ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the major issues in contemporary emotion theories, with special reference to anxiety. It discusses some cognitive theories of anxiety and related research. The chapter presents theory and evidence for viewing the affective symptomatology of anxiety as a pattern of emotions. A review of the theories of emotions reveals four major issues that can have an important influence on an investigator’s efforts to conceptualize problems and formulate hypotheses for empirical test. The issues concern the activation of emotions, the components of emotions, the relationship of emotions and cognition, and the role of emotions in behavior and in the development of personality and psychopathology. Most biosocial theorists consider emotions as having important motivational functions that influence personality development and the course of psychopathology. Samuel H. Blumberg and Carroll E. Izard hypothesized shows that highly anxious children, like adults, have variable patterns of emotions with fear as the key emotion in the pattern.
