The Cannon-Bard Theory, one of the theories that have a fewer believer base, was created in the early 1920s. Since then, other theories such as the Two-Factor theory and the James-Lange Theory have been created and are more widely acclaimed. The Cannon-Bard Theory states that after a stimulus (external occurrence) takes place, humans react to the prompt and experience the emotion affiliated with it at the SAME TIME. For instance, when a bear roars at you (the stimulus), rather than simply feeling instant fear, the Cannon-Bard Theory states that both the feeling of fear (the emotion) and the symptoms of fear: a pounding heart, sweating, e.t.c (the reaction) both occur at the same time. This is an outdated theory for its limitations are significant. For instance, it is mostly seen that the reaction occurs before the actual emotion. However, this common idea (could be regarded as a second-order knowledge claim) is directly opposed by the Cannon-Bard Theory. It however manages to cover the major points of a response to a stimulus, showing the complex thought process behind its design. Despite all its limitations, however, the Cannon-Bard Theory is seen to be a theory with relatively few limitations, considering the time period it was created in.
It results very interesting that the Cannon-Bard Theory hypothesizes that both stimuli and emotion occur at the same time. What this chronology appears to get rid off is the misinterpretations of our stimuli to then conclude an emotion. For instance, feeling sick in the stomach might mean both having a stomachache or being fearful. If we were to conclude our emotions after perceiving the stimuli, we might misunderstand what our body is trying to tell us. However, because both stimuli and emotion happen at the same time, this misunderstanding might be evaded.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting to see how the canon bard hypothesis that how stimuli, emotion and reaction work simultaneously. for example I like the analogy Fernanda uses with feeling sick, how it means how we are fearful when we conclude our emotions when perceiving the stimuli of the stomach pain. It is interesting how while we know something is wrong, our memory can't distinguish the pain but we just can't diagnose or tell where the pain is coming form creating a sick and overwhelming emotion.
ReplyDeleteI understand why at the time people believed this theory to be correct as it is hard to notice exactly when you feel the reaction and when you feel the emotion, at the time the situation is taking place. I would assume this is because you only get the chance to really think about it after the situation has occurred, when it is already more vague; this makes it easier for the individual to simply combine the reaction and emotion and believe they happened at the same time because both feelings are so strong it would be hard to differentiate them and think of them separately.
ReplyDeleteThe Cannon Bard Theory has an interesting ideology of one feeling a stimuli and emotion at the same time. It's interesting to see that the cannon bard theory examples you have given are all aggressive emotions. I see that the extent of which the theory can be seen within oneself differs between emotional levels. It makes sense why the cannon bard theory would imply that stimuli and emotion happen at the same time if the emotions one experiences are very aggressive. It makes it much harder for oneself to see if the stimuli came before the emotion, or the emotion and stimuli both happened simultaneously.
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