A motivational analysis of emotion: reflex-cortex connections
Article Abstract:
Emotional states are characterized by a motivational continuity marked by reflex reactions to complex, cognitively elaborated emotional expressions. Such emotional states fall under either pleasant or unpleasant categories which are driven by the appetitive and aversive motivation system, respectively. Reflex responses are triggered by either positive-appetite or negative-aversive brain systems. During emotional processing, reflexes are augmented if their affective valence matches that of the active motivational system and inhibited when a mismatch is evident.
Publication Name: Psychological Science
Subject: Psychology and mental health
ISSN: 0956-7976
Year: 1992
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Emotional imagery in simple and social phobia: fear versus anxiety
Article Abstract:
The nature of visceral fear in simple and social phobia was examined using two studies. The results of the initial study revealed that phobic subjects' psychophysiological reaction to the imagery of their own phobia was stronger than their reaction to other fearful images. A positive correlation was found between simple phobics' heart rate responses and imagery vividness and affective distress. This was not found among social phobics. The second study found a similarity between the behavior of phobic subjects and a phobic outpatient sample.
Publication Name: Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Subject: Psychology and mental health
ISSN: 0021-843X
Year: 1993
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Measuring emotion in therapy: imagery, activation, and feeling
Article Abstract:
Emotions are characterized as action dispositions. Reflexive, overt reactions to stimulation, whether appetitive or aversive, that satisfy direct survival functions generate affects. The aforementioned functions are guarded by neural mechanisms located in subcortical and deep cortical parts of the human brain. Anxiety and fear are therefore conditions where the defensive aspects of the motivation system are active while related primitive autonomic and somatic reflects are in primed mode.
Publication Name: Behavior Therapy
Subject: Psychology and mental health
ISSN: 0005-7894
Year: 1998
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