5

Bodily Changes and Emotions

CONTENTS

The Autonomic Nervous System

Parasympathetic and Sympathetic Branches

Post-Jamesian Theories

Cannon's Critique of Autonomic Specificity

Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

The Search for Physiological Specificity

Directed Facial Action

The Blush

The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis

The Immune System

Parasympathetic Response and Positive Emotion

The Interplay Between Bodily Reaction and Emotional Experience

Bodily Action Generates Emotional Response

Reduced Input from the Body and Diminished Emotional Experience

Embodiment, Cognition, and Social Interaction

Somatic Marker Hypothesis

Embodied Cognition and Empathy

Summary

To Think About and Discuss

Further Reading

images

FIGURE 5.0 Bernini: St. Teresa. Of this sculpture Gombrich (1972, p. 345) says that Bernini has “carried us to a pitch of emotion which artists had so far shunned.”

A cold sweat covers me, and trembling seizes me all over.

Sappho (circa 580 BCE)

Williams James is perhaps the most famous American psychologist. He corresponded regularly with his brother, Henry, who became equally famous as a novelist. Their letters are filled with references to their physical ills and bodily sensations—vivid and personal descriptions of back pains, upset stomachs, bodily fatigue. Were these experiences a clue to why William James proposed, in 1884, a radical idea that would turn the field of research on ...

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