Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

2020 Edition
| Editors: Virgil Zeigler-Hill, Todd K. Shackelford

Cognitive Theory of Emotion

Reference work entry
First Online:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_496
  • 564 Downloads
How to cite

Synonyms

Appraisal theory; Belief-desire theory of emotion; Judgment theory of emotion; Perceptual theory of emotion

Definition

The term “cognitive theory of emotion” denotes a family of emotion theories, developed mostly in psychology and philosophy, which share the assumption that emotions (the episodic states of persons denoted in everyday language by words like “joy,” “sadness,” “hope,” “fear,” “anger,” “pity,” etc.), or at least a core subset of emotions, presuppose for their existence certain cognitions about the eliciting events. Typically it is assumed that these emotion-relevant cognitions determine, alone or together with noncognitive mental states (in particular, desires), whether or not an event elicits an emotion, the kind of emotion it elicits (e. g., joy, sadness) and the intensity of the elicited emotion (e.g., weak joy, intense joy).

Introduction

In the classical formulation of cognitive emotion theory, the emotion-relevant cognitions are beliefs or judgments, such as...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Aristotle. (1980). Rhetorik [Rhetoric]. München: Fink (Original work published 350 b. c.)Google Scholar
  2. Arnold, M. B. (1960). Emotion and personality (Vols. 1 & 2). New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
  3. Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., DeWall, C. N., & Zhang, L. (2007). How emotion shapes behavior: Feedback, anticipation, and reflection, rather than direct causation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11, 167–203.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  4. Castelfranchi, C., & Miceli, M. (2009). The cognitive-motivational compound of emotional experience. Emotion Review, 1, 223–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Deonna, J. A., & Teroni, F. (2012). The emotions. A philosophical introduction. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Ellsworth, P. C., & Scherer, K. R. (2003). Appraisal processes in emotion. In R. J. Davidson, K. R. Scherer, & H. H. Goldsmith (Eds.), Handbook of affective sciences (pp. 572–595). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  7. Frijda, N. H. (1986). The emotions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  8. Green, O. H. (1992). The emotions: A philosophical theory. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
  9. John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 102–138). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
  10. Jones, M. K., Whitmont, S., & Menzies, R. G. (1996). Danger expectancies and insight in spider phobia. Anxiety, 2, 179–185.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  11. Junge, M., & Reisenzein, R. (2013). Indirect scaling methods for testing quantitative emotion theories. Cognition and Emotion, 27, 1247–1275.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  12. Kuppens, P., Stouten, J., & Mesquita, B. (Eds.). (2009). Individual differences in emotion components and dynamics. Cognition and Emotion, 23, 1249–1258.Google Scholar
  13. Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Psychological stress and the coping process. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
  14. Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  15. Marsella, S., Gratch, J., & Petta, P. (2010). Computational models of emotion. In K. R. Scherer, T. Bänziger, & E. Roesch (Eds.), A blueprint for affective computing: A sourcebook (pp. 21–46). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  16. McDougall, W. (1908/1960). An introduction to social psychology. London: Methuen.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Meinong, A. (1894). Psychologisch-ethische Untersuchungen zur Werttheorie [Psychological-ethical investigations in value theory]. Graz: Leuschner & Lubensky.Google Scholar
  18. Meinong, A. (1910). Über Annahmen [On assumptions]. Leipzig: Barth.Google Scholar
  19. Mellers, B. A., Schwartz, A., Ho, K., & Ritov, I. (1997). Decision affect theory: Emotional reactions to the outcomes of risky options. Psychological Science, 8, 423–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Menzies, R. G., & Clarke, J. C. (1995). Danger expectancies and insight in acrophobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33, 795–803.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  21. Moors, A., Ellsworth, P. C., Scherer, K. R., & Frijda, N. H. (2013). Appraisal theories of emotion: State of the art and future development. Emotion Review, 5, 119–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Öhman, A., & Soares, J. (1994). “Unconscious anxiety”: Phobic responses to masked stimuli. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 231–240.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  23. Ortony, A., Clore, G. L., & Collins, A. (1988). The cognitive structure of emotions. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Peira, N., Golkar, A., Öhman, A., Anders, S., & Wiens, S. (2012). Emotional responses in spider fear are closely related to picture awareness. Cognition and Emotion, 26, 252–260.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar
  25. Reisenzein, R. (2006). Arnold’s theory of emotion in historical perspective. Cognition and Emotion, 20, 920–951.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  26. Reisenzein, R. (2009). Emotions as metarepresentational states of mind. Cognitive Systems Research, 10, 6–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Reisenzein, R. (2012). What is an emotion in the belief-desire theory of emotion? In F. Paglieri, L. Tummolini, R. Falcone, & M. Miceli (Eds.), The goals of cognition: Essays in honor of Cristiano Castelfranchi (pp. 181–211). London: College Publications.Google Scholar
  28. Reisenzein, R., & Spielhofer, C. (1994). Subjectively salient dimensions of emotional appraisal. Motivation and Emotion, 18, 1–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Reisenzein, R., & Weber, H. (2009). Personality and emotion. In P. J. Corr & G. Matthews (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of personality psychology (pp. 54–71). Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. Roberts, R. C. (2003). Emotions: An essay in aid of moral psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Rudolph, U., Roesch, S., Greitemeyer, T., & Weiner, B. (2004). A meta-analytic review of help giving and aggression from an attributional perspective: Contributions to a general theory of motivation. Cognition and Emotion, 18, 815–848.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Scarantino, A. (2010). Insights and blind spots of the cognitivist theory of emotions. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 60, 729–768.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Schachter, S. (1964). The interaction of cognitive and physiological determinants of emotional state. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 49–80). New York: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Scherer, K. R. (2001). Appraisal considered as a process of multilevel sequential checking. In K. R. Scherer, A. Schorr, & T. Johnstone (Eds.), Appraisal processes in emotion: Theory, methods, research (pp. 92–120). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  35. Solomon, R. (1976). The passions. Garden City: Anchor Press/Doubleday.Google Scholar
  36. Storbeck, J., & Clore, G. (2007). On the interdependence of cognition and emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 21, 1212–1237.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentralGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Institute of Psychology, Department of General Psychology IIUniversity of GreifswaldGreifswaldGermany

Section editors and affiliations

  • Monika Wróbel
    • 1
  1. 1.Institute of PsychologyUniversity of LodzLodzPoland