This volume relies on recent research in cognitive psychology and neuropsychology to create a model of the emotion system. The resulting synthesis provides a systematic explanation of emotion, which in the next chapter becomes the basis for our exploration of the emotional appeal of narrative structures in film. Cognitive psychology and neuropsychology provide the basis in an empirical theory of emotion that helps my approach satisfy the desiderata.

This chapter examines several key questions. How do we define the category called “emotion? What is the relationship between cognition and emotion? How may emotions be elicited? What roles do society and culture play in emotion formation and development? I propose a theoretical framework that provides answers to these central questions. This theory is by no means one with which all cognitive researchers would agree, because cognitive psychology is not without internal squabbles. Nonetheless, this chapter synthesizes recent findings in cognitive psychology and neuropsychology and provides one coherent explanation of the current state of cognitive research on emotion.

Why Cognitive Theory?

On first impression, cognitive theory seems an unlikely choice to provide insight into emotion processes. When cognitive psychology emerged, it announced that it would emphasize human functions that could be modeled using logical linear processing, like that of a computer. Subjective states such as the emotions were not on the early research agenda for cognitivism because they were clearly too messy to be modeled using classical logic.