Lie to me

by Wes Eckhardt | Thursday December 09, '21 at 02:05 PM
Tags: psychology emotions
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William James (1842 – 1910), the father of American psychology, had his own particular theory of how human emotions operated. He believed that the body is central to the generation and experience of emotions (similar in some ways to the Darwinian view). James believed that we first must experience the bodily changes that have been initiated directly by the perception of the provoking stimulus. He wrote that “we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble, and not that we cry, strike, or tremble, because we are sorry, angry, or fearful, as the case may be.” (James, 1884, p.190). He held that “bodily changes follow directly the PERCEPTION of the exciting fact, and… our feeling of the same changes as they occur IS the emotion” (Ibid, 189-190). In other words James’ theory was that, in order to have an emotion, one must first have bodily changes of some sort.

James delivered a lecture called “The Gospel of Relaxation” in Boston in which he stated that if you are dejected and want to be happy, don’t mope around, act as if you are happy, and you will become happy. “ The …voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our …cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, to look cheerfully, and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.” (James, 1899, p. 122). James was aware of the cognitive component of our emotional state; however, he believed that the feedback we receive from our bodies is such a major influence of our experience of an emotion that it could override the cognitive aspect of the emotion.

James, W. (1884) What is an emotion? Mind, 19, 188- 205
James, W. (1884) Talks to teachers on psychology: and to students on some of life’s ideals New York: Henry Holt