Question

Alice, a sophomore in high school, is walking home from school. Jim, one of the "cool" upperclassmen, approached her and asks to walk with her. All of a sudden, she experiences a feeling of excitement and, at the exact same time, she notices that her heart is pounding. This sequence of events is MOST consistent with which theory of emotion?

Answer 1

Answer: Cannon-Bard

Explanation: Unlike some other theories that deal with the occurrence of emotions and physiological changes in the body, according to this theory, physiological changes in the body and the occurrence of emotions occur at the same time. So a physiological change, such as a pounding of the heart in this case, and a sense of excitement came at the same time due to an external event, in this case when Jim approached Alice.

The reason for this claim is that the physiological changes in the body and the feeling of emotion are separate, i.e independent from each other and located in different parts of the brain, so they can simultaneously react to a stimulus. Physiological changes do not have to occur first, and only then emotions, which would be the case if they were not separate, that is, they were not independent.