A reconciliation of current theories of emotion
Abstract
The psychology of the affective aspect of the mind is at present relatively undeveloped. If we know something about "thinking" and "doing", we know next to nothing about "feeling". This fact has been emphasized by the recent rapid development in applied psychology. The demand for a method of evaluating the affective make-up of the individual has not yet been satisfactorily met. This demand becomes the more urgent as we realize more vividly the importance of affective differences among individuals in any attempt to explain past delinquencies, to predict future achievement, or to guide and control behavior. The inadequacy of psychology has also been brought home to us by educationists who seek assistance in their aim to train feelings and sentiments as well as behavior and intellect. In the face of these demands we find psychologists occupying much of their time in aimless controversies as to the nature of emotion. The introspectionist, the behaviorist, the functionalist, the structuralist, the psychoanalyst, and what not, each expounds and advocates his own view and its implications. Each imagines he is wholly right and the others wholly wrong. It is the writer's object to show that these diverse views may be reconciled, that each view may present an aspect of the truth, and that a pooling of all the views may bring us nearer the whole truth than any single one.