ABSTRACT

Emotions are at the center of human mental and social life. They integrate subjective experience, bodily changes, planned action, and social relating. We have proposed a theory (Oatley & Johnson-Laird, 1987) in which we integrated the biological approach to emotions deriving from Darwin (1872) and the cognitive science approach applied to emotions by Simon (1967). We proposed that emotions are communicative: They are based on signals within the brain that set it into distinct modes that reflect priorities of goals and that predispose toward appropriate classes of action. Such action includes expressive behavior that communicates emotions to other people.