You are walking down a deserted alley late at night, and you hear a sudden noise to your left. Your sympathetic nervous system prepares your body for fight or flight, and you experience fear. Just before you turn to run, however, you see a cat race away from the trash can he was digging in. "Oh, that was the noise," you think. Instead of experiencing fear, you laugh wildly at what you had imagined was coming after you in the alley. This set of events is best described by which theory of emotion?
A)the common sense theory
B)the James-Lange theory
C)Schachter's cognitive theory
D)the Cannon-Bard theory

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Schachter's cognitive theory emphasizes the role of cognitive appraisal in determining the type of emotional response one experiences. In this scenario, the initial physiological arousal (fear response to the noise) is reinterpreted (as amusement) once the source of the noise is identified as harmless (a cat), illustrating how our understanding and labeling of an event can alter our emotional experience.

You Are Walking Down a Deserted Alley Late at Night