Dual-Processing Theory

Emotions can sometimes get in the way of our utilitarian decision-making as evidenced by Anderson’s (2003) rational-emotional model. Plato and Descartes regarded emotion as the “enemy” of reason and rationality. However, Aristole and Spinoza posited that emotions such as fear, love, and sadness can also play a functional role in our lives. With self-help books like The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin topping best-seller lists and increasingly sophisticated therapies for emotional maladies being prescribed for daily use such as Prozac and Xanax, society is demanding more answers about how the mind controls our emotions. Branches of psychology such as positive psychology, pioneered by Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania, have

The cognitive appraisal route maps the abstract situational meanings derived from objects human sense in their environments. This theory mirrors dual-processing as it follows three distinct steps: primary appraisal, secondary appraisal, and reappraisal (Lazarus, 1966; Lazarus, 1982). Primary appraisal is the fast and automatic System 1 process in which an individual determines whether an object is incongruent with his or her goals. Secondary appraisal, on the other hand, is the slower, conscious System 2 process in which one determines whether the object is particularly a threat to him or her given coping resources. Finally, the individual reappraises the situation given the new information synthesized. For example, if one is vacationing in Dubai and her niece yells, “Tiger!”, her primary appraisal of the situation will yield that tigers are dangerous and life-threatening, thus immediately scanning the room and possessing a quicker heart rate. Upon further reflection, however, she will gather that tigers would not fare well in the city landscape of Dubai and are unlikely to reside in the dessert climate. Furthermore, her niece is only two years old and just learning her animals. In reappraising the situation, she would conclude that there is no tiger in the vicinity to fear for and that her niece is perhaps just practicing her English. This cognitive theory is consistent with Frijda’s (1988) Law of Situational Meaning and Law of Concern as (she) states particular feelings arise as a result of different conditions and the implications derived given individuals’ goals, motives, or concerns. However, a limitation of this model is that it focuses only on the functional aspect of emotion but does not specifically account for neurobiological perspectives like our hippocampal and amygdala systems nor does