page_title: Emotion
section_title: Notable theorists
hierarchical_section_title: Emotion / Notable theorists
caption_attribution_description: English: William James (1842-1910) about the time he wrote on emotions
context_page_description: Emotions are biological states associated with the nervous system brought on by neurophysiological changes variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioural responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. Emotions are often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, creativity and motivation.
  Research on emotion has increased significantly over the past two decades with many fields contributing including psychology, neuroscience, affective neuroscience, endocrinology, medicine, history, sociology of emotions, and computer science. The numerous theories that attempt to explain the origin, neurobiology, experience, and function of emotions have only fostered more intense research on this topic. Current areas of research in the concept of emotion include the development of materials that stimulate and elicit emotion. In addition, PET scans and fMRI scans help study the affective picture processes in the brain.
  From a purely mechanistic perspective, "Emotions can be defined as a positive or negative experience that is associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity."
context_section_description: In the late 19th century, the most influential theorists were William James (1842–1910) and Carl Lange (1834–1900). James was an American psychologist and philosopher who wrote about educational psychology, psychology of religious experience/mysticism, and the philosophy of pragmatism. Lange was a Danish physician and psychologist. Working independently, they developed the James–Lange theory, a hypothesis on the origin and nature of emotions. The theory states that within human beings, as a response to experiences in the world, the autonomic nervous system creates physiological events such as muscular tension, a rise in heart rate, perspiration, and dryness of the mouth. Emotions, then, are feelings which come about as a result of these physiological changes, rather than being their cause.
  Silvan Tomkins (1911–1991) developed the affect theory and script theory. The affect theory introduced the concept of basic emotions, and was based on the idea that the dominance of the emotion, which he called the affected system, was the motivating force in human life.
  Some of the most influential deceased theorists on emotion from the 20th century include Magda B. Arnold (1903–2002), an American psychologist who developed the appraisal theory of emotions; Richard Lazarus (1922–2002), an American psychologist who specialized in emotion and stress, especially in relation to cognition; Herbert A. Simon (1916–2001), who included emotions into decision making and artificial intelligence; Robert Plutchik (1928–2006), an American psychologist who developed a psychoevolutionary theory of emotion; Robert Zajonc (1923–2008) a Polish–American social psychologist who specialized in social and cognitive processes such as social facilitation; Robert C. Solomon (1942–2007), an American philosopher who contributed to the theories on the philosophy of emotions with books such as What Is An Emotion?: Classic and Contemporary Readings (2003); Peter Goldie (1946–2011), a British philosopher who specialized in ethics, aesthetics, emotion, mood and character; Nico Frijda (1927–2015), a Dutch psychologist who advanced the theory that human emotions serve to promote a tendency to undertake actions that are appropriate in the circumstances, detailed in his book The Emotions (1986); Jaak Panksepp (1943-2017), an Estonian-born American psychologist, psychobiologist, neuroscientist and pioneer in affective neuroscience.
  Influential theorists who are still active include the following psychologists, neurologists, philosophers, and sociologists:
  Lisa Feldman Barrett – (born 1963) neuroscientist and psychologist specializing in affective science and human emotion
  John Cacioppo – (born 1951) from the University of Chicago, founding father with Gary Berntson of social neuroscience
  Randall Collins – (born 1941) American sociologist from the University of Pennsylvania developed the interaction ritual theory which includes the emotional entrainment model
  António Damásio (born 1944) – Portuguese behavioral neurologist and neuroscientist who works in the US
  Richard Davidson (born 1951) – American psychologist and neuroscientist; pioneer in affective neuroscience
  Paul Ekman (born 1934) – psychologist specializing in the study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions
  Barbara Fredrickson – Social psychologist who specializes in emotions and positive psychology.
  Arlie Russell Hochschild (born 1940) – American sociologist whose central contribution was in forging a link between the subcutaneous flow of emotion in social life and the larger trends set loose by modern capitalism within organizations
  Joseph E. LeDoux (born 1949) – American neuroscientist who studies the biological underpinnings of memory and emotion, especially the mechanisms of fear
  George Mandler (born 1924) – American psychologist who wrote influential books on cognition and emotion
  Konstantinos V. Petrides – Greek-British psychologist who specializes in emotion, personality, psychometrics, and philosophy of mind. professor of psychology and psychometrics at University College London
  Jesse Prinz 
caption: William James
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