William James and emotion

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I was just wondering if you knew of any journal articles which have critiqued William James' theory of emotion. Thanks

-- Jaclyn Newman (jaclynnewman@hotmail.com), February 08, 2005

Answers

John Dewey's two-part "Theory of Emotion" (Psych. Rev., 1894-1895) was the most-influential response of the day. Walter Canon (Phys. Rev. 1929) and Philip Bard (Archives of Neurology & Psychiatry, 1929; Psych. Rev., 1934) proposed the main competitor to James' theory. A search of PsycInfo says there are 93 items under (james)and(theory of emotion). Your best bet is to look through those.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), February 09, 2005.

Hi Jaclyn, You may want to see what some recent introductory physiological psychology texts have to say about William James' theory of emotion. Also you may want to consider if James' theory explains some emotional phenomena, but not necessarily all emotional phenomena. I hope this helps. Paul

-- Paul Kleinginna (prk@frontiernet.net), February 13, 2005.

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