explain and compare and contrast the James-Lange theory of emotion with the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion

In order to compare and contrast the James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories of emotion, as well as understand their relation to cognitive theories of emotion, it is helpful to first explain them in terms of the interactions between their components: an emotion-arousing stimulus (i.e., stimulus), a response of physiological arousal (i.e., arousal), a response of cognitive appraisal (i.e., cognition), and the subjective experience of emotion (i.e., emotion).

According to the James-Lange theory, initially proposed by James (1884) and around the same time also by Lange (see James 1894 and Lange & James, 1922), the stimulus leads to the arousal that leads to the emotion. The sound of a gun shot, for example, leads to the physiological responses like rapid heart rate and trembling that lead to the subjective experience of fear. According to the Cannon-Bard theory, proposed first by Cannon (1927) and later extended by Bard (1929), the stimulus leads to both the arousal and the emotion. The sound of a gun shot, for example, leads both to the physiological responses like rapid heart rate and trembling and to the subjective experience of fear. The two most well-known cognitive theories are the two-factor and the cognitive-mediational theories of emotion. According to the two-factor theory, proposed by Schachter and Singer (1962), the stimulus leads to the arousal that is labeled using the cognition that leads to the emotion. The sound of a gun shot, for example, leads to the physiological responses like rapid heart rate and trembling that are interpreted as fear and lead to the subjective experience of fear. According to the cognitive-mediational theory, proposed by Lazarus (1991), the stimulus leads to the personal meaning arrived at using cognition that leads to both the arousal and the emotion. The sound of a gun shot, for example, is interpreted as something potentially dangerous and leads to both the physiological responses like a rapid heart rate and trembling and the subjective experience of fear.

By breaking these theories down in this way, it makes the task of comparing and contrasting considerably easier by clearly identifying the components that exist in each theory and the order in which they occur. The James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories are fundamentally similar in that they both involve the same three components but different in how they handle the timing of when arousal and emotion occur. They differ from the two cognitive theories in that both of them do not explicitly acknowledge any role of cognition. Regarding the similarities, the sequence of the three components in both the James-Lange and two-factor theories and in both the Cannon-Bard and cognitive-mediational theories is the same, the fundamental difference between the two theories comprising each pair being the addition of a cognition component at some point in the sequence in the cognitive theories.