The aim of this essay is to look at the theories and components of emotion and to explore the biological and cognitive approach to emotion in pursuit of answering the question - What is emotion?

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WHAT IS EMOTION?

The aim of this essay is to look at the theories and components of emotion and to explore the biological and cognitive approach to emotion in pursuit of answering the question - What is emotion?

Early theory of emotion is important because it gives an historical backbone to the later hypotheses. The earlier emotional studies were of a more philosophical level, as according to Aristotle and Plato et al, who believed people to be rational and level headed until they came across emotion and subsequently found human nature could be quite irrational at times. (Malin and Birch 1998). For the sake of this account, the theory of William James and Carl Lange (1884) will be the starting point. As stated by (Malin and Birch 1998), according to James-Lange what was previously understood to be emotion was turned on its head. These two men simultaneously came up with the same method of thinking in that the emotion was a response to the action taken from a perceived event, and not the other way around. The stimulus provokes the change in bodily response and what we feel with regard to the change is emotion. Emotion is a