A Perceptual-Motor Processing Model of Emotion

Abstract

What is the nature of emotion? Mandler (1975) cautions not to ask this question, fearful it may lead to reification and delude us into thinking that emotions exist. If Mandler means to alert us to the fact that all experience is private and can only be studied using various indicators, etc., we should indeed heed his cautionary statement. But if he means to single out emotion from thought and/or perception, and argue against the existence of emotion as a discrete form of mental experience, then I must take exception to his warning. My emotions existed well before my thoughts and certainly well before I was aware of the problem of reification; I suspect the same was true for Professor Mandler.