Embodiment, Context-Sensitivity, and Discrete Emotions: A Response to Moors

The Integrated Theory of Emotional Behavior Follows a Radically Goal-Directed Approach

“…It should be clear from the above that, unlike what Eickers et al (2017) suggest, the integrated theory that I propose does not give a central role to stimulus valence, not even in combination with other stimulus features or appraisals (e.g., control, expectedness, agency). I have argued that the starting point of an action control cycle is the detection of a discrepancy between a stimulus and a goal, which overlaps with the apppraisal of a stimulus as more or less goal incongruent.…”

“…The integrated theory described in the target paper is not a mere blend of dimensional appraisal theory and Russell's (2003) constructivist theory, as Eickers et al (2017) put it. The integrated theory goes beyond the original theories in that it shakes off certain assumptions 15 from the original theories and incorporates new ones.…”

“…The value of potential future outcomes has a central place in this utility (in addition to the expectancies of the outcomes), but this is not the same thing as the valence of the stimuli present. Eickers et al (2017) call on the vast literature that purportedly shows emotion-specific influences on behavior (and other processes) that go beyond valence. All theories agree that goal in/congruence or valence is not sufficient to understand the variety in behavior.…”

“…A second strategy spelled out by Eickers et al (2017), Parkinson (2017), and Barrett (2012) and therefore jumps out of the window, it is her belief that makes her jump, not her supernatural powers. Studying how people come to self-ascribe emotions and how this influences their behavior may be worth our time as scientists, but it does not make the set of emotions scientific.…”

Unconscious Emotion and Free-Energy: A Philosophical and Neuroscientific Exploration

“…The nature of an emotion cannot simply be read off the affective feelings it generates -indeed there may be no accurate mapping from quality of affective feeling to emotion (Barrett, 2017, p. 112). Rather an emotion needs to be understood in relation to a situational context, for, on the construal view of emotion, the emotion is an evaluation of some stimulus, where the nature of that evaluation depends on the wider circumstances in which that stimulus arose (Eickers et al, 2017). As we will see in section Free-Energy and the Process of Repression, this situational dimension can be important in determining why, in some cases, the emotion is repressed.…”