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HANDBOOK OF I'llVsli i[ ( lf;Y 



NEIROI'IIYSIOLOGY III 



voluminous literature on this topic reveals a phenom- 

 enological emphasis upon the 'affective' or 'feeling' 

 aspects of the problem, and the wide range of diges- 

 tive, respiratory, secretory and cardiovascular changes 

 presumably related to emotional experience. Cer- 

 tainly, the classical James-Lange formulation (ill, 

 201, 234) and even Cannon's 'neural organization' 

 theory of emotion I by, 72) can be seen to share this 

 experiential emphasis. And indeed, the ever-popular 

 Freudian view of emotional processes as "mental 

 states' or 'psychic phenomena' (128) continues to 

 pervade even the most sophisticated treatments of 

 the topic. The history of psychological speculation, 

 however, has not been devoid of attempts to deal 

 with t he emotions bchav iorisucally, if, at times, 

 somewhat introspectively. The roots of such ap- 

 proaches arc to be found even as far back as Darwin's 

 early attention to the facial musculature in his con- 

 sideration of the evolutionary aspects of emotional 

 expression (93) and Wundt's emphasis upon the 

 emotions as 'conscious contents' (402). Furthermore, 

 Watson's classical treatment of the emotions as con- 

 ditioned phenomena emphasized interactions be- 

 tween the organism and its environment as the focus 

 for his behavioristic views (383, 384). More recently, 

 this descriptive behav ioristic tradition has found ex- 

 pression in Skinner's analysis of emotion in terms of 

 the probability or predisposition to change of a more 

 or less broad range of behavioral response patterns 

 (347), and in the related view of Keller & Schoenfeld 

 that emotional behavior represents widespread 

 changes in "reflex strength' as a function of specific 

 environmental contingencies (210). Many other 

 more or less extreme theoretical views have charac- 

 terized psychological speculation in this area, and 

 the serious student of emotional behavior will not 

 want to overlook these efforts (3, 20, 26, 43, 51, 106- 

 109, 1 ;<,, [64, (65, 172174, 196, 205, 235, 237, 245, 

 248, 265, 273, 274, 276, 277, 280, 281, 292, 207, 

 ;o (24, 325, 129, 152, 354, 368, 403). 



Experimentally, attempts to define emotional be- 

 havior for laboratory investigative purposes have 

 u 11. i!h fo< used both upon antecedent stimulus events 

 which appear to produce or provide the occasion 

 for a given response pattern, and upon (he charac- 

 teristics of the response pattern per se. Typically, for 



example, both conditioned and unconditioned n,n 

 lions associated with aversive stimuli have been re- 

 gard 1 •emotional,' and a broad range ol inlet nal 

 (e.g, epinephrine administration 1 and external (e.g. 



electric shock) environmental changes have become 

 traditional!) identified as the antecedents which 



define such behavioral events (51, 232). More fre- 

 quently, however, the properties of a given response 

 pattern per se appear to serve as the basis for classify- 

 ing behavior as "emotional." Certain characteristics 

 of an organism's muscular activity (e.g. vocalization, 

 trembling) have been conventionally identified with 

 affective phenomena, and extensive physiological 

 processes (e.g. autonomic changes) have received 

 wide acceptance as 'indicators' of 'emotional' par- 

 ticipation in a behavioral situation. Despite extensive 

 research effort in this direction (70, no), however, 

 it has not been possible to distinguish reliably be- 

 tween emotional activities either on the basis of 

 specific antecedent stimulus events or observable 

 muscular and autonomic response patterns. Even 

 the identification of emotional behavior in general by 

 these criteria has presented problems, since such 

 stimulus and response events are frequently observed 

 to occur under circumstances not conventionally asso- 

 ciated with emotion, such as temperature changes or 

 heavy exercise. 



Faced with such difficulties, many psychological 

 studies have focused upon the consequences of emo- 

 tional situations for a broad spectrum of behavioral 

 processes in an attempt to define emotion. Com- 

 monly, the disruptive or suppressing effects of emo- 

 tional disturbance upon ongoing activity have 

 received both clinical and experimental emphasis 

 (6, 43, 114, lib, 129, 206. 236, 240, 243, 265, 273, 

 330, 403). The defining properties of emotional be- 

 havior segments, however, may as often involve an 

 increased frequency or probability of adaptive 

 response patterns, particularly when the contingencies 

 of the situation require avoidance of aversive stimuli 

 (281, 343, 352) or emergence of appetitive conse- 

 quences (46, 1 1 -„ 1 7I1, 378). 



In the rather obvious absence ol an) completely 

 satisfactor) theoretical or experimental formulation 

 of emotional behavior, the task of defining and de- 

 limiting the psychological subjeel matter for such .1 

 neurophysiological survey can be seen to present 

 many difficulties. Conventional criteria lor identify- 

 ing emotional activities appear far from adequate, 

 and the classification of emotions or differentiation 

 of subtle 'strength' phenomena (from the 'milder 



effects' (o (he "violent emotions') continues tu elude 

 definitive analvsis. Certainly, (lie choice of material 

 for (he present treatment will, of necessity, appeal 

 arbitrary in man) instances, and (here will be legiti- 

 mate questions concerning the appropriateness of 

 much that has been included as well as much that 



has been omitted Since our present level of psy- 



