Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T02:36:37.917Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Behaviorist Analysis of Emotions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

V. J. McGill
Affiliation:
Hunter College and The Institute for Research in Clinical and Child Psychology, Hunter College, New York
Livingston Welch
Affiliation:
Hunter College and The Institute for Research in Clinical and Child Psychology, Hunter College, New York

Extract

Since James defined emotion as consciousness of bodily reactions and Cannon and others detailed the nature of these reactions, there has been an increasing tendency among behaviorists to equate emotions with visceral reactions (1) and to neglect some of the genetic and adaptive aspects of emotion which had been discussed by Darwin (3).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association 1946

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

(1) Arnold, M. B. “Physiological differentiation of emotional states”, Psychological Review, v. 52, No. 1, Jan. 1945. (The author shows, among other things, that the accumulation of evidence has made it increasingly difficult to discriminate between different emotions physiologically, or even to identify a single emotion on this basis.Google Scholar
(2) Bridges, K. M. See Child Development, 1932 (The author also holds that delight and distress are basic emotions from which the others are differentiated in ontogenetic development).Google Scholar
(3) Darwin, C. Expression of emotions in man and animals, New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1888.Google Scholar
(4) Horney, K. Our Inner Conflicts: a constructive study of neurosis. New York, W. W. Norton, 1945.Google Scholar
(5) Hull, C. L. Principles of behavior, An introduction to behavioral theory, New York, D. Appleton-Century Co., 1943, Ch. XIX.Google Scholar
(6) Jones, M. C. “Emotional development”, in Handbook of child psychology, (2nd ed.) 1933.Google Scholar
(7) Kardiner, A. The psychological frontiers of society, New York, Columbia Univ. Press, 1945.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(8) Liddell, H. S.Conditioned reflex method and experimental neurosis”, in Personality and Behavior Disorders, I. Hunt, McV (ed), New York, Ronald Press, 1944, p. 395–6.Google Scholar
(9) McGill, V. J. “The mind-body problem in the light of recent psychology”, Science & Society, Fall, 1945.Google Scholar
(10) Malinowski, B. Sex and repression in savage society, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1927, pp. 80–81.Google Scholar
(11) Masserman, J. Behavior and Neurosis, University of Chicago Press, 1943, p. 35.Google Scholar
(12) Masserman, J. Principles of dynamic psychiatry, W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia, 1946.Google Scholar
(13) Novikov, A. B.The concept of integrative levels and biology”, Science, Mar., 2nd, 1945, v. 101, No. 2618, pp. 209215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(14) Pavlov, I. P. Conditioned reflexes London, Oxford Press, 1927, p. 290 ff.Google Scholar
(15) Warden, C. J. Animal motivation, New York, Columbia Univ. Press, 1931. (The author has shown that drives, hence needs, can be measured.)Google Scholar
(16) Watson, J. B. and Rayner, R. C. “Conditioned emotional reactions”, J. of exp. psychology, 1920, 3, 114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(17) Welch, L. “The inclusion of both physiological and acquired needs in a behavioristic system”, J. of Gen. Psychology, (In press).Google Scholar