Appraisal Theory: The Two Biological Stages Of Emotion

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Psychologists define emotion as physical signals of the body which react to external stimuli. Emotion also pertains three components which are: physiological changes, subjective feelings, and associated behaviors. Biological factors are the effects of the function and behavior and cognition is the mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through experiences,thought, and the senses. Biological factors in emotion is mainly about the functioning of the amygdala. The two biological pathways of emotion are the short and long route, which is the direct and indirect emotional pathway. The cognitive lateral of emotion focuses on the Appraisal Theory which can be broken down to as the two evaluations of the effect of the emotional situation. There is controversy on which role of factor is prominently present in emotion. Although it can be argued that one factor has a more influential guide to emotion, emotion is really the result of mutual between both biological and …show more content…

The study uses rats and a fear conditioning paradigm. Paired foot shocks are made with a tone, and small lesions of the brain are made. It was found that when fear stimuli struck, some cells transmit to the amygdala, signals from the thalamus are fast and crude and signals from cortex are slow and refined. Limitations of the study are that there might be an ethical consideration regarding to the harm to the rats. Strengths of the study is that it is highly controlled, and supports the localization of function of emotion and provides insight on the evolution connect of our brains. This shows the biological factors of emotion, providing information on the present factors of two biological pathways. This tells that emotion can from this factor, where biology can be a great result in the