baumeister, Bushman, pg 194-195.)