Chapter 8 - EMOTIONS: A COGNITIVE–PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

We have attempted four main tasks in this chapter. First, a systematic overview is given of the cognitive–phenomenological theory of emotions put forth by Lazarus and his colleagues. The concepts of cognitive appraisal, coping, and several key principles in the theory, including transaction and flux, are reviewed. Second, we offer a working definition of emotion which also serves to summarize the main tenets of the theoretical point of view. Third, we draw upon this point of view to deal with a number of phylogenetic issues concerning the nature of emotion in humans and infra-humans. Finally, we attempt to redress the traditional imbalance of thought in which positively toned emotions have been neglected in favor of the negative. We systematically examine some of the conceptual issues that have made it difficult to integrate positively toned emotions into emotion theory. In this discussion, emphasis is placed on the functions of physiological changes in positively toned emotions and on the ways that positively toned emotions affect coping. Throughout, our view has been that the neglect of positively toned emotions in emotion theory has obscured their importance in human adaptation and in psychological growth and change.