Abstract
Zajonc (1980, 1984b) has argued that affect has many properties not shared by cognition and that affect is the product of a separate, partially independent system. His position has been understood as implying that cognitive therapy is essentially misguided in attempting to modify emotional disorders. In the present article we justify the approach taken by cognitive therapy by making distinctions among different types of cognition and demonstrating that certain of these types have precisely those properties that Zajonc claimed to be unique to affect. Cognition that is unconscious and automatic can, for example, be effortless and uncontrollable, be influenced by drugs and hormones, be irrevocable by deliberate thought, and so forth. It thus seems possible that such types of cognition can be part of affective responses and can play a role in producing these “emotional” qualities. Therefore, a secure theoretical basis exists for using cognitive therapy to treat affective disorders. Examining several recent advances in understanding and treating pathological affects supports this analysis, revealing that each succeeds by differentiating types of cognition and their role in emotion.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Angrist, B., Sathananthan, G., Wilk, S., & Gershon, S. (1974). Amphetamine psychosis: Behavioral and biochemical aspects.Journal of Psychiatric Research, 11 13–24.
Baars, B. J. (1981).Cognitive versusinference.American Psychologist, 36 223–224.
Baron, J. (1977). Menstrual hormone changes and instinctual tendencies in dreams.Motivation and Emotion, 1 273–282.
Bartlett, F. C. (1932).Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Bate, W. J. (1946).From classic to romantic: Premises of taste in eighteenth-century England. New York: Harper & Row.
Baumer, F. L. (1973). Romanticism (ca. 1780-ca. 1830). In P. P. Wiener (Ed.),Dictionary of the history of ideas (Vol. 4, pp. 198–204). New York: Scribner's.
Beck, A. T. (1976).Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. New York: Meridian.
Birnbaum, M. H. (1981). Thinking and feeling: A skeptical review.American Psychologist, 36 99–101.
Birnbaum, M. H., & Mellers, B. A. (1979a). One-mediator model of exposure effects is still viable.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37 1090–1096.
Birnbaum, M. H., & Mellers, B. A. (1979b). Stimulus recognition may mediate exposure effects.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37 391–394.
Bower, G. H. (1981). Mood and memory.American Psychologist, 36 129–148.
Brandt, R. B. (1941).The philosophy of Schleiermacher: The development of his theory of scientific and religious knowledge. New York: Harper.
Chomsky, N. (1972).Language and mind (rev. ed.). New York: Harcourt.
Ebbinghaus, H. (1964).Memory. New York: Dover. (Original work published 1885).
Ellis, A. (1982). A reappraisal of rational-emotive therapy's theoretical foundations and therapeutic methods: A reply to Eschenroeder.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 6 393–398.
Eschenroeder, C. (1982). How rational is rational-emotive therapy? A critical appraisal of its theoretical foundations and therapeutic methods.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 6 381–392.
Fischhoff, B. (1975). Hindsight ≠ foresight: The effect of outcome knowledge on judgment under uncertainty.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1 288–299.
Foa, E. B., & Kozak, M. J. (1986). Emotional processing of fear: Exposure to corrective information.Psychological Bulletin, 99 20–35.
Fodor, J. A. (1968). The appeal to tacit knowledge in psychological explanation.Journal of Philosophy, 65 627–640.
Fodor, J. A. (1981).Representations: Philosophical essays on the foundations of cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Goffman, E. (1959).The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Doubleday.
Greenberg, L. S., & Safran, J. D. (1984). Integrating affect and cognition: A perspective on the process of therapeutic change.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 8 559–578.
Hollon, S. D., DeRubeis, R. J., & Evans, M. D. (1987). Causal mediation of change in treatment for depression: Discrimination between nonspecificity and noncausality.Psychological Bulletin, 102 139–149.
Kunst-Wilson, W. R., & Zajonc, R. B. (1980). Affective discrimination of stimuli that cannot be recognized.Science, 207 557–558.
LaBerge, D., & Samuels, S. J. (1974). Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading.Cognitive Psychology, 6 293–323.
Lazarus, R. S. (1981). A cognitivist's reply to Zajonc on emotion and cognition.American Psychologist, 36 222–223.
Lazarus, R. S. (1982). Thoughts on the relations between emotion and cognition.American Psychologist, 37 1019–1024.
Lazarus, R. S. (1984). On the primacy of cognition.American Psychologist, 39 124–129.
Lazarus, R. S., Coyne, J. C., & Folkman, S. (1984). Cognition, emotion and motivation: The doctoring of Humpty-Dumpty. In K. R. Scherer & P. Ekman (Eds.),Approaches to emotion (pp. 221–237). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Leventhal, H. (1984). A perceptual motor theory of emotion. In K. R. Scherer & P. Ekman (Eds.),Approaches to emotion (pp. 271–291). Hillsdale, NJ: E
Logan, G. D. (1985). Skill and automaticity: Relations, implications, and future directions.Canadian Journal of Psychology, 39 367–386.
