Nonetheless, both scientists agreed that emotion did not begin with the conscious experience of an emotion, but bodily responses to external events. To Lange, emotion was a cardiovascular event (Lang, 1994). While James emphasized the various somatic and visceral responses to stimuli that can prompt conscious emotional experiences, Lange had a specific emphasis. William James (1948) and Carl Lange (1885) devised two distinct theories surrounding physiology and emotions independently. It is also difficult to perceive different physiological states accurately (e.g. This theory has been criticized as it cannot explain emotion without any arousal, nor the role of learning andĬognition.The James-Lange theory of emotion has spurned over a century of research into the physiology of emotion, and notable critics of the James-Lange theory (such as the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion) have also garnered tremendous traction from researchers.Thus, emotions are caused by bodily sensations (you become happier when you smile, you are afraid

James-Lange theory of emotion (1880s) proposed that bodily changes come first andįorm the basis of an emotional experience.These theories had different emphases, and some scholars argue that the James-Lange theory of emotion is a distortion of both scientists’ work. William James (1884) and Carl Lange (1885) devised two physiological theories of emotion independently.

James lange theory of emotion