Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

James-Lange theory of emotion
The belief that emotional experience is 
a reaction to bodily events occurring 
as a result of an external situation (“I 
feel sad because I am crying”).
 Module 
31 
Understanding Emotional Experiences 
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332 Chapter 
10 
Motivation and Emotion
 THE CANNON-BARD THEORY: PHYSIOLOGICAL 
REACTIONS AS THE RESULT OF EMOTIONS 
In response to the diffi culties inherent in the James-Lange theory, Walter Cannon and 
later Philip Bard suggested an alternative view. In what has come to be known as the 
 Cannon-Bard theory of emotion,  they proposed the model illustrated in the second part 
of Figure 2 (Cannon, 1929). This theory rejects the view that physiological arousal alone 
leads to the perception of emotion. Instead, the theory assumes that both physiological 
arousal and the emotional experience are produced simultaneously by the same nerve 
stimulus, which Cannon and Bard suggested emanates from the thalamus in the brain.
The theory states that after we perceive an emotion-producing stimulus, the 
thalamus is the initial site of the emotional response. Next, the thalamus sends a signal 
to the autonomic nervous system, thereby producing a visceral response. At the same 
time, the thalamus also communicates a message to the cerebral cortex regarding the 
nature of the emotion being experienced. Hence, it is not necessary for different 
emotions to have unique physiological patterns associated with them—as long as the 
message sent to the cerebral cortex differs according to the specifi c emotion. 
The Cannon-Bard theory seems to have been accurate in rejecting the view that 
physiological arousal alone accounts for emotions. However, more recent research 
has led to some important modifi cations of the theory. For one thing, we now under-
stand that the hypothalamus and the limbic system, not the thalamus, play a major 
role in emotional experience. In addition, the simultaneous occurrence of the physi-
ological and emotional responses, which is a fundamental assumption of the Cannon-
Bard theory, has yet to be demonstrated conclusively. This ambiguity has allowed 
room for yet another theory of emotions: the Schachter-Singer theory.