Mandler, G. (1982). The structure of value: Accounting for taste. In M. S. Clark & S. T. Fiske (Eds.),Affect and cognition: The seventeenth annual Carnegie symposium on cognition (pp. 3–36). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Mandler, G. (1984).Mind and body: Psychology of emotion and stress. New York: Norton.
Mandler, G., Nakamura, Y., & Van Zandt, B. J. S. (1987). Nonspecific effects of exposure on stimuli that cannot be recognized.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 13 646–648.
Mandler, G., & Shebo, B. J. (1983). Knowing and liking.Motivation and Emotion, 7 125–144.
Mellers, B. A. (1981). Feeling more than thinking (Comment).American Psychologist, 36 802–803.
Moreland, R. L., & Zajonc, R. B. (1977). Exposure effects may not depend on stimulus recognition.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37 1085–1089.
Novaco, R. W. (1975).Anger control: The development and evaluation of an experimental treatment. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
Parrott, W. G. (1988). The role of cognition in emotional experience. In W. J. Baker, L. P. Mos, H. V. Rappard, & H. J. Stam (Eds.),Recent trends in theoretical psychology (pp. 327–337). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Parrott, W. G., & Sabini, J. (1984, September). Cognitive defects, emotion, and action. In M. Frese & W. Hacker (Chairs),Cognitive and motivational aspects of goal directed action. Symposium conducted at the XXIII International Congress of Psychology, Acapulco.
Plutchik, R. (1985). On emotion: The chicken-and-egg problem revisited.Motivation and Emotion, 9 197–200.
Posner, M. I. (1973).Cognitive: An introduction. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman.
Rachman, S. (1981). The primacy of affect: Some theoretical implications.Behaviour Research and Therapy, 19 279–290.
Rachman, S. (1984). A reassessment of the “primacy of affect.”Cognitive Therapy and Research, 8 579–584.
Ross, L., Lepper, M. R., & Hubbard, M. (1975). Perseverance in self-perception and social perception: Biased attributional processes in the debriefing paradigm.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32 880–892.
Russell, J. A., & Woudzia, L. (1986). Affective judgements, common sense, and Zajonc's thesis of independence.Motivation and Emotion, 10 169–183.
Schenk, H. G. (1966).The mind of the European romantics: An essay in cultural history. London: Constable.
Schleiermacher, F. D. E. (1955).On religion: Speeches to its cultured despisers (J. Oman, Trans.). New York: Frederick Ungar. (Original work published 1799)
Schul, Y., & Burnstein, E. (1985). When discounting fails: Conditions under which individuals use discredited information in making a judgment.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49 894–903.
Shiffrin, R. M., & Schneider, W. (1977). Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory.Psychological Review, 84 127–190.
Simons, A. D., Garfield, S. L., & Murphy, G. E. (1984). The process of change in cognitive therapy and pharmacotherapy: Changes in mood and cognition.Archives of General Psychiatry, 41 45–51.
Stroop, J. R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18 643–662.
Wundt, W. (1907).Outlines of psychology. Leipzig: Wilhelm Englemann.
Wyer, R. S., Jr. (1981). An information-processing perspective oon social attribution. In J. H. Harvey, W. Ickes, & R. F. Kidd (Eds.),New directions in attribution research (Vol. 3, pp. 359–404). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Zajonc, R. B. (1980). Feeling and thinking: Preferences need no inferences.American Psychologist, 35 151–175.
Zajonc, R. B. (1981). A one-factor mind about mind and emotion.American Psychologist, 36 102–103.
Zajonc, R. B. (1984a). The interaction of affect and cognition. In K. R. Scherer & P. Ekman (Eds.),Approaches to emotion (pp. 239–246). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Zajonc, R. B. (1984b). On the primacy of affect.American Psychologist, 35 117–123.
Zajonc, R. B., & Markus, H. (1982). Affective and cognitive factors in preferences.Journal of Consumer Research, 9 123–131.
Zajonc, R. B., Pietromonaco, P., & Bargh, J. (1982). Independence and interaction of affect and cognition. In M. S. Clark & S. T. Fiske (Eds.),Affect and cognition: The seventeenth annual Carnegie symposium on cognition (pp. 211–227). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Parrott, W.G., Sabini, J. On the “emotional” qualities of certain types of cognition: A reply to arguments for the independence of cognition and affect. Cogn Ther Res 13, 49–65 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01178489
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01178489