ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the debate between categorical and dimensional approaches to emotion. The 'emotion' and the 'cognition' are integral and inseparable parts of each other, and though it is useful to use different names for different aspects of the generation of emotion, the parts are no more separable than are waves from the water on which they occur. The chapter suggests that emotion as a paradigm case could also embrace overt behaviour. It also considers that the concept of basic emotions can most profitably be reduced to one of basic appraisal scenarios. A number of writers have claimed distinctive patterns of autonomic nervous system activity for anger, fear and disgust, and possibly also for sadness. The most influential network theory of emotion was proposed by Gordon Bower. In Lang's network approach, propositions are represented in the network through a combination of labelled nodes and links.
