Aiyanna's Reading Response

Aiyanna Sezak-Blatt
January 20, 2007

The Biology and Psychology of Emotion
Leah Olson and Elizabeth Johnston

The Expression of Emotion: An Evolutionary and Cognitive Investigation

The process of understanding emotional expression in humans and in animals is challenging in that it can be approached from many different vantage points. As seen in this week’s reading, many different lens are worn when attempting to unravel the mysteries of emotional origins and their physical consequences. Charles Darwin took and evolutionary approach to understanding emotion, arguing that man and animals inherited from their early progenitors an array of emotional expressions that are advantage in species survival. He argues that emotions facilitate intercommunication, that they are innate in that we lack conscious control over them, and are universal signals, which express our needs and physical states. Building upon Darwin’s work, many scientists look to the brain and take a ‘cognitive’ eye towards the understanding of emotions; assessing how the brain perceives stimuli and responds to that stimuli. Cognitive Science, or Mind Science, as Joseph LeDoux modified, seeks to understand the processes that lead us to an emotional state of being through brain mapping and testing stimuli responses in relation to physical, bodily changes. The greatest phenomena of emotional expression is that, on a species level and often between species, whether conscious and unconscious, emotions are universally experienced and highly recognized; they are cognitive and subjective functions that enable us to better understand both our outside and internal world.
Darwin, remarkably, seems to have set the foundation for much of modern science and theory— including that of the emotional expression in man and in animals. His book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, published in 1872, set a precedent in the way we contextualize the role of emotions in humans and in other animals through evolutionary theory. In the first three chapters of his book, and in his concluding remarks, Darwin outlines three principles of expression: (1) habit, inheritance and association, (2) antithesis, innate, universal signals that are serviceable for the purpose of communication, and (3) emotions and their physical consequences, “direct action of the nervous system on the body, independently of the will in part of habit” (Darwin, 1872).
Darwin argues that humans and animals are highly expressive, that their emotional states are linked with habitual or inherited behaviours and with physical, bodily changes, such as increased heart rate and facial contortions. Darwin’s three principles intertwine to create a repertoire of emotional expression: “Actions, which were at first voluntary, soon become habitual, and at last hereditary, and may then be preformed in opposition to our will.” Darwin uses adult and infant humans, dogs, cats, and other mammals to demonstrate the universal qualities of emotion.
Recently, studies conducted on the recognition of emotions cross-culturally have supported Darwin’s original hypotheses: “that the study of the theory of expression confirms to a certain limited extent the conclusion that man is derived from some lower animal form, [evolving from a common ancestor] and supports the belief of the specific or sub-specific unity of the several races. [Expressions] or the language of emotions, is certainly of importance for the welfare of mankind” (Darwin, 1872). The Pan-Cultural Elements in Facial Displays of Emotion, conducted by Paul Ekman, E. Richard Sorenson, and Wallace V. Friesen, concluded that in both literate and preliterate societies, facial expressions were positively (greater than fifty percent) recognized on a cross-cultural level. This study, however, faced two obstacles that may have mitigated the exact figures represented in its conclusion. These obstacles were (1) a language barrier that many have compromised the accuracy of translation and (2) the sole use of Caucasian faces to present an expressive image. Despite these challenges and or oversights, Ekman, Sorenson, and Friesen found that key facial expressions (Happiness, Fear, Anger, Surprise, and Sadness) were recognized cross-culturally, from New Guinea to Brazil, and Japan, “regardless of culture, because of their evolutionary origin” (Ekman, Sorenson, and Friesen, 1969). This study supports the notion that facial expressions representing specific emotions are cross-culturally recognized and that the ability to assess the moods and emotional states of others, despite language and cultural differentials, is highly adaptive.
Mind Scientists, such as LeDoux, look to the all-encompassing brain to unlock the secrets of our emotions and the physical consequences of those emotions. The ‘all-encompassing’ brain is meant to ensure that there is no distinction between the analytical, thinking brain, and the feeling, emotional brain— a point the LeDoux mandates as essential for the study of emotions. In his book, The Emotional Brain, Joseph LeDoux discusses a question that cognitive scientists are still grappling with: what comes first an emotion or a bodily reaction; what goes on internally to make us react to an outer stimulus? LeDoux gives his readers a strong overview of the history of Cognitive Science, which has transformed greatly from William James’ proposal in 1884, to Richard Lazarus’ Appraisal Theory proposed in the 1960’s (See Figure 1). From one theory to another, the field of cognitive sciences has transformed, one step leading to the to next.

Figure 1. An example of the ways in which Cognitive Science have evaluated emotional expression (two of many that are described by LeDoux).

A. William James theory of cognitive feedback and emotional response (1884) as cited by LeDoux, 1996.

Stimulus— Response— Feedback—Feeling


B. Arnolds Appraisal Theory 1960’s, as cited by LeDoux

Stimulus—Appraisal—Action Tendency—Feeling


To understand emotions, one must also understand the brain functions that trigger our physical reactions. LeDoux offers a cohesive way to understand this process:

[Emotional responses to emotional experiences go as such] The physical features of a stimulus have to be evaluated–appraised; their significance to an individual has to be determined. [And LeDoux argues further, expounding on this theory] …the conscious outcome might be based on nonverbal intuitions, so-called gut
feelings, rather than on some verbalized set of proportions (LeDoux, 1996).

On a cognitive level, emotions occur both consciously and unconsciously; the brain is immediately involved in evaluating our external environment.
Much has yet to be explored in the field of Mind Science. The reconciliation between the feeling brain and the thinking brain is the next step to more wholly uncovering the nature of emotional reactions and states of consciousness. Our feelings and emotional states have yet to be fully understood on the level of our cognitive unconscious or through subjective introspection; however since biology (the thinking brain) and psychology (the feeling brain) are merging, an exiting interdisciplinary field awaits.


This Week’s Reading:

Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, originally published in 1872.

Paul Ekman, Richard Sorenson, and Wallace V. Friesen, 1969, Pan-Cultural Elements in Facial Displays of Emotion, Science Magazine, issue 164: 86-88.

Joseph LeDoux, 1996, The Emotional Brain, Simon and Schuster Paperbacks