Autonomic and situational determinants of the subjective experience of emotion: An individual differences approach

There is no agreement among authorities on the exact role of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in emotions. Some hold that the interoception and interpretation of actual ANS activity is essential to emotional experience (James, 1984; Schachter, 1964). Others insist that feelings can be produced if individuals merely believe that their ANS has been activated (Valins, 1966). Both views are supported by extensive empirical literature. Here I present and test an individual differences theory that integrates these two positions. I propose that there is evidence for both views because people differ in the origins of their emotional experience: some behave according to the first view, some according to the second view.; The present approach is based on Laird's (1974) research on responses to emotional cues. He has demonstrated that some people ("Personal" cue responders) identify their emotions from cues from their own behavior, while others ("Situational" cue responders) use cues from the situation. Among personal cues, are those arising from activities of the ANS. According to Laud's theory, investigators demonstrating the importance of autonomic activity for emotions have derived their data from personal cue responders. Investigators demonstrating the importance of beliefs about autonomic activity have derived their data from situational cue responders.; Our study tested this hypothesis. Individuals were classified into Personal and Situational cue responders based on the extent to which their feelings were affected by their facial expressions of emotion or by cues from the situation. Then it was shown that these two types of individuals were affected differently by the combination of actual sympathetic activation and believed sympathetic activation. There was no difference in the effect of believed sympathetic activation on participants' feelings when they were not highly aroused. However, when participants were highly aroused and believed they were highly aroused, Personal cue responders discounted their experience of fear, while Situational cue responders augmented it.; These results provide support for James' theory of emotion by meaningfully relating facial expressions of emotion, physiological activity, and subjective emotional experience in an experimental situation. They also provide evidence for the major individual difference caveat of James' theory, advanced by Laud (1974).